Hi! I'm late to the party but I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents for anyone who comes into this thread looking for tips. I play CDs periodically... Actually, extend that to pretty much any optical media. In fact, last year, I made a post asking if anyone had an "ultimate" CD transport (since external DACs make the analog circuitry irrelevant). Nobody had super good answers.
I ended up purchasing an
Oppo BDP-103 due to its extensive format compatibility (CD, DVD-A, SACD, BD-A, etc) and it's ability to be one of the few players that can output raw DSD with a mod. It is quite affordable on the secondary market compared to the other models and replacement lasers should be easy to come by for years to come if the need be. It is fairly slow to boot though.
Some runners up (and rationale why):
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Cambridge Audio CXC: Common & reliable. Decently fast. Supports CD Text on the front panel! Expensive and kinda large for it's limited functionality. The Yamaha CD-S300 seems like a comparable, if not superior, choice here especially for the money.
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Sony PS3: Plays every format under the sun (SACD only supported on the first few models). Very cheap. Early models highly unreliable. Long boot time and requires a TV (No front panel display).
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Pro-Ject Audio CD Box DS2/RS/RS2: Small, nicely-designed transport-only boxes with interesting features. Very expensive.
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Olasonic NANO-CD1: Small! Very small! Expensive and slot load (so it won't play odd sized CDs). Looks kinda cheap.
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Late-80's/90's-era Philips/Magnavox/Sylvania with CDM-9 or older transports and digital out: CDM transports use a magnetic swing arm laser which is practically indestructible; much less prone to mechanical wear than the Sony-based linear skate mechs in all CD players these days. Overall, very reliable with the exception of loading belts. Most units late enough to have digi-outs look kinda cheap in design though. (I have owned & will always own one of these as back-up
)
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Classic 90's high-end Sonys (CDP-X series, some CDP-C changers): Very fast & responsive players. Some lasers and mechs are failing with age and require maintenance. Needlessly large.
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Any old DVD/BD player: Abundant & EXTREMELY cheap. Reliability and format compatibility can be a crap shoot. Boot times can vary from slow to extremely slow. CD interface is usually an afterthought on many brands.
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Shigaclone Kit: Pointed out by
@restorer-john in my old post. Make your own transport with off-the-self parts! Ideal for a hands-on hobbyist, who wants bit-perfect output and a maintainable transport until the end of time...but making a nice-looking kit required tooling/woodworking tools I didn't have the space/time for.
I usually use Plex and an media server for my music these days but I do have a collection of CDs that were never available on other formats and a few CDs I just have nostalgia for and/or feel like are only appropriate to play from a CD (i.e. MTV Party To Go series anyone?) so CDs will always have a place in my home...next to the LPs, reels, cassettes, 8-tracks, VHSs, Betas, Laserdiscs, and many other obsolete forms of media I own.