Re: CD Vs. DVD under $500

I chose the following option, and YMMV, of course:

I purchased a cheap Sony DVD/SACD player and then I bought a used Adcom 
GDA-700 HDCD DAC cheap on AudioGon.  I wanted something with HDCD 
capability as more CD's these days have HDCD encoding on them and I 
personally think HDCD-encoded CDs sound much better played back through 
an HDCD decoder.

Anyway, the DVD's look and sound great on the Sony, SACD sounds great on 
the Sony, and the regular CD's played back through the Adcom DAC sound 
better than regular CD's played back through the Sony. And the HDCD CDs 
played back through this system are almost as good a a great vinyl 
system (yes, I like vinyl better).

Total investment was about $450.

IMO, to get both good CD & DVD playback in a single unit you'll have to 
spend more than $300 and buy something beginning with an Arcam if you're 
shopping new.  So my advice is to consider other options, if possible.

My personal experience has been you have to belly up to at least the 
$1,000 price level in DVD players to get reasonably good CD playback and 
the Arcam line has garnered some great reviews for their products in a 
variety of publications, so I'm assuming there is some merit to Arcam 
products.

Perhaps some fellow Arcam DVD/CD owners can chime in here and add to 
this thread?  I myself would be interested in your thoughts as my own 
impressions currently of Arcam are very positive.

Reinaldo Valenzuela wrote:
>  I need to replace MY CD player.
>  I was wondering if the CD player would perform
>  better in music player than a DVD player in the $300 range?
>  
>  Any opinions?
>  Aware of any such comparisons?
>  
>  Thanks
>  Reinaldo