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Need a better CD player

B

Br1ck

Super Member
I've never had anything better than mass market players, and am now looking for something to go with my Thorens 147 table, Quicksilver line stage, ST70 clone, and Econowaves. Willing to spend to match the rest of my components.
I need some ideas and probably will buy new.
 
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The Sony SCD XA5400 ES is a good player for the money. Also the NAD C545BEE and C565BE have a loyal following. The Marantz 11SA2 is worthy of a look as well. Many more will chime in I am sure!!
 
The Sony 777ES is an older, but good sounding player that can be found for a reasonable amount. The new Oppo 95 is quite good, but would be more money.

I don't know what you consider a match for your system.

Best bRegards,
TerryO
 
Just get a new DAC. If you get one with USB inputs as well you can use your computer as well. Peachtree Dac*it, about $400 and will make your old cd player sound like new.
 
Is this CDP within your budget? http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=392426

If not, what is your budget? New CDPs made by Arcam and Cambridge Audio are very good with moderate investment. If you´ve got a higher budget, there are many great CDPs out there, e.g., by Astin Trew and Naim. Otherwise, there is a used market of CDPs with plenty of good models to choose from (e.g, by Denon, Philips/Magnanvox, Yamaha, Cambridge Audio, etc).
 
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Hard to beat the Sony XA 5400 for $829 (half price) on Ebay.....Check out the reviews....
I have about 75 hrs. on mine and it really is a very special unit
 
+1 on the Cary CD303/300. I love mine.

If you can find one at a fair price the Shanling SCD-T200 is also a very nice unit. It will also play SACDs.

Both of these have tubed output stages.
 
Get a used Jolida JD-100 (or the equivalent from another manufacturer), roll some tubes and you'll be happy!

Most SS players, even those 1000-2000 dollar SS CDPs still have that 'digitally' annoying top end...tubes smooth that out.

cnh2
 
cnh2 said:
Most SS players, even those 1000-2000 dollar SS CDPs still have that 'digitally' annoying top end...tubes smooth that out.
Click to expand...

I´m pretty sure that many people will disgraee with this statement. Perhaps changing the word "most" to "some" would reflect a more realistic situation, IMHO.
 
Timely question. Last night I got to borrow a neighbor's new to him Teac PD-H600. I ran it side by side with my NAD 545BEE and Cambridge 740C. IMHO, I think it sounded better than both of mine. They might be on to something there. Last Teac equip I owned was a cassette deck from about 1980. :D If one of mine dies, that might be the replacement.

Anyway, another option.
 
quick and easy. get an sacd capable player. they upsample and by doing so, the ringing artifacts caused by filtration are pushed up in frequency to a much less audible region.

soon after getting my first sacd player, i thought maybe my regular CDs sounded better than before by a wide margin. i queried my daughter about this and she said that when she was playing a cd that it sounded like there were singers and musicians in the room.

that made my non-sacd collection (much more massive than the number of SACDs) way more valuable to me than before. let it be known that i prefer the sound of vinyl playback as it is more complete in rendition.

one other time i heard a significant improvement in cd sound was when my friend put a CAL Sigma dac (tubed) in his system. the imaging just bloomed; he never took it out of the system and returned to playing CDs after a long hiatus and his romance with LP playback. his digital and analog time was then about equal.
 
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