Pros: Sounds great, looks good, works well, and priced exceptionally.

Cons: Some people might find it larger than expected, considering it's a single tray player.

Other Thoughts: I bought the C-7030 elsewhere, but Newegg seems to have better pricing which is why I thought I'd write a review.

I'd consider myself a budget audiophile, and in my pursuit of increased enjoyment from my music I recently ventured back into cd's. I hadn't used any since iPods became popular, but every self respecting audio magazine used them for all of their tests. After some research, I concluded that there is no better cd player for the price and (importantly) the availability. Seems that a lot of sub-$500 players have quality issues that require service or replacement units, so the fact that the C-7030 is made by such a huge company is very good. Anyway, I've had it for several weeks now and I have been playing every cd I own. Music I'd heard a million times in MP3 format sounded vastly better and even my wife (who is not as devoted to audio quality) noticed a difference. I don't have much else to compare it to, as my last cd player was a 20 year old Sony 5 disk player, but I absolutely love everything about the C-7030. Can't imagine a better way to introduce yourself to cd quality music.

Pros: Inexpensive, good build quality, easy to use.

Cons: may be a little tinny for some

Pros: The best stand alone CD player that you can buy (that I know of) for well under $200. That statement should get it 5 stars. Should buy cables as good as you can afford to use with it.

Cons: Perfect example of a CD player with exceptional DACs, but not so good output circuitry. Nice case, features, remote, can find no flaws in functionality or layout. However, even though it does a good job of giving you what is on the CD, the overall sound is tinny, thin midrange and not much punch in the bass. But there is a lot of detail. 3 stars here.

Other Thoughts: Easy to find the faults in this piece, but again, I would venture to say that $179 could not possibly buy a better player. It's just not audiophile quality, at least without some modifications to help the musicality. I hear Onkyo is going to release a higher end model of this. That one should be more of what I, personally, am looking for.