Well, they're also that. :-) The old Sony S500D/S300 players also were excellent quality. It's only the newest generation that has the possible lipsync problem. And I warn you, may other players feel a heck of a lot cheaper. The Pioneer is a good player with great quality video -- provided you don't get one with the lip sync problem (they were the ones that made it famous). For playing audio CDs, you may want to look for a player with dual lasers. Many -- including the newest Sony's -- have a single laser as opposed to one dedicated to DVDs and another dedicated to CDs. I'm not certain what the current status of Pioneer is in that regards.