Cayin Mini-CD MKII CD Player Review

[beefkabob]

One reason is that several of the big companies only invest in commercially viable artists. Some smaller independent record companies on the other hand, for example when it comes to jazz, don't put their music out on streaming platforms at all (because they don't get paid).

This is all a reason for piracy, as an archive.

I also buy records to support the artist.

I just buy digital tracks to do this. There's also Patreon and sponsored mailing lists.

Another reason could be that older versions of music released on CD are better mastered than the remasters available on the streaming platforms. It's actually quite common. This happend for example with all the older Tom Waits recordings. Another example are the records once recorded by DECCA with Rolling Stones on CD from London Recordings. They are much better sounding than todays crappy remasters.

I'm not sure I agree, but then piracy wins here. Get them all. Find your favorite.

The third reason is that music you are listening to can suddenly disappear from the selection on your streaming plattform - or not exist at all.

Piracy...

A fourth, as others have already mentioned, is that you play entire albums in a more focused way. I would not be completely surprised if the price of used CDs will soon increase. At least for some CDs. I think I already see tendencies towards that.

A playlist can easily do this.

 

[Mulder]

This is all a reason for piracy, as an archive.

I just buy digital tracks to do this. There's also Patreon and sponsored mailing lists.

I'm not sure I agree, but then piracy wins here. Get them all. Find your favorite.

Piracy...

A playlist can easily do this.

I don’t support piracy. Also a reason to buy CDs or records.

 

[Roland301]

It seems like CD players have gone the way of tape decks - made to fill a market niche with not much attention paid to fidelity.

I recently bought one from AliExpress which had a beautiful design with a clear top that let you see the disc spin. Sadly, upon plugging it into my DAC's optical input, I immediately noticed that it just did not sound good, and playing the same song from my PC was very obviously different. I don't know how you screw up a simple digital transport that badly, but they did.

Then, I spent $30 on an old Discman from the early 2000's, one of those from the Minidisc era which had an optical output built into the line out jack. This one sounded perfectly fine, and indeed it measured flawlessly to 16-bit spec over optical when I tested it with an AP at work, better even than this $279 unit. It really shouldn't be so hard.

 

[Blumlein 88]

In other words you said 16-bit is too much as we can't hear the difference when the resolution is lower?

Resolution is a tricky topic, like dynamic range itself. If the noise is low enough otherwise, then yes 16 bit works with a margin of safety for humans listening to music. Some testing being done to find the very extremes sort of point to the need for 18 bit, but only test signals in extraordinary circumstances fit that. With shaped dither you can put that much in where we might, maybe, possibly nearly could hear it with 16 bit.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Very true.
This test shows that the Cayin player cant output a correct 16 signal from the spdif output - this is clear evidence that one can not trust in that ” all ” cd transports are the same . Blumlein 88 needs to think this over .

Well firstly I said if not malfunctioning. Secondly, if dither is used (Amir has stated in other CD reviews his test signal is dithered) around 91 to 92 db is what you'll get. About what the Cayin managed. The step to confirm there are no problems in the SPDIF output is to record that digital stream and see if you get a perfect null with the file on the CD. When I've done this, that is the result. If Amir does the same test, we'd know for sure.

 

[Chrispy]

I took the comment about wanting the player that Amir made to mean why would you want just a 2ch cd player (at least it plays SACD, altho the better use of SACD to me these days are only the multich versions); I'd rather have a universal optical disc player which is far more useful in general. I generally don't play cds these days, except on receipt to make sure they play fine, then I rip them and use the files from then out. I do still play a variety of other optical discs, tho (dvd/bluray/multich SACD). I have only used the digital output of a player for a long time now, too.

 

[pianolover]

It seems there are still people listening to CDs. This MBL cd player sells for €15300.

CD-DAC N31

www.mbl.de

 

[Dzhaughn]

Yeah yeah but look the third harmonic is euphonic, so this eliminates the need for the tube preamp.

 

[beefkabob]

It seems there are still people listening to CDs. This MBL cd player sells for €15300.

CD-DAC N31

www.mbl.de

Sad.

 

[EJ3]

I can see several reasons to collect CDs.
One reason is that several of the big companies only invest in commercially viable artists. Some smaller independent record companies on the other hand, for example when it comes to jazz, don't put their music out on streaming platforms at all (because they don't get paid).
I also buy records to support the artist.

Another reason could be that older versions of music released on CD are better mastered than the remasters available on the streaming platforms. It's actually quite common. This happend for example with all the older Tom Waits recordings. Another example are the records once recorded by DECCA with Rolling Stones on CD from London Recordings. They are much better sounding than todays crappy remasters.

The third reason is that music you are listening to can suddenly disappear from the selection on your streaming plattform - or not exist at all.

A fourth, as others have already mentioned, is that you play entire albums in a more focused way. I would not be completely surprised if the price of used CDs will soon increase. At least for some CDs. I think I already see tendencies towards that.

I have never streamed. (For the all the excellent reasons that Mulder mentioned, in no particular order).
And when I start digitizing my 860 LP's (at some point next year), I will also be recording them to a CD through one of my 2 (one still in the box, never used, just opened & made sure that it functioned) SONY RCD-W500C Compact Disc Recorders.

 

[Robbo99999]

Bit of a pointless product nowadays, may as well use an old laptop and a $100 Topping DAC for better measurement results and more convenience. (Rip CD's losslessly to your laptop and then check that they are bit-perfect using PerfectTunes. Plus you can stream losslessly if you want, etc.)

 

[Prana Ferox]

my interpretation of that is that you need a very good amp to be able to resolve 96dB?

so if your amp is going to 'dampen' or worsen the sound then having such a good cd player is moot anyway?

Distortion upstream in your chain is multiplied (amplified) by all the downstream components, so everything in the chain affects output somehow, ideally all of your components including the source (i.e. cd player) have as low SINAD as possible. That being said, there is a limit to human perceptibility, and the cost / benefit balance of trying to improve the signal chain is kind of the raison d'etre of this site.

One thing I like to see measured, should be a USB computer CD player at 15$ connected to a Raspberry Pi or Orange Pi, something around 30$, and an output to seom USB Dac. I cannot see why the performances shoud be not the ones from the DAC. So it means perfect CD player for 50$.

I'm a big proponent of the 'just hook a drive up to a computer' approach, but these things haven't been readily available at this price for a while, especially once you throw in a vaguely aesthetic case and power supply / cables. Plus with a dedicated disc player, you're paying for the physical touch points and user interface, and some consider that money well spent; not everyone would consider a loud laptop cd drive hooked to a circuit board hanging out of a 3D-printed box to be a 'perfect CD player' regardless of SINAD.

 

[jtavy]

I own lots of CDs and actively play them. I appreciate this review because I still run across people interested in a low cost, CD-specific transport.

A bit more on the usability of the device would add to the objective components of the review.

I just bought a Yamaha CD-s303 to begin to replace my 3 old Sony DVP-NS 755V's from 2003. they play Cds and 2496 burned DVD-V's, but will not play SACds any longer. I bought my Yamaha from Accessories4 less as B-stock for $229 and I find it a very nice player, but is has a very noisy disc tray. I use Project Audio S2 dacs on my players.

 

[Joe Smith]

This is the kind of transport/player that I thought someone should be making! At that price point! Decent look/aesthetics, OK performance.

I'd like it better if it had a standard tray instead of slot load, and internal power, not a wall-wart.

Have no immediate need, since still have many good decks in service, but I think there are a lot of us with CD libraries that aren't going anywhere. I still enjoy playing disks and do enjoy the convenience. I often grab several for car errands, particularly if I want to keep my phone charge high.

 

[Dialectic]

I like the unique look of the Linn, and, despite the lackluster measurements, I am sure it has excellent PRaT.

 

[TNT]

Lynn (pictures) -> Linn

//

 

[beagleman]

I found several tests of older CD players....

With that being said, they mostly all had fantastic S/N ratios and very low distortion measurements on output

When with SINAD are they semi-mediocre looking?

 

[Daverz]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Cayin Mini-CD MKII CD transport and stereo player.

It would be interesting to compare with a cheap current BD player of the kind you'd find at Best Buy or even Costco.

My history with CD players over the last 20 years is

Arcam Alpha 9 - $1599 circa 2000. The transport went bad. I sent it off to be fixed and it came back broken.

Arcam Alpha 9 CD player Measurements

Sidebar 4: Measurements The Arcam Alpha 9's maximum output was 2.36V at 1kHz, some 1.45dB higher than the standard CD level of 2V. This was sourced from a low impedance of 47 ohms across the audio band, with positive (noninverting) absolute polarity. The error correction was excellent, the Alpha...

www.stereophile.com

Cambridge Audio Azure 840c. $1500 circa 2008. This had a built in DAC, so this is what I used when I first started streaming using Logitech devices. The drive door will not open anymore.

These days I just rip the few CDs I buy immediately to my media server.

 

[amirm]

Here is a pro Tascam CD player I tested a while back: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...tascam-bd-mp1-review-cd-blu-ray-player.26969/

That's 10 dB better than Cayin. It was not expensive either at $499.

 

[MC_RME]

Here is a pro Tascam CD player I tested a while back: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...tascam-bd-mp1-review-cd-blu-ray-player.26969/

And it shows the same strange harmonics at its digital output, which were not in the original file. These are most probably in the file burned onto the CD. But I leave this to @Rja4000 to explain, as he seemed to have found the reason.