Let's talk CD Players!

[cistercian]

so, "scientifically" speaking is there a reason why cd players sound this good? I mean shouldn't something build in the 80s sound like crap compared to modern dacs?
Everybody say digital has come a long way, but honestly try to listen to a good cd player anything from Sony or Naim or even Denon or Technics..
Most sound very good, certainly not a night and day difference with modern dacs and in some cases better.

I think the CD format is more than enough! My experience was my player failed so I bought a replacement and it sounded horrible.
It had digital output so instead of the analog I tried that and in so doing realized my old CD experience was colored by a very poor
built in DAC of my original player. The difference was not subtle either. I looked up the chip used in my old Sony and saw it was very inexpensive with poor specs. The difference was such I listened to my old albums again and heard things I had never heard before in the material.
My CD player was inexpensive though...a really nice player from the same era would be good enough! That being said, my RME ADI-2 DAC FS
is ideal for driving my amp and speakers and adds functions galore. I now have true redbook performance...and I did not not before.

Premium CD players of the era are fine. Mine cost 99 dollars so...not so fine. I was very happy with it at the time and enjoyed it for decades.

I had no idea what I was missing!

 

[JJB70]

so, "scientifically" speaking is there a reason why cd players sound this good? I mean shouldn't something build in the 80s sound like crap compared to modern dacs?
Everybody say digital has come a long way, but honestly try to listen to a good cd player anything from Sony or Naim or even Denon or Technics..
Most sound very good, certainly not a night and day difference with modern dacs and in some cases better.

The audio industry and some reviewers have built up a mystique around DACs, it is a technology that reached maturity decades ago. In terms of CD players they had achieved audible transparency by the late 80's.

 

[kokono]

I think the CD format is more than enough! My experience was my player failed so I bought a replacement and it sounded horrible.
It had digital output so instead of the analog I tried that and in so doing realized my old CD experience was colored by a very poor
built in DAC of my original player. The difference was not subtle either. I looked up the chip used in my old Sony and saw it was very inexpensive with poor specs. The difference was such I listened to my old albums again and heard things I had never heard before in the material.
My CD player was inexpensive though...a really nice player from the same era would be good enough! That being said, my RME ADI-2 DAC FS
is ideal for driving my amp and speakers and adds functions galore. I now have true redbook performance...and I did not not before.

Premium CD players of the era are fine. Mine cost 99 dollars so...not so fine. I was very happy with it at the time and enjoyed it for decades.

I had no idea what I was missing!

I have yet to find a really bad sounding vintage cd player.
I have a Sharp cd player, it looks cheap, and it must have been very cheap at the time because it’s empty inside with some 1 bit Sanyo dac.
But the details it outputs is astonishing,

 

[Xenio]

Hello guys,

I was thinking of getting a CD player
However I don't think it needs to be expensive, I don't need nor want a good DAC inside

Ideally i'd want it to have at least a digital out and a connection to the network. So that I could rip my CDs for my NAS "remotely"

All of the player seems to be expensive, maybe I should just take a blueray/hc player ?

 

[MrOtto]

Best CD Player To Use As Transport?

I'm looking to retire my old Sony CDP-C801ES CD player for a (stereo) DAC + transport combo. The ol' workhorse single-handledly defeated all CD/DVD/BD players that I compared it to. It easily provided a much more pleasing CD listening experience...until the other day when I ran my LG BH200...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[NiagaraPete]

I have a 30 year old Linn Karik which can be used either as a standalone or transport. The tray moves a bit slower from lack of use. I’ve bought two CD’s in maybe 3 years so I’d say I’m done with that as a format.

 

[sergeauckland]

The audio industry and some reviewers have built up a mystique around DACs, it is a technology that reached maturity decades ago. In terms of CD players they had achieved audible transparency by the late 80's.

I would say they were transparent when first available in 1983. Even the 14bit 4x oversampling Philips Marantz CD63 top loader and 16 bit Sony CD101 had vanishingly low distortion, noise and a flat frequency response, so transparent even then.

ADCs & DACs were transparent even before that as they were used in digital audio recorders and VTRs before CD was launched as a consumer format.

S.

 

[MediumRare]

Hello guys,

I was thinking of getting a CD player
However I don't think it needs to be expensive, I don't need nor want a good DAC inside

Ideally i'd want it to have at least a digital out and a connection to the network. So that I could rip my CDs for my NAS "remotely"

All of the player seems to be expensive, maybe I should just take a blueray/hc player ?

I have a Sony DVD player with those features. The digital output is perfect. You can find them used on Amazon or EBay for $30 to $50. Network connection is not there. Use your laptop/external drive for ripping, you have a lot more control with free software available.

 

[audio_tony]

Hello guys,

I was thinking of getting a CD player
However I don't think it needs to be expensive, I don't need nor want a good DAC inside

Ideally i'd want it to have at least a digital out and a connection to the network. So that I could rip my CDs for my NAS "remotely"

All of the player seems to be expensive, maybe I should just take a blueray/hc player ?

You don't normally rip CDs using a CD player.

A computer with a CDROM drive should ideally be used, as then if the CD cannot be read properly, the computer (and software used to rip) will enable multiple reads of the CD until the data is read without error or it fails (usually after several retries).

A CD player can't do this.

 

[Robin L]

You don't normally rip CDs using a CD player.

A computer with a CDROM drive should ideally be used, as then if the CD cannot be read properly, the computer (and software used to rip) will enable multiple reads of the CD until the data is read without error or it fails (usually after several retries).

A CD player can't do this.

I ripped CDs to an I-Mac for the various I-Pods we used to have, subsequently because of I-Tunes being an easy way to rip and organize music for playing back through the computer and DAPs. The CD drive in the I-Mac gave out about seven years ago, got a Samsung DVD burner to burn and rip CDs. Have owned it since 2014, have gone through 3 computers since, but it keeps on working. Also makes it possible to play back DVDs via my laptop.

Edit: Set me back all of $27, shipped.

 

[UCrazyKid]

I don’t think you will find network support in any CD player. Maybe a Bluray player or a Sony PlayStation. But for playing disks to a DAC, just find something you like the look of and has a robust transport.

 

[Sombreuil]

I don’t think you will find network support in any CD player. Maybe a Bluray player or a Sony PlayStation. But for playing disks to a DAC, just find something you like the look of and has a robust transport.

The last two Playstations don't support CDs .

 

[Mostmax]

Just wanted to share my player.

Found a cheap cheap Sony D-E551 on eBay. Optical out to a D30. Simple and I've enjoyed for years now.

 

[restorer-john]

Just wanted to share my player. View attachment 173491Found a cheap cheap Sony D-E551 on eBay. Optical out to a D30. Simple and I've enjoyed for years now.

You may find the Discman's ESP circuitry (the shock protection) degrades the audio. Try turning on and off the ESP when playing music with a lot of detailed high frequency content.

I discovered that many years ago when Panasonic had CD portables where they used a lossy perceptual encoding algorithm to compress the audio in order to fit more time in the anti-shock on-board RAM. The difference between SPDIF out with the anti-shock on vs off was obvious on particular types of music and recordings.

 

[Tim]

I still have one dedicated CD player an onkyo 18 bit player plus a Sony DiscMan with optical out.

 

[nerdstrike]

I have a Rotel RCD02 still in service. It remains useful mainly because the bluray player is an interface catastrophe. No digital out on it but that's fine too. The main attraction is the super satisfying CD tray open/close mechanism.

 

[vco1]

And is there a case for more expensive (yet still sensibly priced) CD transports such as the Cambridge Audio CXC? Is it supposed to be more durable? It's twice the price ofvan entry level Marantz but hey, if it lasts twice as long before needing repairs...

My Cambridge Azur 840C had issues with the mechanism every couple of years. It's now 8 years (and no longer in use b.t.w.) and I already had to replace the full drive mechanism and the belt. My old Sony (early 1990's?) and Denon (early 2000's) were much cheaper and on par or even better mechanically.

 

[Digital Mastering System]

I have lots of computers with various DVD-R/W devices. My favorite one being a Plextor PX-850SA for which you can get disc error mapping software (PlexTools) for CD or DVDs. Very cool way to evaluate disc quality. And the Plextor reads (and writes) discs like no other. I have other Plextors around including PX-891SAW & PX-891SAF. PlexTools also works with the 891SAF.

 

[rdenney]

The better Sonys, Denons, Tascams, and so on up through the early 90’s seemed to use the Sony KSS151 transport, which is a thing of beauty.

But the drawer mechanisms are unique to the implementations, and some are a major pain the rear to keep in good nick. I’ve spent hours with a Denon DCD1560 and simply cannot get the drawer to open reliably. The mechanism for operating the closure latch gets its latch spring from stretching the drawer belt, and I haven’t figured out the issue with it.

The Tascams are super-serviceable in my experience. I have two of them. But it’s a good thing they are serviceable, because I’ve had to deeply service both of them to keep the drawers working. The drawer mechanics on those are much simpler that the massive drawer in the Denon. Both use the KSS151 mechanism that uses a linear motor to operate the laser sled.

I have three Cambridge Audio players—an old D500 Special Edition, an Azur 640C, and a CXC transport. The first two use a KSS213 laser unit, and the drawer belt is easy to change. The newer CXC uses the current cheapie Sanyo transport, but the issue I have with it is the dimness of the display, which has just about become unusable. I find that annoying in the extreme.

Rick “keeping a fleet going but not finding it easy” Denney

 

[Timcognito]

Big fan of the Oppo players: CD, SACD, DVD-A, DVD-V, Blu Ray, several digital and analog outputs and a bargain on Ebay since the company stopped selling them.