Tascam BD-MP1 Review (CD/Blu-ray Player)

[BostonJack]

Yes, however it depends on dithering method. Noise shaping dither can get better dynamic range than TPD.

Jeez. Great review. Now I'm thinking of my box full of Jazz (mainly) CD's sitting in a storage box. Might be fun to have a good CD player and see what my tastes were circa 1990.

 

[m8o]

Sidebar to this review ... Word of caution for anyone thinking of getting into the vintage game; transports much older than this. Be careful buying old used Tascams (or any cd player for that matter). I bought a really old pro unit with a similar form factor (as it appears they have used for decades), as it was the most affordable way to get something with AES/EBU out (to stream to a better DAC), and with 19" rack ears. When the heart of the unit -- the transport -- failed, there was no replacement to be had. So it became a paperweight.

 

[enricoclaudio]

@amirm price is in fact $399, not $499

 

[Arvind]

That's right.low cost Dvd player sound like mixer grinder!!

I really want one such mixer grinder! I mean making noise comparable to any DVD player while spinning.

 

[SegaCD]

Many DVD based players spin the (CD) disc extremely quickly and buffer the output. Makes for a lot of noise.

Rose colored glasses, my friend. Quiet transports were & still are around but mostly reserved for high end units; CD, DVD, or otherwise. Don't broadly assume this one is not quiet unless you own one.

The most relatable comparison I can think of is older game systems. Ever own a Sega Dreamcast, Sega Saturn, PS1, or early 1x system (Sega CD/ TurboGrafx CD)? They were so, so noisy when seeking.

Get an (used) Oppo or Panasonic Blu-Ray deck. They're up to $1000, sure, but they're dead quiet with any media. A CD player that cost similar money in 1984 or 1994, like high-end Philips, Sony, & Teac, will get you similar performance & reliability. Those decks are now cheap...but back then, most of us could not afford such well made decks.

Boot times on modern decks are definitely an issue though... They should have a quick boot mode just for CD use.

 

[GXAlan]

They have a UltraHD Blu-ray version which is great if it matches the performance of this one.

The Denon DA-500 you reviewed only handles 16-bit data despite your feeding it 24-bits (which is impressive that the digital interface tolerated that). If that was 44.1 kHz, that is one reference that you have for 16/44.1 albeit not from a CD itself if the optical readout had an effect.

 

[imagidominc]

I think this Panther is starting to become the "Not Bad" Panther. Maybe one step above broken head Panther.

 

[elvisizer]

They have a UltraHD Blu-ray version which is great if it matches the performance of this one.

HOLY crap I wish i'd known this a few months ago when I bought a panasonic UHD player for the same price! the panasonic is already broken, and that was my 2nd UHD player after my sony x800m2 died just out of warranty. . . . I've had really bad luck with UHD players so far.

 

[GimeDsp]

Nice!
I wouldn't mind having one of these.
I was between internet providers for about a month and we had to watch DVD/blue ray on lone. Very strange experience, lol.

 

[Dogen]

Thanks for the review! It would be great to see measurements for one of the many cheap CD players in the thrift stores. How bad can a CD player be? I’d like to know!

 

[Ale Dors]

HOLY crap I wish i'd known this a few months ago when I bought a panasonic UHD player for the same price! the panasonic is already broken, and that was my 2nd UHD player after my sony x800m2 died just out of warranty. . . . I've had really bad luck with UHD players so far.

I just sold my Panasonic uhd.

 

[amirm]

Thanks for the review! It would be great to see measurements for one of the many cheap CD players in the thrift stores. How bad can a CD player be? I’d like to know!

I have an old but premium Linn CD player I can test at some point....

 

[restorer-john]

Rose colored glasses, my friend. Quiet transports were & still are around but mostly reserved for high end units; CD, DVD, or otherwise. Don't broadly assume this one is not quiet unless you own one.

My flagship CD players from the early 1990s are so quiet, you need cannot hear them whilst the disc is spinning. The 17kg Sonys have acoustically shielded material around the drawer mechanism door.

I've had very expensive SACD/DVD players and they were all moved on to new owners due to noise from the transports or the ridiculously slow loading times. For CD, nothing beats a dedicated CD only mechanism and circuitry.

 

[amirm]

The Tascam is doing a very creditable job with CD, but the overall user experience with any multi format players is just horrible compared to a standalone, high quality CD player of the past, which will read the TOC in a second or less and skip tracks in a similar time.

Expanding on this, the geniuses who created these formats (read major japanese and korean consumer electronics companies) didn't think about having a way to automatically identify them. As a result, the player goes through an ordered process of reading format A and if it gets error, goes to format B, and then C, etc. What of the executives at a major CE company told me one of the format reads can actually damage some types of writable formats! So it was a major headache to make a universal format. This, on top of myriads of patents around every format. Totally screwed up.

Anyway, as John says, a multiformat player may put priority on movie formats before CD so can take a while to read the CD and play it.

 

[restorer-john]

Anyway, as John says, a multiformat player may put priority on movie formats before CD so can take a while to read the CD and play it.

Remember the first SACD Sony players?

25kg battleship thing that took IIRC about 20 seconds to decide a CD was a CD and not an SACD? While it switched lasers on the head block. You didn't know what was going on- was it broken or just slow? It reminded me of one of those pizza tray CD changers, or an old jukebox. In fact jukeboxes could change records faster I reckon.

We'd been spoilt by the sub one second access times of linear motors and brushless BSL motors in top CD players. I often wonder if the slow transports were a factor in audiophiles being disinterested in the format.

 

[GXAlan]

Remember the first SACD Sony players?

25kg battleship thing that took IIRC about 20 seconds to decide a CD was a CD and not an SACD? While it switched lasers on the head block. You didn't know what was going on- was it broken or just slow? It reminded me of one of those pizza tray CD changers, or an old jukebox. In fact jukeboxes could change records faster I reckon.

We'd been spoilt by the sub one second access times of linear motors and brushless BSL motors in top CD players. I often wonder if the slow transports were a factor in audiophiles being disinterested in the format.

The biggest problem with Sony is that, like Samsung, when they give up on something you are out of luck. You would think that a premium product like the SCD-1 would have a deep set of replacement lasers. Instead, it gets EOL’d really quickly.

In contrast, think about Omega watches or even companies like Vacheron Constantin or Breguet. They are truly “audiophoolery” in that they don’t tell time better than a simple quartz watch, but they are “luxury” items for the concept of craftsmanship and support. Anyway, it’s not the same as semiconductors but one of the reasons they can charge so much for their equipment is that these watch companies will repair or restore anything from their entire history, including watches from Vacheron Constantin that predates the US Declaration of Independence.

On the audio side, McIntosh and Accuphase are known for keeping deep inventory of replacement parts, including semiconductors, for long discontinued products. Of course, you pay for this service upfront though it is captured in the resale values.

JBL used to have a rich parts history for repair going so far as even giving people crossover modification instructions if a replacement speaker driver was different than the older spec. Once Harman closed down Northridge, CA manufacturing, that entire philosophy was gone. Even something like the Revel F50 with the CMMD tweeters lost all replacement driver support by 2011, at least through authorized dealers. That said, I did replace a woofer on the Array 880 center channel earlier this year and that was in stock.

 

[MC_RME]

Expanding on this, the geniuses who created these formats (read major japanese and korean consumer electronics companies) didn't think about having a way to automatically identify them. As a result, the player goes through an ordered process of reading format A and if it gets error, goes to format B, and then C, etc. What of the executives at a major CE company told me one of the format reads can actually damage some types of writable formats! So it was a major headache to make a universal format. This, on top of myriads of patents around every format. Totally screwed up.

Anyway, as John says, a multiformat player may put priority on movie formats before CD so can take a while to read the CD and play it.

Also anyone should know the idiotic behaviour on stop/eject. You turn it on, see or know there is still a CD inside, press the eject button, and expect it to just open. No way - let's you wait for several annoying seconds, even makes you think it didn't register the command.. This behaviour is so wide-spread that one wonders who invented this nonsense and why everybody in the engineering departments seems to think it has to be that way...

 

[amirm]

Well, said. This player just did this which infuriated me. You hit eject. Nothing happens. You hit it again and by then, it is coming half way out and then goes back in!

 

[JSmith]

You turn it on, see or know there is still a CD inside, press the eject button, and expect it to just open.

It is annoying, but there are "reasons"... the players check if there is already a disc to start and make the HDMI handshake with the display first, which is what takes a few seconds. Player then will open. Only press it once though or it will register two commands and close half way through opening.

Be careful buying old used

Yeah quite true and good point. Had this happen on a BDP-83 which is now a display piece, however luckily for that there are parts if I choose to sort it out one day. Pretty much the same too with any older 2nd hand device that has moving parts.



JSmith

 

[musicforcities]

CD players are the new Turntable.

Oh no…now I am thinking about sending Amir my Ayre Universal disc player. It weighs 32 pounds…I was given the thing 20 years ago. Expensive and extremely well built chassis, an off the shelf pioneer transport abd laser and a custom rubbish DAC.