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What CD Player would you like to see tested?

@NTTY

I would liove to see you testing the vintage Linn Karik CD Player/Transport / Linn Numerik DAC combo.
Happy to send you mine (one of the last being built in 1998). Postage of the 2 boxes from Germany to Switzerland should not cost a fortune.
Pls let me know in case of interest
I’d be happy to test them, sure!

But yeah, check shipping/customs costs…
 
I published the review of the Yamaha CDX-396 as part of a small series of old low cost CD players to come, which the Yamaha CDX-393 are the NAD C-540 are part of.

This is to understand what we were getting 20+ years ago when we were on a budget.

The two Yamahas with Sony laser heads, and their Panasonic Servo control, absolutely rock as a Transport! By the way, the Fosi Merak too!
 
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Well I managed to get my self very recently a more or less mint Denon DVD-A1UD!!!...Ive been on the the radar for one of these very very last ever Reference Grade models from the D&M camp for some years ...I was very fortunate enough to get one that was 100% complete. I had to use some of my savings towards one of these units as they are simply gold dust now .

So I have a Denon DVD-A1 mint and now A1UD .

The A1 is 2nd Generation and the A1UD was 4th and very last (2009-2012) .

I've given it a service so brand new laser pickup and serviced the transport.

The DAC's on this thing are just insane/incredible and bloody outstanding!!! Denon were soooo way ahead with this model .

Would be absolutely awesome "if" your able to get hold of a loan unit to fully test .

As with the A1 unit it's super heavy and ridiculously well over engineered brilliance everything just like the A1 is fully metal write down to the tray . On the underside again just like the A1 unit it's cast metal feet with some very special material on the feet then selfs ..It's such attention to details at this sort of levels.

In my opinion Denon absolutely nailed it with their "Wave" Design (2007-2012) is sooo darn smart elegant and beautiful/gorgeous looking .

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Well I managed to get my self very recently a more or less mint Denon DVD-A1UD!!!...Ive been on the the radar for one of these very very last ever Reference Grade models from the D&M camp for some years ...I was very fortunate enough to get one that was 100% complete. I had to use some of my savings towards one of these units as they are simply gold dust now .

So I have a Denon DVD-A1 mint and now A1UD .

The A1 is 2nd Generation and the A1UD was 4th and very last (2009-2012) .

I've given it a service so brand new laser pickup and serviced the transport.

The DAC's on this thing are just insane/incredible and bloody outstanding!!! Denon were soooo way ahead with this model .

Would be absolutely awesome "if" your able to get hold of a loan unit to fully test .

As with the A1 unit it's super heavy and ridiculously well over engineered brilliance everything just like the A1 is fully metal write down to the tray . On the underside again just like the A1 unit it's cast metal feet with some very special material on the feet then selfs ..It's such attention to details at this sort of levels.

In my opinion Denon absolutely nailed it with their "Wave" Design (2007-2012) is sooo darn smart elegant and beautiful/gorgeous looking .

View attachment 532865
How is the display. Can it be read from more than a few feet away?
 
Hi Flo!

As a big fan of your reviews I would be interested in a test of one of the mid-sized Yamaha Pianocraft CD-Players, especially the Yamaha CDX-E200 or CDX-E400 because they have an optical SPDIF-Out (for usage as a transport!). EDIT: The CDX-E100 doesn't have a digital-out if I'm not wrong. The CDX-E100 does have a digital-out as well if I'm not wrong.


The Pianocraft Series is IMHO very interesting to buy as used, because there were so many sold and they're quite cheap to get. If you're lucky you may find the complete system (Receiver, CDP and speakers) for around 100€. And I think the speakers are not bad as well...

A nice picture from the internet:
Yamaha CDX-E200.jpg
 
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Well I managed to get my self very recently a more or less mint Denon DVD-A1UD!!!...Ive been on the the radar for one of these very very last ever Reference Grade models from the D&M camp for some years ...I was very fortunate enough to get one that was 100% complete. I had to use some of my savings towards one of these units as they are simply gold dust now .

So I have a Denon DVD-A1 mint and now A1UD .

The A1 is 2nd Generation and the A1UD was 4th and very last (2009-2012) .

I've given it a service so brand new laser pickup and serviced the transport.

The DAC's on this thing are just insane/incredible and bloody outstanding!!! Denon were soooo way ahead with this model .

Would be absolutely awesome "if" your able to get hold of a loan unit to fully test .

As with the A1 unit it's super heavy and ridiculously well over engineered brilliance everything just like the A1 is fully metal write down to the tray . On the underside again just like the A1 unit it's cast metal feet with some very special material on the feet then selfs ..It's such attention to details at this sort of levels.

In my opinion Denon absolutely nailed it with their "Wave" Design (2007-2012) is sooo darn smart elegant and beautiful/gorgeous looking .

View attachment 532865
There was one for sale some time ago but I unfortunately had other priorities :eek: But this is one universal Player I’d like to test indeed.
 
Hi Flo!

As a big fan of your reviews I would be interested in a test of one of the mid-sized Yamaha Pianocraft CD-Players, especially the Yamaha CDX-E200 or CDX-E400 because they have an optical SPDIF-Out (for usage as a transport!). The CDX-E100 doesn't have a digital-out if I'm not wrong.

The Pianocraft Series is IMHO very interesting to buy as used, because there were so many sold and they're quite cheap to get. If you're lucky you may find the complete system (Receiver, CDP and speakers) for around 100€. And I think the speakers are not bad as well...

A nice picture from the internet:
View attachment 532936
Thanks for the tip. I like small size CD players. I’ll have a look if one pops up at decent price near me.
 
How is the display. Can it be read from more than a few feet away?
Hi... Yes I suppose so .. However I have it switched off all the time as I have it on "Pure Direct" mode .I have the display switched on only when I need to read the contents on occasion and you can just press the pure direct mode and the display comes on for a few seconds enough to read the display if needs to be .

You can set the matrix dimmer as well it has 3 levels .

Hope that helps .
 
There was one for sale some time ago but I unfortunately had other priorities :eek: But this is one universal Player I’d like to test indeed.
Well like me "if" one should come up then grab it super quick !... Seriously I've been on the look out for years ..I mean your be lucky if one comes up on the open market once a year ! That's how rare this player is ..and to be honest if I owned one from brand new I would never sell it !...In the case from the gentleman I purchased it from he was upgrading to the new DCD-3000NE and was putting the money he earned from me towards it .

Personally I would have never have sold it ..lol I kept very quiet and did not even argue on pricing and snapped it up before he changed his mind . The gentleman was aware of how rare this unit is so I had to quickly take it off his hands ..We do actually keep in touch from time to time and he new I was going to give it a service. I'm not a professional nor claim to be !..but I do work in the IT and electronics Industry and have learned how to replace laser pickups and service transports ect so I would say I'm more of an "intermediate" .

Anyway I would love to send mine off to you and get it tested but I dare even to take the risk and post it ...from were I live in West London,UK and the very lightly hood it would get badly damaged in transit!! Noooo way . If you were not to far from me I would arrange for it to be sent to you for sure .

Their are A1UDs available but mostly Japan now ..so it would have to be an import and the costs absolutely astronomical at the moment.

Definitely keep an eye out for availability in the EU for sure ..
 
Hi... Yes I suppose so .. However I have it switched off all the time as I have it on "Pure Direct" mode .I have the display switched on only when I need to read the contents on occasion and you can just press the pure direct mode and the display comes on for a few seconds enough to read the display if needs to be .

You can set the matrix dimmer as well it has 3 levels .

Hope that helps .
Thanks for response. I have a Marantz 6007 and a Denon 600 neither of which have good displays. The brightest level can be barely be read from more than a few feet. I listen to a lot of solo piano with numerous short tracks and like to be able to read the display. My third player (NAD) is nice and bright
 
Two for sale in Italy according to Hi-Fi Shark but not cheap at 1800 Euro.
For a Denon DVD-A1UD in good condition, you can expect to get approximately €600–800; for units in mint ("1A") to like-new condition, you may get even more.
At auctions, or if the unit is in poor or defective condition, the price will be significantly lower.
 
For a Denon DVD-A1UD in good condition, you can expect to get approximately €600–800; for units in mint ("1A") to like-new condition, you may get even more.
At auctions, or if the unit is in poor or defective condition, the price will be significantly lower.
Yep certainly not cheap!..and to find any A1UD's in general is pretty hard to hardly any now.

We have to remember that like all "A" grade Reference models D&M would have only sold a small hand full ...hardly not a surprise considering they originally retailed for around £3-4K ☝️..So each time one comes up for sale and it's snapped up that's yet another A1UD not available on the open market..Once these types of products are sold and purchased they are generally for life or even as a 2nd spare unit .

That probably goes for the vast majority of there types of players including the DCD-3000 Series ect .

unlike that budget to midrange players theirs still a decent amount available on the open market for space but once you get close to or reference grade models it more or less becomes impossible or the value starts to get higher that more desirable and rare a model is ect .

Just some of my own thoughts .
 
I’d love to see a Nakamichi MB10 (or any of their other CD changers) reviewed. Have had one for a while and still works great!
 
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