Somehow, something has gone wrong for me once again.
Ever since @NTTY’s review of the Tascam CD 200, I’ve been on the lookout for an affordable used unit. In the process, I noticed that there are—or were—a total of six models/variants of the CD 200.
In any case, I now have two CD 200 units sitting here: a CD 200SB and a CD 200iB
.
One thing I can say right off the bat is that the CD 200 is the oldest unit in the series, and it is still being manufactured today. All other CD 200xx models—whether discontinued or still available—are essentially the same devices; they feature the same drive mechanism, the same mainboard, and the same keypad on the right-hand side, and as CD players, they all share the exact same basic functionality.
Any additional functionality is achieved exclusively through different keypads on the left-hand side and via add-on boards for those extra features; otherwise, all CD 200xx models are absolutely identical in construction to the standard CD 200.
Performance as a Drive and CD Player:
I own an extremely large collection of CDs featuring high-quality music spanning a wide variety of genres. Naturally, this includes some CDs that tend to give certain CD players or transports trouble. This ranges from a 1989 DMP sampler all the way to the truly excellent *NAGRA 70TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION ALBUM*.
The Shanling CR60—which I originally purchased as a desktop transport over a year ago but subsequently returned—was actually unable to play any of these specific CDs, which otherwise only caused sporadic issues on other systems. To this day, this issue has not been resolved, even via firmware updates.
The Tascam CD 200 plays all of these CDs absolutely flawlessly. There are no issues during the disc-reading process—no read errors, dropouts, clicks, etc. Gapless playback also works absolutely perfectly, even with CD-Rs and the CD layer of SACDs. The Nagra CD caused audible issues on the CR60 during the final track (the CD has a runtime of approximately 65 minutes)—problems that actually intensified toward the end. The strange thing was that these same artifacts were also present on the rip I created using the CR60 onto a USB stick. Naturally, everything was perfectly fine when ripping the CD using a standard computer drive.
The Tascam CD-200SB—which also features a ripping/recording function for USB drives and SD cards—produced a flawless rip of the Nagra CD.
The CD-200iB performed just as excellently.
I was also deeply impressed by its mechanical robustness.
Whenever I acquire used equipment—regardless of what it is—my first step is to clean it thoroughly. As a rule, I perform this cleaning while the unit is powered on and running (please, under no circumstances attempt this yourself unless you are fully knowledgeable about mains voltage and the associated hazards). So, with the CD playing, I cleaned the entire exterior of the unit, lifting it on all sides by at least 45 degrees in the process. On two occasions, its feet even slipped over the edge of the table, causing it to drop about 2 cm—yet there were absolutely no issues, no dropouts whatsoever. I also lifted it—both on one side and on both sides simultaneously—and set it down hard from a height of 5 cm several times; again, not a single dropout. Until now, I had only ever encountered this level of mechanical resilience in high-quality portable CD players (Discmen) and car CD players.
In my experience, this is—by far—the most mechanically robust and compatible drive I have ever encountered. And that is saying something, considering I have handled several hundred CD players and drives across all price ranges over the course of more than 37 years.
