Going back to gooomz, original question, my experience is between disk players around $200 and ones costing $1000. The really noticeable differences in performance were less in sound and video quality (I'm including players that also do video disks, too) and more in other aspects like speed and error correction. Errors due to disk degradation or recording errors that were not even noticed on the $1000 player stopped the $200 one dead in its tracks. Whether this was hardware or software related, I can't say for sure, but the factory engineers did fix most of the issues in the cheaper player with a firmware upgrade. Most digital products depend to a very large extent on the software programmed into them as well as the quality of the hardware. I'm definitely a believer in increasing price adding value, but only to a point. At some point, there's going to be nothing more meaningful to add, and I'm a firm believer that this point is significantly lower than most audiophiles have been led to believe by marketing designed to appeal to them. What also has to be considered is whether the improvements are going to be noticeable or worthwhile to the user. Quality that would make the unit perform flawlessly for 10 or more years might mean little to someone that trades up every couple of years to get the latest, cutting-edge features. Designs that shield against some environmental conditions (EMI, RFI, vibration, temperature variation) might be of little value in an atmosphere where these conditions are virtually non-existent. I have little experience with disk players costing more than $2000, so I can't make any definitive statement about them. However, from a technology standpoint, over $2000 seems to be entering a region of diminishing returns. Between $1000 and $2000, there are design features that indicate improved performance, but without spending hours using the higher priced players, I don't know how much difference one would actually notice. To be honest, I couldn't justify the difference in price. Quite frankly, design, hardware, and manufacturing differences in some products don't add up to the difference in price.

I hope everyone's 2009 got off to a great start!

Regards,
Bill