• Welcome to ASR. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

What CD Player would you like to see tested?

NTTY

NTTY

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Forum Donor
Joined
Apr 27, 2018
Messages
669
Likes
2,781
Location
Switzerland
Hello everyone,

I’ve been testing CD players for some time now, and I was wondering what’s next in the list.

So far, I tested the below:

And to come soon:
  • Kenwood DPF-1010
  • Marantz CD-80
  • Sony CDP-450 (DOA)
  • Sony CDP-597
  • Yamaha CDX-530E (DOA)
With all the above, I basically tested and got to know/measure what I wanted, especially about ancient DACs (in a CD player).

So the question to you is: Which one would you like to see reviewed next?

Of course, I don’t have the budget to satisfy everyone’s needs, but if I can find, at a reasonable price, a CD player of your interest, I’ll go for it.

Thank you and enjoy the WE!
 
Last edited:
Hi Flo, thanks for asking!

TASCAM CD-200! I bought one as 'my last' new CDP a year ago - just to be sure to have at least one non-vintage player beside all my old ones.

I appreciate your reviews a lot ... still being on the hunt for a Onkyo C-733!

Ah, thinking of the C-733 ... I inherited an old Onkyo C-721 from my parents, looking so similar, maybe that's measuring as good as the C-733??
 
SMSL PL150 once it's out. Should be June
 
Bleib said:
SMSL PL150 once it's out. Should be June
Click to expand...

I am seriously considering S.M.S.L PL200T MQA - I've had a couple of CD players fail with the drawer.

shenzhenaudio.com

S.M.S.L PL200T MQA CD Player

shenzhenaudio.com: professional headphone, earphone, amplifier, dac, decoder, hifi player, cable supermarket. you will find good price here.
shenzhenaudio.com shenzhenaudio.com
 
Palmer said:
I am seriously considering S.M.S.L PL200T MQA - I've had a couple of CD players fail with the drawer.

shenzhenaudio.com

S.M.S.L PL200T MQA CD Player

shenzhenaudio.com: professional headphone, earphone, amplifier, dac, decoder, hifi player, cable supermarket. you will find good price here.
shenzhenaudio.com shenzhenaudio.com
Click to expand...
But that's just a mere transport right? Only digital out
 
I'd rather see comprehensive testing of optical disc players of more capability than a simple cd player.
 
jon_s said:
Not a CD player, but I would love to see measurements of the Denon DAP-5500 due to the early design with analog output filter. I use these nostalgically with 48 kHz Apple Music in two systems, and they are delightful to listen to. https://retrohifi.hu/blog/denon-dap-5500/
Click to expand...
The PCM-56K was a SOTA 16bits R2R converter. I don’t recall that the DAP-5500 offered the trimming option of the MSB.
I tested the same DAC in a Yamaha CDX-1110, and it had very good performances for the time. After MSB trimming, the distorsion was at -95dBr.
I’m sure you enjoy this preamp.
 
NTTY said:
With all the above, I basically tested and got to know/measure what I wanted, especially about ancient DACs (in a CD player).

So the question to you is: Which one would you like to see reviewed next?

Of course, I don’t have the budget to satisfy everyone’s needs, but if I can find, at a reasonable price, a CD player of your interest, I’ll go for it.
Click to expand...
You should consider to get CD players on loan by interested users, for it would cost you almost nothing or at least much less.
 
You would seem to be the man to ask!! So budget dvd player or better cd player? Is there really much difference? Generally speaking. And of all your tests do you have a order of favourites? Thanks.
 
Scytales said:
You should consider to get CD players on loan by interested users, for it would cost you almost nothing or at least much less.
Click to expand...
I’m open to that but don’t forget that even if Switzerland is in the middle of Europe, it’s not a member of the European Community, and so tarrifs might apply in and out.
Shipping a CD player is also risky (even if I had no issue so far), some of them need special care before shipping to lock their mechanisms.
 
tobyjug said:
You would seem to be the man to ask!! So budget dvd player or better cd player? Is there really much difference? Generally speaking. And of all your tests do you have a order of favourites? Thanks.
Click to expand...
DVD players with an HDMI output are likely to use an ASRC before outputting the digital audio, even from an Audio CD and at the SPDIF outputs. That means no bit perfect output, and sometimes really far from that.

That said, I still have a Sony DVP-SR760H, as a true budget dvd player. I could review it in full here. I remember it was not so bad from RCA out but suffered elevated noise floor and painfully slow mechanism. No miracle. EDIT: I just measured it again as I lost my previous data. It's a bad performer because of the high level noise and it processes the digital stream before conversion, obviously. I'll review when I find time but this is not a good investment as a CD player.
 
Last edited:
Palmer said:
I am seriously considering S.M.S.L PL200T MQA - I've had a couple of CD players fail with the drawer.

shenzhenaudio.com

S.M.S.L PL200T MQA CD Player

shenzhenaudio.com: professional headphone, earphone, amplifier, dac, decoder, hifi player, cable supermarket. you will find good price here.
shenzhenaudio.com shenzhenaudio.com
Click to expand...
If it’s a Transport, there would not be much to verify other than it doesn’t process the data before outputting it. Looking at their website, they show an FFT of a 1kHz at 24bits, probably with some dither added to it (?) and it looks as it should be, meaning no digital modification of the data.
 
Kr2d2 said:
Hi Flo, thanks for asking!

TASCAM CD-200! I bought one as 'my last' new CDP a year ago - just to be sure to have at least one non-vintage player beside all my old ones.
Click to expand...
That one seems to be easy to find and not so expensive, I’ll indeed consider. Thanks!
Kr2d2 said:
I appreciate your reviews a lot ... still being on the hunt for a Onkyo C-733!
Click to expand...
Good luck!
Kr2d2 said:
Ah, thinking of the C-733 ... I inherited an old Onkyo C-721 from my parents, looking so similar, maybe that's measuring as good as the C-733??
Click to expand...
It uses a DAC (with integrated filter) from NPC (the SM5872) so it will be different. But since I don’t know this DAC, I’d be interested to test it, if I can find one.
 
NTTY said:
If it’s a Transport, there would not be much to verify other than it doesn’t process the data before outputting it. Looking at their website, they show an FFT of a 1kHz at 24bits, probably with some dither added to it (?) and it looks as it should be, meaning no digital modification of the data.
Click to expand...
I agree, still- it would be nice to see it tested before ordering it. As I said - top loader is on the books for me, even my current Yamaha CD-S300 fails to operate the drawer quite often, I have to get the top off and yank the drive to get it working. Other than that I like it, but getting tired and would like to just drop a CD into the top of a player.
 
NTTY said:
That one seems to be easy to find and not so expensive, I’ll indeed consider. Thanks!

Good luck!

It uses a DAC (with integrated filter) from NPC (the SM5872) so it will be different. But since I don’t know this DAC, I’d be interested to test it, if I can find one.
Click to expand...
I'm getting excited!:cool:

TASCAM CD-200: Looks like it has a good reputation when checking the Inet, from Teac's Pro-line (but what does that mean?), and relatively cheap. So if your measurements would confirm that it's a good quality player and transport as well, that would be really valuable news!

Onkyo C-721: I think they're relatively easy available in used condition, currently 4 or 5 on ebay/Kleinanzeigen in Germany - at least way more often than the C-733.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
 
It maybe interesting to test and compare the cheaper Denon DCD 600 NE to the 900 ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

NTTY
Sony CDP-X333ES Review (CD Player)
Replies
15
Views
2K
SigmaR1
S
NTTY
Sony DVP-SR760H Review (DVD/CD Player)
Replies
8
Views
1K
Owl
O
NTTY
Sony CDP-557ESD/707ESD Review (CD Player)
2
Replies
21
Views
4K
SigmaR1
S
NTTY
Sony DVP-S7700 Review (DVD Player)
Replies
10
Views
3K
NTTY
NTTY
NTTY
Denon DCD-720AE Review (CD Player)
Replies
1
Views
917
AnalogSteph
AnalogSteph
Back
Top Bottom