I agree with both of you guys.

SQ is a must when buying a nice deck. It all depends on the shopper and his/her budget. For best SQ and a very high budget I would recommend the higher line Alpines. But trying to get mp3 playback to sound as good if not better than CDs.. dont even think about it.

Decks that I consider very very good in terms of SQ and overall worth their prices... some older models can be had as very decent prices on ebay and such.

Alpine:
7998
7909
7990

Clarion:
HX-D10
9675
7770
ADCS-1
9255

Denon:
DCT950R
DCT970
DCT1000
R1
Z1

Eclipse:
ECD415
ECD510
5302

McIntosh:
MX406

Nakamichi:
CD45Z
MB100
CD700

Premier:
P900R-P940R
ODR Setup
P9 Combo

Sony:
Original XES Setup
C910
C90