Ok, so my wife is tired of all my listening with open cans in the living room so I am starting to think about moving everything into the second bedroom/office so she doesn't have to go into our bedroom to watch TV. I will likely get a nice club chair and ottoman and my plans are to either replace the Denon with a different DVD player or replace the Denon with a different CDP.

The Denon has a pretty decent DAC in it but I know I could do better. Given the expenses of everything else I'd like to keep it under $500. Any advice would be appreciated.

You know, a PS3000 with port covers might be a good alternative to moving to a different room

That should have been an evil face!

No, I love the way my PS-1's sound with the flats and although the idea is appealing I don't want to alter their sound.

I would certainly check audiogon for some used cdp's, but for something new the Onix cdp's are pretty nice for their price. You might also want to consider getting a DAC instead, you should be able to pick up a used ack dack v1 for under $500 with no problem.

I believe the DAC in the Denon is pretty good because when I borrowed 1911's Apogee mini-DAC and used it with the Denon it still sounded sub Denon and PPX3 Slam.

I really don't want to alter my PS-1 so modding is out

I think he meant modding the Denon, but I think what the rest of you aren't getting is that the Denon, being a DVD player, stays with the TV. So a DAC is out, he needs a transport, too.

Is that right?

PS I have no suggestions. I also have no bananas.

I'm really not interested in doing anything to the Denon, I like how it sounds. If I move to another room I will either need a new CDP or a new DVD player since the Denon can't be in both places.

I guess it would be cheaper to just get a new DVD player...?

If you like the Denon house sound you could look for something like this. That's assuming that you're cool with going the used route, otherwise in your budget are the typical things like a Music Hall CD-25 and players of that ilk.

Nate

I'm trying to research replacing it with something that will move into some of the new formats like SACD, HDCD, I don't know what redbook is but you get the idea.

I've been looking at Marantz SA8260, Cary 306, Adcom GCD-750, and given my great experience with Denon I'd consider something newer that what I have from them. So, what should I get??? This will be used solely with my PPX3 Slam, PS-1 and HD650/Zu.

Out of those choices I'd put the cary 306 in first followed by the marantz sa8260.

Out of those choices I'd put the cary 306 in first followed by the marantz sa8260.

I think the Cary may be more than I really want to shell out... the Marantz looks to be about right though... do you have any others to recommend that I consider?

How about a modded Pioneer universal? It should do everything you mentioned except HDCD.

I have a redwine modded DV578a that, while not being quite in the league of the cary, is still quite nice. I'd ship it to you to try out if you're interested. If you don't like it, send it back, if you do, make me an offer...

What was done in the mod? Also does it covert SACD?

I don't remember -- Hirsch sent me the link, it's some local guy (to us). Hirsch, do you remember that local company that did mods on some Sony's and some Pioneers (only the higher end models)?

It's got black gates and had opamps upgraded. It doesn't have the SACD/DVDA spdif mod, but does play them back over analog. I can dig up the full description of the mod.

You might also want to keep an eye on audiogon for modded denon's they tend to go fairly cheap used and are very good values.

That's ok grawk, I appreciate the offer but I think I'd like something that is going to show me the real quality of my growing SACD collection.

I'll keep an eye on audiogon, thanks for the advice!