I sometimes think I have too many cables and too much equipment and I wonder about simply playing all of my media content from 1 DVD player. Does anyone have comments about CD audio quality from a DVD player, please?

if you are used to high quality CD-audio, that would be a no...

most DVD players will do it, but the high quality audio is encoded on a DVD differently..

and of course, you cannot listen to a CD while you are setting up or recording!!

Like foneman says the main drawback is not being able to listen whilst setting up or recording.

However, when it comes to sound quality there are a number of 'jack of all trades' players (dvd,cd,sacd,dvda) that perform brilliantly on all accounts. For example Denon's DVD-A1XV

If you want a cheap option have a look at this JVC player:

http://www.avreview.co.uk/news/article/mps/UAN/564/v/3/sp/

Will do both and it's pretty cheap. I'm thinking of getting one for the bedroom.

pretty much any DVDplayer will also play CDs..

and even quite a few budget hifi systems will also play DVDs...

it's up to you whether you want quality or functionality...