Hello Everyone,
This is a review and detailed measurements of the TASCAM CD-200 professional CD Player and Transport.
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TASCAM CD-200 - Presentation
This player has been a member of the TASCAM family for quite some time, and is still available from your preferred local resellers. Once upon a time, there was a version with an ipod slot
I don't know if the internals have always been the same or if they've been updated. I will not open the one I have else it would void the warranty, sorry for that.
The price is reasonable, I think, lower than many entry level CD Players. That's why I went for it, If it'd perform well, we'd have some sort of a bargain here.
We find everything we need on the front face and I like a lot the buttons that are easy to identify. The feel and touch is not luxury, but mechanically reassuring. There's a phones out and I always appreciate that. There's a remote control too, of course.
You see that the pitch can be adjusted, but that is not by step, it's rather a analog way (understand non-discrete) to adjust it, so it's very difficult to be precise.
The back is standard and shows the essential:
View attachment 458516
We get two digital outputs, on top of the RCA analog outs, and that should be enough for a lot of us.
The drive is fast, absolutely no frustration here compared to a good old CD player, that's a good start. FFW and REW are also efficient, and that's a key feature to me when I run my tests, so trust me if I say it's more than good.
So, that first encounter with the TASCAM is positive.
TASCAM CD-200 - Measurements (Analog outputs)
All measurements performed with an E1DA Cosmos ADCiso (grade 0), and the Cosmos Scaler (100kohms from unbalanced input) for analog outputs, and a Motu UltraLite Mk5 for digital.
I am now consistent with my specific measurements for CD Players, as I described them in the post “
More than we hear”, and as I reported them for the
Onkyo C-733 review. Over time, this will help comparing the devices I reviewed.
As per its specs, the TASCAM outputs 6dBV, that is 2Vrms. The tow channels matched at a low 0.05dB, which is very good. The unbalanced outputs are non-inverting.
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As usual, let's start with my standard 999.91Hz sine @0dBFS (without dither) from the
Test CD (RCA out):
View attachment 458524
The distorsion is higher than the best in class, but at -91dBr, good luck to hear that. The level of THD is what limits the ENOB, but SNR is still good with that full scale test tone (95.2dB). Note some side rays around the fundamental, they are due to an interaction with the power supply. At -110dBr, they will remain hidden to your ears, of course.
Let's run the same test at -6dBFS as I'm used to:
View attachment 458525
Good news, the distorsion went down by a good margin. This player, like so many others, does not like much playing full scale test tones. Anyways, this is a more than good result. With a lower test tone (-6dBFS), the SNR improved (90.5dB +6dB = 96.5dB).
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I think you saw some PS leakage;
View attachment 458526
We get some spikes at 50Hz (Europe), and 150Hz + 250Hz, but they are at a very low -120dBr, not a concern. This view allows you to better see the interaction of the PS with the fundamental: look and these spikes at 800Hz, 850Hz, 900Hz and 950Hz. Again, these are very low and so close to the fundamental that it is impossible to hear.
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Next is the bandwidth:
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Despite the zoom, this is very flat. We can see the beginning of ringing at the end of the bandwidth, an indication of a low performance oversampling filter. And so, let's have a look at how it performs beyond 20kHz:
View attachment 458528
Oh, only -50dB attenuation and a significant ringing (red trace), like what we had from the early oversampling filters, some 40 years ago. And if there's a sound from the 80s related to the way their digital filtering were performing, well... you get it here!
A touch of modernity is to note, though, the ramping up of noise floor that you see beyond 30kHz is due to the noise shaper of the filter/DAC (obviously equally low performing 3rd order noise shaper, I'd say).
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Let's have a look at the multitone test that a lot of you like very much:
View attachment 458532
Nice, the TASCAM has no issue to play complex test tones with much more than 17bits free of distorsion. No need to ask for more.
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Let's move on to the jitter test:
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The red trace is from the digital output of the TASCAM, and is perfect. the blue trace is from the RCA outs. It shows a little more low level noise floor than the best in class, and very low level lateral spikes. This is way below what anyone can hear, and so that is good.
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Started with the
Teac VRDS-20 review, and on your request + support to get it done (more
here), I'm adding now an "intersample-overs" test which intends to identify the behavior of the digital filtering and DAC when it come to process near clipping signals. Because of the oversampling, there might be interpolated data that go above 0dBFS and would saturate (clip) the DAC and therefore the output. And this effect shows through distorsion (THD+N measurement up to 96kHz):
Intersample-overs tests
Bandwidth of the THD+N measurements is 20Hz - 96kHz | 5512.5 Hz sine,
Peak = +0.69dBFS | 7350 Hz sine,
Peak = +1.25dBFS | 11025 Hz sine,
Peak = +3.0dBFS |
| Teac VRDS-20 | -30.7dB | -26.6dB | -17.6dB |
| Yamaha CD-1 | -84.6dB | -84.9dB | -78.1dB |
| Denon DCD-900NE | -34.2dB | -27.1dB | -19.1dB |
| Denon DCD-SA1 | -33.6dB | -27.6dB | -18.3dB |
| Onkyo C-733 | -88.3dB | -40.4dB | -21.2dB |
| Denon DCD-3560 | -30.2dB | -24.7dB | -17.4dB |
| Myryad Z210 | -70.6dB (noise dominated) | -71.1dB (noise dominated) | -29.4dB (H3 dominated) |
| Sony CDP-x333ES | -30.5dB | -24.8dB | -16.3dB |
| BARCO-EMT 982 | -32.7dB | -24.5dB | -16.3dB |
| TASCAM CD-200 | -73.5dB | -36.3dB | -19.7dB |
I kept some references and will keep the same for other reviews, so you can quickly compare. The results of the TASCAM CD-200 mean that it has 1dB headroom in the oversampling filter, which is to appreciate, I think.
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Let's continue with the good old 3DC measurement that Stereophile was often using as a proof of low noise DAC. It is from an
undithered 997Hz sine at -90.31dBFS. With 16bits, the signal should appear (on a scope) as the 3DC levels of the smallest symmetrical sign magnitude digital signal:
View attachment 458537
This is a good trace and proof that at low levels, this player offers a very good resolution, and this is much better than the
Sony CDP-X333ES.
At this lowest symmetrical level in 16bits PCM, we expect to see a square only, as it is no longer possible to represent a sine. The ringing is due to the
Gibbs Phenomenon and the reconstruction filter which is symmetrical:
View attachment 458538
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Other measurements (not shown):
- IMD AES-17 DFD "Analog" (18kHz & 20kHz 1:1) : -78.1dB
- IMD AES-17 DFD "Digital" (17'987Hz & 19'997Hz 1:1) : -78.2B
- IMD AES-17 MD (41Hz & 7993Hz 4:1): -81.9dB
- IMD CCIF (19kHz & 20kHz 1:1) : -78.1dB
- IMD DIN (250Hz & 8kHz 4:1) : -76.1dB
- IMD SMPTE (60Hz & 7kHz 1:4) : -76.9dB
- IMD TDFD Bass (41Hz & 89Hz 1:1) : -97.5dB
- IMD TDFD (13'58Hz & 19841Hz 1:1) : -92.4dB
- Dynamic Range : 97.3dB (without dither @-60dBFS)
- Crosstalk: -114dBr (100Hz), -102dBr (1khz), -78dBr (10kHz)
- Pitch Error : 19'997.65Hz (19'997Hz requested) ie 32.5ppm
- Gapless playback : Yes
The IMD results are not so good compared to best in class, but will not be heard. The real dynamic range is very close to the maximum of the Audio CD format (.5dB). The clock deviation is below what I see with modern CD players, but again more than good enough for audio (32.5ppm).
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As I did with the
Sony CDP-597, I add a "max DAC resolution" measurement test. It is performed from a 999.91Hz sine @-12dBFS with shape dither (from Audacity). I restrict the THD+N span to 20Hz - 6kHz in REW not to account for the noise of the shape dither beyond 6kHz. I take the calculated ENOB and simply add 2bits to it (due to the -12dB attenuation, as 1bits=6dB). The potential maximum, when calculated from the digital WAV file, is 18.7bits under this test. A "transparent" DAC should achieve 18.7bits, ie 100% in this test.
Here are the results of the Yamaha compared to others:
The TASCAM scored well is that test which is reassuring.
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Last and not least, I like to run a THD vs Frequency sweep at -12dBFS as it shows how the conversion has evolved over time. I am currently using the beta version of REW and I discovered that this sweep gives better and more reliable results than before. I overlaid the results of the two channels with one from the Denon DCD-900NE, to compare:
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The right channel of the TASCAM has little more distorsion than the left one. The THD is a bit higher than best in class (Denon DCD-900NE), and more than decent since it is buried below the noise floor.
TASCAM CD-200 - Measurements (Digital Coax Out)
I've seen several of you reviewing CD players using their digital outputs, in case the results could be improved from an external DAC.
So let's go with the 999.91Hz @0dBFS:
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This is as good as what I can measure, meaning "perfect" digital output.
The 3DC test that I like to run in analog, is also "perfect" here:
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This, to me, means no significant digital change at the digital output, ie: the TASCAM CD-200 is a "perfect" CD transport.
I thought about one additional test to add to the digital section, and to verify the data are not modified. It is simply reusing the intersample overs test at 5512.50Hz, with a phase shift of 67.5°. This signal generates an overshoot of +0.69dB and so if the signal would be modified before being sent, it would show either a reduction of amplitude or we'd see some sort of saturation. So here we go, the below is a comparison between the WAV File directly processed by the PC, and when played by the TACSCAM and via the coax out:
View attachment 458751
The two traces are identical, including the +0.69dBFS that the software sees from the phase shift. This means that the digital data sent by the TASCAM is the same as what it was from the original test WAV File. I think I like this new test
TASCAM CD-200 - Testing the drive
What would be good measurements if the drive would not properly read a slightly scratched CD, or one that was created at the limits of the norm? The below tests reply to these questions.
| Test type | Technical test | Results |
| Variation of linear cutting velocity | From 1.20m/s to 1.40m/s | Pass |
| Variation of track pitch | From 1.5µm to 1.7µm | Pass |
| Combined variations of track pitch and velocity | From 1.20m/s & 1.5µm to 1.40m/s & 1.7µm | Pass |
| HF detection (asymmetry pitch/flat ratio) | Variation from 2% to 18% | Pass |
| Dropouts resistance | From 0.05mm (0.038ms) to 4mm (3.080ms) | Pass |
| Combined dropouts and smallest pitch | From 1.5µm & 1mm to 1.5µm & 2.4mm | Pass |
| Successive dropouts | From 2x0.1mm to 2x3mm | Pass |
The TASCAM CD-200 is
the first drive I tested
to pass all tests. The interpolation kicked off with 2.4mm dropouts but remained hidden to my ears. The below is a measurement of the RCA output when it is interpolating vs when it's not:
View attachment 458756
Note that most of the drives I test do not play at all the track with 4mm dropouts, either simply stopping playing or skipping few seconds with massive "clicks" that can be heard before failing. Actually, many fail with 3mm dropouts too.
Of course the CD-200 had no issue with variable linear velocity and/or track pitch, as well as with HF detection. And again it is the first player I tested to successfully play the track with consecutive 3mm dropouts. Impressive.
Conclusion
This is a decent performing player and a perfect transport. The clock deviation (35ppm) will transition to a DAC, but you won't be able to hear it.
The performances we get from the analog outputs are enough, all limited by harmonic and intermodulation distortion. All can be improved from an external DAC.
Considering the price, and the physical performances of the drive that can read CDs with holes into them, I think this is a nice CD player and an ideal transport.
(Tascam Image)
