First post, Looking for real sleeper of CD player

nebfan

nebfan

Member
Hey, what up....
This is my first post after many months of lurking. Anywho, what I'm looking for is a real sleeper of a CD player. I'm familuar with all of the "usual supects", so what I'm curious about is what are the sleepers, the really good ones , any brand, that are a great value and produce great sound. I've managed to assemble a pretty decent systyem for next to nothing using my "spider sense" for used gear.

Pioneer SA 8500 mint codition $20.00(using as a preamp)
QSC 1400 amp 200 wats per channel @ 8 ohms great shape $50.00
Pioneer CA 99's again in great shape $50.00
All of them found a the local flea market :banana:

Hell, I think I have more money into my cables and interconnects.
Any thoughts..........
 
One of the more discused, inexpensive CDP's is a Toshiba 3950/60/xx DVD player, based on its very good audio sections. Not that great of a DVD player from what I hear, but a great CDP for the $$ ($40-60, YMMV).

it also has lots of fairly easy mods published on the web to make it even better. I still mean to get one and try it out. If it works well, I'll get 2 and A/B a moded to un moded unit. All I need is the time! :naughty:
 
Don't know if it would be classified as a sleeper but about a year ago, after following threads for a while, I picked up a couple of Toshiba 3960 DVD players for 2 of my systems to use as CD players. They sound very very good at at around $70 brand new I think they are a bargin. If you really have the itch to go nuts there are all kinds of mods on the 'net for them.
 
The Tosh is a smart buy, it's new (no need to worry how many hours are on the laser assembly/motor), it sounds good, and there are lots of mods - as mentioned above.

Cheap old(er) CDp's that are actually worth listening to - ADC 16/2, any of the old Magnavox dual 16-bit DAC. There are a few others that have hi-bit DACs, Teac etc - but I don't have the models numbers memorized.
 
I found the best cheapest, usually free, is an outdated external CD/R drive.
Hook it up off the headphone jack and these will play anything amazingly well. CD/R's, warped disks, you name it and great sound to boot. Plus if you have a disk that won't play on anything else just plug it into your computer and make a copy. :)

Carl
 
Thanks, I have been relying on your advice annonymously for a while its great to do this firsthand
:thmbsp:
 
Onkyo Integra DX-5700, DX7500, DX-706 all have excellent sound and can be picked up very cheap, less than $50.00. They use a linear motor to move the laser over the CD and the laser slides on machined posts. The posts get gummed up and the player skips, so alot of people dump the player thinking there is something really wrong with it. Even better, many of these players see very low hours because of this problem. All you have to do is clean the posts with alcohol and re-lube them with white lithium grease. You have to do this every 1 to 2 years, depending on how much dust you have in your house, and if you have cats or dogs. I have 2 of the DX-5700 and one DX-706. They make the best sound I have ever heard from a CD player.
 
Not much of a connoisseur of CDP's... if I were gonna buy a new one, I'd probably give serious consideration to an AH! "Njoe Tjoeb" ("new tube"). The original AH! Tjoeb (a modified Marantz CDP with added tube output or buffer stage) was quite nice and quite reasonably priced, so I'd imagine the "njoe" one is too. I assume these are still available...
http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/tjoeb4000_e.html

Another possibility would be the similarly hybridized CDP from JoLida.
http://www.jolida.com/catalogue/models/jd100a.shtml
 
You could pick up a very reasonably priced used Marantz CD 63/67/67SE. Very good sounding players straight out of the box, and with a bit of work, very, very good indeed.
 
Music Hall CD25

is a very reasonably priced cd that holds it own well in the under $1500 category. Pick one up used on Audiogon.

Regards,
 
kerb-- i was getting ready to mention the sony ps 1 when i saw your post. i second the emotion
 
I have an old JC Penny cd player in my basement that's been asleep for five years.It doesn't work but you can have it. It's a real sleeper.
Mr.Kittens
 
nebfan said:
Hey, what up....
This is my first post after many months of lurking. Anywho, what I'm looking for is a real sleeper of a CD player. I'm familuar with all of the "usual supects", so what I'm curious about is what are the sleepers, the really good ones , any brand, that are a great value and produce great sound. I've managed to assemble a pretty decent systyem for next to nothing using my "spider sense" for used gear.

Pioneer SA 8500 mint codition $20.00(using as a preamp)
QSC 1400 amp 200 wats per channel @ 8 ohms great shape $50.00
Pioneer CA 99's again in great shape $50.00
All of them found a the local flea market :banana:

Hell, I think I have more money into my cables and interconnects.
Any thoughts..........
Click to expand...

The Sony Es series CDPs are probably not sleepers having been posted at the vintage knob site, but I've seen the internals of an entry level Sony 333ESD CD player and was very impressed with the build quality. (die cast aluminum of the higher level ES CDPs is way cool)

http://www.thevintageknob.org/SONY/sonyes/CDPX777ES/CDPX777ES.html
 
Kerb said:
Sony Playstation 1. I'm surprised no one mentioned it yet.

Read this thread .
Click to expand...
Kerb,

I tried out my PS 1 a while back after encountering that thread, perhaps from your posting it a previous time. At first, it seemed to sound good, but when I switched back to my standard player I realized that the PS added something fatiguing and slightly echoy to the midrange. It also rolled off the highs and bloated the bass a bit, imho. So, while it may be better than those plastic wonders floating around, the overall sound seems to be inferior to a half-decent player.

- JP
 
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