Recommend me a Cd player

[Roland68]

Yea, I realized that once my morning coffee kicked in.

Also, great story! It had not occurred to me that perhaps SMSL includes the external clock input because people think it improves the sound quality.

That is the only reason they included it, and it is a concession to audiophile customers.
Excerpt from the description of the SMSL G1 clock from the official SMSL shop.

 

[rcstevensonaz]

That is the only reason they included it, and it is a concession to audiophile customers.
Excerpt from the description of the SMSL G1 clock from the official SMSL shop.

Wow, that is painful to read.

 

[Roland68]

Wow, that is painful to read.

The G1 clock is genuinely excellent—better, in fact, than many significantly more expensive clocks, as @NTTY’s test demonstrates.
However, in terms of measurements, the improvements fall into such a negligible range—especially with the D200 and PL200T—that there is absolutely no audible difference.

If such factors really mattered, every vinyl record would sound like the screeching of cats and would be unbearably awful compared to a CD.

By the way, during our blind tests with the clocks, we always conducted a particularly devious test beforehand.
First, we listened to the unit without the clock in the rack. Then, we placed the clock in the rack and connected everything, but—oops—"forgot" to plug in the word clock cable.
Every guest would immediately hear a dramatic improvement in sound quality.
Then we would say we were making another adjustment and plug in the word clock cable. Depending on the guest, the sound would then seem the same or worse, but never better.

 

[rcstevensonaz]

The G1 clock is genuinely excellent—better, in fact, than many significantly more expensive clocks, as @NTTY’s test demonstrates.

So in this context, the question then becomes: how much better is the timing provided by external G1 clock vs. when the CD player's internal clock is in stand-alone master mode.

By the way, during our blind tests with the clocks, we always conducted a particularly devious test beforehand.
First, we listened to the unit without the clock in the rack. Then, we placed the clock in the rack and connected everything, but—oops—"forgot" to plug in the word clock cable.
Every guest would immediately hear a dramatic improvement in sound quality.
Then we would say we were making another adjustment and plug in the word clock cable. Depending on the guest, the sound would then seem the same or worse, but never better.

Well played! And, a simple way to directly counteract the "sighted bias".

 

[jsrtheta]

Yep indeed, and it is part of the invention when playing an HDCD disc on a non-HDCD player. It is "compatible" but becomes a compressed (less dynamic) version that plays much louder (relative to full digital scale).
And there were mistakes too in studios when mixing and mastering which polluted some.

HDCD sounded very weak to me. I hate the thing.

 

[WillBrink]

No need to put money into a higher end DAC if you use it as a transport only. The Tascam is a winner for your business case.

It suffers one serious problem: "This model has been discontinued in North, Central and South America."

 

[Gio-G]

It suffers one serious problem: "This model has been discontinued in North, Central and South America."

Which model are you speaking of? The Tascam?

It is alive and well in North America.

There may be some confusion because the current model is the CD-200"BT"

Perhaps that is where the mixup comes in? The current model has the "BT" at the end. There was a CD-200 offering prior to the BT but as far as I know it is the same rig.

Because of NTTY's review it is next on my list when my current player dies.

CD-200BT | Professional CD Player with Bluetooth Receiver | TASCAM - United States

Professional CD Playback, Wireless Audio Streaming, and Reliable Performance - Upgrade Your Installations with the TASCAM CD-200BT.

tascam.com