There have been plenty of threads lately about the earlier CDPs, but I don't recall seeing one of the type "Show us your ______". I'd love to know what elderly players folks have, what they like or dislike about them and maybe a brief description of the sonics?
Apart from several 5 disc players (all Sony) around the house I have three nice single disc players which I enjoy a lot. None quite reach the heights of reproduction I'd like to hear from Redbook in that they all smear a bit in really dense and heavy orchestral passages but then I've yet to hear any player that really sorted that out to my satisfaction regardless of the price. Maybe it's just a limitation of the medium but my vinyl system still does that much better. Given any other genre of music or less intense sections of an orchestral work they all sound excellent if distinctly different. Here they are in chronological order:
Nakamichi OMS 7 - this was definitely a "rescue dog". It apparently spent almost it's entire life in the back of a closet as it never had the received the upgrades and so would have been able to play precious few CDs after about 1990. When I got it the transport (crazy complex) wasn't working very well and it would play almost no CDs I own. It has had most of those upgrades done now (plus some heat control mods) and sounds wonderful. I get the feeling it was voiced with analogue tape in mind as a reference (surprise!) as it sounds remarkably like a good 1/4" tape on my A77 RTR. The only drawback is that it can't play the CDs with special copy protection, just doesn't know how to bring up a menu.
Sony 608ESD - my first better player. When I first got it I found it could get edgy when pushed a bit by the material. I had a couple of mods done; upgraded power supply diodes and all of the many intermediate boards and connectors removed to clean up the signal path. Like night and day. I love the linear transport in it, one of the very best and it is a reason why I bought the last player on my list as it shares the same transport.
Denon DCD-1520 - Another rescue. The guy I got it from said it stopped recognizing discs within the first year after he got it and he basically put it aside. A belt and a bit of adjustment and it sounds great. I still haven't managed to get it into my main system but it seems to do a wonderful job of sorting out layers on music and finds secondary harmonies my other players miss. In any of the applications I've put it in so far it is very sweet.
So, what do I like about these ol' gals? First off that I can buy really fine machinery for peanuts. They are all made to a standard that is almost non-existent now except for some really high end stuff (and many of them don't have transports in vaguely the same league at that, I've seen them apart on the bench). They may not have quite the resolution of the best new players, but they are certainly musical. They have buttons on the front that duplicate what is on the remote. Yay! Did such things disappear to make the players look nicer or was it a cost-cutting measure?
Lack replacement lasers is a problem, but at least with mine I now they all have come to me with minimal hours. Even at that I'll be doing some hunting.
So, what are you running and why? (sorry to be so long-winded)
Apart from several 5 disc players (all Sony) around the house I have three nice single disc players which I enjoy a lot. None quite reach the heights of reproduction I'd like to hear from Redbook in that they all smear a bit in really dense and heavy orchestral passages but then I've yet to hear any player that really sorted that out to my satisfaction regardless of the price. Maybe it's just a limitation of the medium but my vinyl system still does that much better. Given any other genre of music or less intense sections of an orchestral work they all sound excellent if distinctly different. Here they are in chronological order:
Nakamichi OMS 7 - this was definitely a "rescue dog". It apparently spent almost it's entire life in the back of a closet as it never had the received the upgrades and so would have been able to play precious few CDs after about 1990. When I got it the transport (crazy complex) wasn't working very well and it would play almost no CDs I own. It has had most of those upgrades done now (plus some heat control mods) and sounds wonderful. I get the feeling it was voiced with analogue tape in mind as a reference (surprise!) as it sounds remarkably like a good 1/4" tape on my A77 RTR. The only drawback is that it can't play the CDs with special copy protection, just doesn't know how to bring up a menu.
Sony 608ESD - my first better player. When I first got it I found it could get edgy when pushed a bit by the material. I had a couple of mods done; upgraded power supply diodes and all of the many intermediate boards and connectors removed to clean up the signal path. Like night and day. I love the linear transport in it, one of the very best and it is a reason why I bought the last player on my list as it shares the same transport.
Denon DCD-1520 - Another rescue. The guy I got it from said it stopped recognizing discs within the first year after he got it and he basically put it aside. A belt and a bit of adjustment and it sounds great. I still haven't managed to get it into my main system but it seems to do a wonderful job of sorting out layers on music and finds secondary harmonies my other players miss. In any of the applications I've put it in so far it is very sweet.
So, what do I like about these ol' gals? First off that I can buy really fine machinery for peanuts. They are all made to a standard that is almost non-existent now except for some really high end stuff (and many of them don't have transports in vaguely the same league at that, I've seen them apart on the bench). They may not have quite the resolution of the best new players, but they are certainly musical. They have buttons on the front that duplicate what is on the remote. Yay! Did such things disappear to make the players look nicer or was it a cost-cutting measure?
Lack replacement lasers is a problem, but at least with mine I now they all have come to me with minimal hours. Even at that I'll be doing some hunting.
So, what are you running and why? (sorry to be so long-winded)