Hello, I'm new to this board, so maybe this have been discussed before, but i'm wondering if it's worth it to buy a dvd audio player and use it with a 2 channels system. I'm just going to buy a NAD C542 cd player and C372 amplifier. I can then play cd and hdcd but is the dvd audio big improvement in a 2 channel world?
I asked the same question about a month ago when trying to decide whether to get the NAD T533 or T513 DVD players. At the moment I only have two front speakers so I am listening in 2 channel. I went with the T533 (DVD-Audio) and I am more then pleased. There is definetely an audible improvement over CD's. However, my decision was somewhat different since I am using my system also for home theater and was therefore not deciding between a dedicated CD player and a DVD-Audio player. However, sound quality of CD's on the 533 is also fairly amazing for a DVD player, although it cannot match the C542.
Also, realize that the selection of DVD-A disks are no where near CD's, so make sure that there are actually enough DVD-A disks that you would buy to make it worth it. If you will be listening to 90-95% CD's I'm not sure that it would be worth it. Also, is you do go DVD-A make sure when buying them that the disk has "enhanced stereo" (96kHz) format (it will say on the back of the jewel case). I've only seen one that does not have it.
I don't know if that makes your decision any easier but there you go.