BEGINNER'S GUIDE - CD PLAYERS FOR ALL. THEY AIN'T DEAD YET! HERE'S WHY YOU SHOULD BUY A NEW ONE
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ต.ค. 2024
- Paul Rigby firstly looks at broad issues regarding buying a CD Player then examines a range of CD Players from differing price points. Mainly aimed at the beginner, hopefully everyone can take something away from this one. (NOTE: The included hardware list is included for awareness *only*)
HIFI CONTACTS:
AUDIOLAB: www.audiolab.c...
REGA: www.rega.co.uk
ICON AUDIO: iconaudio.com
QUAD: www.quad-hifi....
ROKSAN: www.roksan.com
LEEMA: www.leema-acou...
LUXMAN: www.luxman.com
MCINTOSH: finesounds.uk
CEC: www.definitive...
ROBERT HARLEY'S FEATURE ARTICLE: www.stereophil...
WEBSITE: You can find news, reviews, features and more on my website here: theaudiophilema...
PATREON
The page arrives with a growing range of BUYER'S GUIDES.
I want to thank you for any support you might be able to offer. My Patreon page is here: / audiophileman
SOCIAL MEDIA
You can also find me via this lot:
Facebook Group: / theaudiophileman
Facebook Pages: / audiophileman
Twitter: / paulrigby50
LinkedIn: / audiophileman
Instagram: / audiophile_man
Tumblr: www.tumblr.com/blog/theaudiophileman
IMAGE CREDITS
Image by Albrecht Fietz from Pixabay
Image by S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay
Image by Richard Mcall from Pixabay
Image by MichaelGaida from Pixabay
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
Image by Thomas Breher from Pixabay
Image by Brett Hondow from Pixabay
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay
Image by Dirk Schulz from Pixabay
Image by PixelAnarchy from Pixabay
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
Image by Bruno /Germany from Pixabay
Photo by Jorge Fakhouri Filho from Pexels
Photo by 500photos.com from Pexels
Photo by Andre Moura from Pexels
Photo by Bran Sodre from Pexels
Photo by Mati Mango from Pexels
Photo by Maor Attias from Pexels
Photo by Jayson Marquez from Pexels
Photo by Brett Jordan from Pexels
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Photo by Shunya Koide on Unsplash
Photo by Chepe Nicoli on Unsplash
Photo by Szabo Viktor on Unsplash
Photo by Liam Briese on Unsplash
Photo by LUFANG CAO on Unsplash
Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
Image by Pexels from Pixabay
Image by Janko Ferlic from Pixabay
Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay
Image by Schwoaze from Pixabay
Till Sound: / @soundlaboratory8910
Record Scratch: / realsoundfx
CD Manufacturing images:
manufacturingu...
businessnbudge...
www.unifiedman...
www.bonfirerec...
www.bertelsman...
OTHER CREDITS
Old Bossa by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution
creativecommon...
Artist: www.twinmusicom...
TIME STAMP: to fast forward to the hardware section, click: th-cam.com/video/9-E_eUME86k/w-d-xo.html
I purchased a Teac CD Player because it had a low price of $189.00, remembering that Teac was a good brand back in 70's and 80's, and I only wanted a CD "transport" into my DAC. The piece of junk stopped working after a few months and I found that the company no longer has support or repair accommodations for their products in the US. The repair service providers which I was able to find would have charged nearly as much as the purchase price to "fix" this crappy machine. I tossed the Teac piece of crap into the recycle bin and purchased a used DVD player to use as a transport at the charity store for $10, then I purchased a remote control on ebay for $7. I will NEVER buy another piece of crap Teac product again; to others I say "don't waste your money or your time". Lesson learned: Buy a good machine from a reliable manufacturer, because even if the price is higher, it will end up costing LESS in dollars and grief!
Very interesting.
A disc player for sound.
A disk player for energy .
A disc player that creates sound.
A disk player that creates energy.
A record disk that plays sound
A record disk that plays energy.
So I need a multiplaying energy disk player...so I can use multiple energies at once.
Doge Audio from China used to make a fantastic Tube CD player. Small company. They currently only make Doge 7 DAC, can be fully balanced and tube output stage. Try to review that one. 😉
I have two rigs,one an HH Scott with a Marantz CD player and one which is a complete Luxman.I play vinyl and 78’s as well as CD’s. CD’s are an important
part of my collection being a Blues enthusiast I find it is fantastic that most of the original music long since deleted on vinyl and 78’s has been re released on CD.
*TEAC* *IS* *JUNK!* *DON'T* *WASTE* *YOUR* *MONEY!*
I purchased 2 TEAC players (one for me and one for my S/O's house) and BOTH of them crapped out and stopped working within a few months of purchase and AFTER my Amazon return window closed! BOTH of them!
*BUT* *WAIT;* *IT* *GETS* *WORSE!*
...when I tried to get warrantee info and repair or replacement for these obviously defective products, I found that *TEAC* no longer supports their products in the USA and I'd have pay to ship these crappy machines to Japan for repair, or, I'd have to get a private repair shop to fix them. I called a few shops and they said that it would probably cost almost as much to diagnose and fix the unit as it cost to purchase.
*TEAC* *IS* *JUNK!* *DON'T* *WASTE* *YOUR* *MONEY!*
People are definitely forgetting how good CD sounds. Streaming is super convenient, but if you've got good speakers, you really should throw a CD on now and then to hear the difference.
totally!
I agree. I have no idea why, but CDs *do* sound better than streaming.
@@doctorcXanthophyll I believe its because vinyls are exported in a lossless format basically meaning when it's put into sound there's alot less that's squished down to fit its file format whils mp3 is squished down and sounds alot worse. Basically mp3 is new and imatture and cd/vinyl is mature and is defined more
One of the things I've noticed is streaming can be faulty clicks and pops sometimes not to mention the loudness Wars
its only people people generally stream low bitrate, highly compressed MP3s, if you stream music in lossless codecs they sound just as good if not better, Tidal for example supports AAC and FLAC
This is great to hear. I have been happily buying CDs for over 35 years and will continue to do so as I love the format.
just DReämt öff the bröad us? hinguess i göt fröm a us? döörce cd ^!?^
jewel cäsys were chiip träche -.-
After collecting records for over 12 years now, I recently started buying cds a few months before the pandemic started. I started to notice that even people younger than me are starting to ALSO collect cds. With y2k culture and fashion making a comeback, the early 2000s are becoming vintage, WHICH MEANS that cds will become the new hipster movement. I wouldn't be surprised if vinyl goes back to a niche at the end of the decade and cds make a booming comeback.
That is how I read it, and I have been collecting records for 60 years. I am sure that the analogue revival has much to do with those brought up in the digital era, and most will come to realise all the shortcomings and inconvenience of a technology which is fundamentally the same as Thomas Edison's invention when the novelty begins to wear thin.. CD has suffered from being so easy to produce and there are so many more interested in making a quick buck than paying attention to quality work, but when one hears recordings by companies like Chandos, Hyperion, Pentatone, Onyx and others who stake their reputation on their engineering quality, I dare to suggest that no home format can surpass the sound of a good CD. I am confident that it is here to stay.
I feel the same way about tapes. I feel they'll also make a comeback since newer albums (especially metal) are getting tapes made
Vinyl is back strong here in WNY
CDs will come back in style when streaming platforms will close down.
Vinyl is becoming way to expensive for the average customer and streaming isn't profitable for 99.99% of the artists.
While this is the worst time to buy vinyl, low prices and low demand make it an excellent time to buy CDs.
CDs will be stylish when they start to disappear. People want what they can't have. Also...after fiddling with expensive vinyl records and fussing with cleaning vinyl, and replacing expensive styluses, people just might see why boomers and gen x'ers flocked to CDs back in the early 90s. Size, durability, features, ease of use, superior sound...what's not to like?
Good turntable are really expensive.. yes, there are a $50-100 brand new Chinese turntable but they won't sound as good as the vintage one. I'm still using a CD on my 1989 Onkyo DX-C300 and 1994 JVC XL-M509
I just got notice of my Netflix increase I can see the music streaming platform start to up price like Netflix has but in fairness its good value to me. If streaming keeps getting pricier and catalogues are split out between them like film people will start to think about affordability and the CD could then revive. Ive over 1200 so I wont run out soon and ones I was are 20 including post so its already niche?
@@Feech23 the thing is, all the music in the world shouldn't be $10 a month. It can't be.
What to you is "good value" is actually killing the music industry.
You would help this business more if you spent that $10 a month on a bargain CD and listen to free radio than give your 10 bucks to spotify or tidal or whoever
@@bosco7837
Sorry Bosco I dont have any streaming account I was using netflix as an example of how I think prices will rise for those using spotify etc. I have bought two double cd from Bandcamp this month but I also buy flac and stream myself using dac. Sory earlier comment was unclear.
The format is alive and well in Japan and they are doing a lot to enhance and develop the CD into an ongoing niche hi fi product
I would say that thanks to the likes of ebay, CDs are doing well around the world. I, for one, keep buying Japanese SHM SACDs and SHM CDs from Japan and have them sent to me here in Spain.
That has always spoke volumes to me. Japan with all of its advances in technology, still supports the CD format. Many of my import jazz/rnb cds come from there too. Remastered in great form too.
@@johnz4860 Hey, where do you buy Japanese stuff from Spain?
@@MargueritaMarguero Ebay. I buy Japanese SACDs, SHM SACDs and SHM CDs from ebay sellers in Japan, such as ftfym65.
Japan is CD paradise. Used CD's are nearly always in near mint condition as the Japanese collectors treat them with such respect. I've been lucky with my work to visit Japan on numerous occasions, spending much free time and Yen buying stuff from Disk Union Book It , etc CD's are King still in Japan. unfortunately much if the negative press we hear comes out of the USA and UK.
Hi everyone, CD is my favorite music media ever. I was in the 70s last century a brave defender of the LP since I listened to a CD for the first time in a public demo back in 1983. I purchased a SONY CDP-101. Since then a quite bunch of cd’s players have been set on my rack but there is one in particular I purchased in 1992, is the DENON DCD-2560. It is a keeper- winner for me. I have recently fully recapped it and swapped the output opamps for a BB opa2134s, OMG what an upgrade, it sounds richer, fuller sound with awesome mids and stunning lows and highs are sweet and spot on. I truly believe CD format will improve sales within we the lovers of the physical format and... no pops, ticks, messy cleaning products and NO stand ups to turn the thing over! LONG LIVE THE CD!
I love both cds and records. Each has its right.....👍👍👍👍
Could not agree more, i usually use Allavsoft to download the online music offline and then burn them to cd
I love all formats! :-)
As a very serious, very passionate CD collector with about 700 CDs, I totally respect those that collect Vinyl and feel a warm, sympathetic kinship with them. :)
Just bought a Yamaha CD-S300B which is their base model...sounds marvellous.can't beat Yamaha for quality bang for the buck
I bought the same model last week and love it. So glad that I did and mine sounds awesome too
CD's and records are great. Friends don't let friends stream!!
I stream to find out what to hunt for in the second hand CD bin at the monthly record fair in town. 😄
Bought an Arcam Alpha 7 cd player for £90 from gumtree a few years ago and it sounds miles better than streaming to my ears.
I had one those for many many years 20 + till it died.
@@mikecoffee100 Arcam Alpha 7SE was the CD player in my very first hi-fi!
I was very lucky to get an Aplha 7se from Facebook for £40 this year. Took me back to my teenage years as I bought one new in 2001. Sounds better than Tidal through a decent streamer to my ears, and means I can collect CDs again!
New CD players are great sounding even on entry level stage. And many reissues on CD are better sounding than new vinyl reissues, and in majority cases also much cheaper. I use Denon DCD-520AE and for less than 200$ it is the best you can imagine for that money.
Does it play CD-R discs well?
@@Mac-xz6fj Yes it does. But unlike many new CD players it doesn't have usb stick port.
And I would only expect a basic player without any bells or whistles for 200. The addition of usb is forward thinking in today's age if you don't want to get up every 45 minutes to change an album of any format cd or vinyl.
Thanks Paul, a reassuring video in respect of the future of CD. Following your review of the Audiolab 6000cdt I went and bought it. It connected to a chord mojo with a decent coax from chord. I love it! CD has never sounded so good to me. I love vinyl too but for CD is much better value, I've been picking up some great box sets recently. Thanks again!
Love my 20 year old Sony CD player, it just sounds like the 1990’s 🤘🤘
@stuartshuck are you saying black colour Sony CD player how is it working want about it's sound quality
I bought my first cd player -the cheapest i could get ...a United.. I got it back when my elderly parents died - it still plays cd's -It just dont like some cds or burnt cd when it should but its a very early player .Its now over 30 year old, hardly used -maybe used 50 times max over the year maybe a little more
Which one?
@@hanniacorena7657 United UMC 27R
@@hanniacorena7657 xb930. I have both cd and mini disc players
Long live the CD! I'm purchasing more CDs than ever. I just wish some hipster record labels, like Editions Mego and Black Truffle, would offer the choice of CD, instead of vinyl or download only. Since CD is cheap to manufacture, I don't understand why they can't press up at least a small number of CDs for people who prefer CDs. I refuse to pay for overpriced new vinyl. And much of the experimental music I listen to sounds horrible with pops and clicks during the quieter passages. And I will never pay for a download. I'd feel like I'm paying for air.
Thats my exact feel for downloads and streaming! Nailed it on “buying air”
You could download 44.1/16 wav files and burn them to a cd-r. I've done it many times and they sound as good as factory pressed cds.
@@nunofernandes4501 thats my last resort too. But i kinda want the art that goes with the album. Its just preference. And yeah the is no performance hit for the factory
@@justanotheryoutubeuser5029 yes, I grew up buying LPs and then CDs so the physical aspect of holding the cover art or the booklet and reading the lyrics is very important for me too. But if there's no other way, burning a disc is better than just streaming.
@@nunofernandes4501 Practically all the CDRs I've ever made have ended up failing sooner or later. CDR is a disposable medium.
CD dead??? I think not. I love my Cambridge CXC transport and Schiit Modi 3.
hi! have you compared cxc with any other transports? i have a primare cd21, and wonder if a cxc will sound better, or any other transport..
I was quite surprised as to just how good the CXC is, I still burn CD's to flac for casual listening, but it does not compare to my Cambridge
The "cds were harsh sounding" line is a myth. I have a Denon DCD-1500 which is decades old that can compete in every way with a modern setup. It's buttery smooth and has a very analog sound profile. The headphone amp is outstanding and the unit itself is built like a brick sh*thouse.
I knew I had made the right decision, sticking with cd , I recently pushed the boat out and purchased a Marantz SA 10 . Amazing machine!!
Yes the CD isn't going anywhere. Although the last 5 years or so I've gotten back into vinyl pretty seriously, I still have 2000 + CD's & will continue to listen to the CD format as long as I live. I bought a budget priced Onkyo C-7030 a few years back & am still very happy with it....
Following 30+ years of only taking vinyl seriously, I looked into achieving an analogue sound from CD without spending a fortune. So I now have experience with two Chinese players, both with valve output stages. The Line Magnetic LM215CD and the MHZS CD88J. They are both very musical even when compared to a top flight analogue system.
Being 47, I've had CD players for 30 years now. First I had a Pioneer piece of garbage, then a decent Sony and after that a nice early 2000s Denon. I always heard incremental sound quality improvements with each one.
Last year I bought a Marantz CD6006 for €422 which is now connected to a Rega Elex-R driving a pair of Dali Oberon 5 speakers. The CD6006 was such a huge improvement that I fell in love all over again with just sitting on the sofa and listening to music, I never had so much fun listening to my CD collection as I do now. The detail in the highs, the articulation and "meat" on the bass is wonderful but the lushness in the mids that puts the vocals in the room with me blows me away. The voices of David Sylvian, Liz Fraser, Perry Blake, Martin Gore... they sound like never before. The Marantz also has a front usb port which reads WAV files very nicely and MP3s which don't sound horrible through it. If you buy the newer CD6007 it also reads FLAC and DSD which makes it very versatile indeed.
Nevertheless, CDs are the format which always sounds best to my ears and believe me I've listened to thousands of them. Oh, and nowadays you can buy them for 2 euros a piece in a flea market... CD is here to stay indeed!
Oh, I bought an AudioQuest Evergreen rca interconnect for the CD player and it muddied the sound so much that I went back to the cheaper €10 Mitsai cables. The Evergreen sounds amazingly great with my Cambridge Dacmagic 100 though, go figure... hifi voodoo.
Many thanks for your thoughts, Nuno.
@Fat Rat if we keep this up we'll be seen as Marantz fanboys. :)
@Fat Rat earlier this year my hifi dealer called me to go listen to the newly reissued and updated JBL L100. They were connected to a Marantz KI Ruby amp and sacd player. Around €4000 a piece but if I had that kind of money I would buy them on the spot that same day. You can't imagine how sweet this pair is.
Oh, why don't you take The Audiophile Man's advice and buy the Audiolab CDT6000 transport and then you can choose a great DAC to go along with it?
Have you compared the Marantz CD6006 and newer 6007? I have not heard either but have been thinking about getting one due to praise I have read about. I don't care about much of ANYTHING a CD player has other the SOUND quality....that's it. Looks, gizmos, extras, bells and whistles..I don't give a damn. I am a musician and at 56 years old I just want to sit and listen to my CD collection, classical, jazz, rock, international, traditional etc....with the best sound I can afford. I have 4 JBL N38 Northridge Series Wood tower speakers. Which unit would you recommend for best sound, the 6006 or 6007? Thanks very much Nuno.
@@philosopher0076 Hi there! I never listened to the 6007, I know it has an AKM dac chip and can read FLAC files from the front usb input.
The 6006 only reads mp3 and wav from usb. As a CD player it sounds really good, it has a spacious lush warm sound with plenty of detail but not in a tiring way.
I'd say that since the 6007 is the new kid and costs around €500, the 6006 might be found with a substantial discount and that would make for a great bargain if you find it for around 300.
I hope this helps you, all the best!
Just bought a NAD C538 and I love it!
Nobody wants CDs anymore, there's a massive wave of people getting rid of theirs, all the focus is on vinyl and therefore Cds are priced dirt cheap.
There's never been a better time to buy em up and grow your collection!
Listening to streamed music is like riding on the bus. Listening to your own CD is like driving your own convertible.
Few days ago I bought for 10€ a Technics SL-PG370A from eBay. Not bad at all, the sound is good for my second "vintage" system and it's fast. From the time I pop in the cd to playing even the last track it takes two second, literally. Most new CD players can't do that, the take 5 second only to open the tray. Some streamers are slower too.
I owned Cambridge Audio CXC for 2 years. I loved it as a high value transport.
This week I just upgraded to Jay's Audio CDT2-MK3.
Jay's is simply amazing!
It's easily my endgame transport. It is connected to Denafrips Venus II DAC.
The only downside of CD - and one I consider fairly major - is the so-called "loudness wars" that took over in the 90s and 2000s. Mixers and CD mastering people began to prioritize the loudness of the audio over the actual fidelity, which lead to massive horrible brickwalling, dynamic range completely crushed and parts of the songs that were previously the louder parts are blown out beyond recognition.
This is most obvious to see by comparing a CD release from the early 80s to any sort of "remaster" version of the same CD from a decade or so later. Often, the only kind of "remastering" they do is just turning up all the levels to the max.
This was all primarily to appeal to the broadest consumer markets possible, people who wouldn't be able to tell between good or bad mixes, but would complain about their Chinese knockoff integrated stereo systems not being able to blast a properly-mixed disc loud enough to rattle windows. I have genuinely seen many online argue that the "remastered" releases of many albums sound better for reasons such as "the original was too noisy" or "too quiet". It's a depressing state of affairs, and it became such a norm and standard to brickwall CD's, that in many cases, standard downloadable digital releases, or the versions released to streaming services, in many cases are actually better mixed than the physical CD release! Dreadful.
As you say, CD will sometime soon begin to enter the niche market, and I truly hope that when it does, we get proper CD mixing back, and it becomes a respectable uncompressed digital source once again.
We've been duped all the years into thinking remastered sounds better... Yeah, better on a cheap boombox or car stereo. CDs were remastered louder to pop on cheap tiny speakers, but the drawbacks were anologue recordings bring up tape hiss when amplified to brick wall peak levels. Now Noise Reduction or Noise Shaping is necessary to remove the hiss. That's still fine on a crappy tiny speaker, but on a decent hifi sound system and suddenly it doesn't sound so good no more. Instruments and bass are muddy due to the noise reduction. So to counter the mastering engineer cranks up the treble to bring back clarity, and you left with a CD that is loud, brick walled, ear fatigue, muddy sound due to noise reduction and bright as fck.
@@robertlakay88 really the only remasters that sound better are the ones done by people like Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs and Audio Fidelity which both are still doing regular releases but in limited quantities. oh and Grateful Dead concerts🤪 (plus we get those in HDCD!!!) also depending on the release Japanese cd's have better sound quality than their domestic counterparts e.g. Tool - 10,000 days / Feist - Metals. and people that purchase classical/instrumental type music have generally been lucky that their releases have never been affected by the loudness war as far as i know?
Just bought a Marantz CD6007 recently to listen to my collection of CDs dating back 30 years. It is bringing back so much memories and happiness. Has not touch the CDs for quite a while. The Marantz is quite a nice player. My simple set up - CD player hooked up to powered speakers, Klipsch The Fives and a Boston subwoofer. Am pretty happy ! Suggest you add the Marantz CD6007 to your list. Enjoyed your video. Has subscribed.
Streaming enthusiasts love to talk figures that mean nothing. On my Ayon CD player, I can switch between the 44.1k and 192k filter while the disc is playing and instantly scan for sonic differences. I much prefer the Red Book standard filter and have found that on other machines which also give that option. So much for those extra kilobytes. The fact is, it is well established that the transport mechanics and the output stage of a CD player have always defined its sound most ( along with the support feet beneath but that's another story ) and modern streamers still don't bother to invest in getting a lot of the electronics surrounding the actual DAC and filters right. ( because high quality caps, ect, don't sell units like bragging about high-res files ) As Paul says, CD is a mature technology. So mature that a transport with a solid, CD-Pro level drive from the 1990s, feeding a Red Book DAC with a well designed output stage, on good mechanical supports, will destroy most £10K streamers, even with high-res DSD, when it comes to musically satisfying presentation rather than fancy and essentially meaningless bullshit like 'high resolution.' The great irony to all digital forms of musical playback is it is far more than a simple application or measure of numbers. Great digital music is based on solid mechanics, parasitical vibration control and good electronics, just like a turntable or loudspeaker.
cd's are amazing , i love them
Ive tried Rega Apollo but im very, very satisfied with Rega Saturn whose warm sound has never ceased to awe my mom, a jazz aficionado cousin and me. It looks nicely study and quietly elegant too. The price is reasonable, i think, compared to the Hegel Mohican (almost accessible ) or Chord cd players (ridicously priced! ) or any of the Mcintosh gears. Im told that Marantz and Denon produce wonderful equipment too. Another nice brand (if you want to try an Asian up-and-coming manufacturer ) is Cayin.
Just bought a Denon DCD 600NE and the sound is remarkable! Love that DVD Player!
Very good review of players, and interesting content on the manufacturing process of CD’s.
Another good player from Luxman, is the D-N150. Has a built Dac also.
I recently picked up a Denon DCD-600ne. Under $450 on Amazon. It has a decent built-in DAC, and optical output, if you want to use your own DAC. I'm delighted with it.
I am very happy listening to CDs now. The technology has improved so much since the started in the mid 80s. I had the usual Dual 8 bit D/A converters , no dither so the actual audible portion was only about 14 bits. Poor power supply which supplied both the motor and the DAC. Anyway I always gravitated towards my vinyl. But now the audio lab transport fed into the 6000A is completely enjoyable. Air, space, a natural sound. Voices, instruments, all very musical and life like. If this was the around at the start I probably would have left vinyl. And here is another consideration about streaming : The deep state knows what you listen to and when. Look what happened in Canada recently. It could be that anyone who listens regularly to music that they believe is hostile to the state will have their bank accounts frozen and declared an enemy of the state.
This is just around the corner, I bet.
I am buying a new CD player after years living without one. I recently found out that I have a pretty nice CD collection. Some CDs are even worth something. So I want to listen to them again and a CD player is a nice addition to my vintage 70s stereo system.
It's going to y the Yamaha CD S300 Silver . got pretty good reviews
Thought provoking video. I'm an avid user and collector of audiophile stuff but also as an engineer, I know my Marantz CD player does not put out a better S/PDIF bitstream than my Sony CDP-201 (still running great) or the no-name Chinese DVD player that i use most often. Likewise, music CDs are just differently encoded CD-ROMs with data structures that music CD players can read. CD-ROM error correction provides even with imperfections or wear in hardware, fingerprints or jazzercise accidents. your flight sim '99 disc reads the same exact 5 billion bits each time, everytime, even likely 2 decades later. Audio CDs are much more forgiving of errors but in most cases, the its the same data no matter how the disc is manufactured or if its a cheap burned CD. The thing that interests me are the attempts to improve on the audio CD format like SACD & DVD-A of which I have probably 40 albums worth.
Part of the reason for the vinyl revival is that people are being forced to sit down and actually listen to music again. The records haven't been butchered by mastering for loudness either, in the way that CDs often are, so they sound nice. For me, CD offers the same experience of ownership and, with the right equipment and when mastered sympathetically, superb sound quality. Long live the CD!
By the way, if you want to hear some stunning music on CD try MA Recordings.
Paul, thank you for a very perceptive presentation (That means I agree with you) With vinyl sales equalling CDs in the US last year as I heard it, I can see CDs easily doing the same turnabout as vinyl. The quality of pressings now, I bet, are much higher than back in my day. People benefiting from these new LP records have no experience with some of the terrible LPS that were released in days past. Seems like a high quality CD Revival would be a natural consequence of living in such a temporary insecure age. I think people find comfort and a feeling of stability from being able to purchase and hold something in their hand.
You nailed it with this video. CD is only dead to the industry
Dead to the music industry especially, as CD's involve manufacture, which = costs/overheads. So it makes sense for the music companies to push downloads. Because once the initial production costs have been paid, then they only need to keep their servers going, and the same file is downloaded millions of times, with not a single penny going towards its manufacture.
Great video. Recently got a Cambridge cxc v2 transport as a Christmas gift for myself. All i can say is i dumped all my flac and dsd files and now happily hunting cheap used cds. I dont think ill be going back to digital files.
Another great cd player is the marantz cd6007. I was supposed to get the marantz but decided on the Cambridge as its a specialist product.
I’m torn between getting the Audiolab 6000 or the CXC v2. Do you find the CXC having difficulty reading some of the discs? That’s the only criticism I saw for the transport.
@@danielrd7493 i have tried all kinds of cds. All original albums have no problem playing. Cd-r are also working but if you burn too fast (more than 16x) some wont play. The real problem is playing cd-rw (the rewritable cd). Most of them dont play on the transport.
All in all if your not burning any audio to blank cd-rw’s, you dont have to worry.
Marantz (like Philips is a specialist of Cd since the beginning).Check the number of players they made.Still remarquable !
Around the early to mid 90s, that is when the CD-players with the best DACs were sold. Think of the Technics MASH technology.
this went and by the 00s, people just had forgotten how good a CD-player (or need I say, the player its DAC) can sound.
Properly digitalize a CD and compare the digital file to the CD best within the same unit with a CD player & DAC/Network Streamer unit and the digital version sounds at least as good, very often slighty better. So I have to admit the differences are small and could also be declared as taste rather than quality. And I completely agree that the CD still plays a vital role and can offer great sound.
It’s amazing to see now there’s been an increase in CD sales now, which I understand because of the high costs of vinyl right now. Are you going to touch on that CD news? I think it’s great!
Hopefully in the future.
My studio is using a Fostex cdr500 cd recorder with tremendous success as a mastering machine. The midrange is quite smooth and the Fostex enables you to record at different ratios. The only problem we have is finding a high level recordable cd.
My NAD C521BEE compliments my system perfectly including my NAD C162 pre. Whilst I love spinning vinyl, CDs still play a large part in my listening repertoire. I have quite a few vinyl/CD duplicates which is very convenient a lot of the time 🌹🇦🇺
Markie Linhart, a great player, punching miles above its weight.
A very good budget model is the Marantz CD6007. For £400 it delivers excellent stereo separation and is great for classical music. I got one from my wife for Xmas to replace my 25 year old Marantz which I loved to bits but it stopped tracking reliably.
Having just refurbished my 1978 AR XB 1 turntable and installed a new AT 540 ML cartridge, I was intrigued to do a side by side comparison using a Rogers A75 Mk 2 for phono input, feeding into a 100w a channel Cambridge amp, driving a £2000 Monitor audio speaker set up with a REL subwoofer (using the fancy REL cable to smooth out crossover).
On classical music the Marantz holds its own with slightly more defined separation on choral music than the equivalent vinyl. It doesn’t have the brilliant attack, presence and timbre of the AR set up, on demo pieces like Carmina Burana on a top end 1970s DG vinyl pressing, but it does a very close second without all the worry about protecting pristine vinyl.
Of course after a Christmas glass of vino, I wouldn’t risk playing vinyl, given the new stylus is close on £200 - I didn’t think of that back in the 70s when student mates dropped round to try their new ABBA albums on my fantastic turntable. I went though a few Grados in those days but my phenomenal Fidelity Research 101SE survived. Unfortunately, I could not get a new stylus. I think with inflation that cartridge would cost about £500 now. It was close on £100 in 1980. Horses for courses. Yes, a properly serviced and set up AR can track very good cartridges. With a super accurate protractor the AT tracks perfectly all the way to the inner grooves of the 1812 at 1.8g, which is the lowest recommended force for the AT. An AR was made and guaranteed to a broadcast standard and has a sprung sub chassis. Wow and flutter is less than 0.03%. Very few belt drives get that stability even at £1000+.
The Marantz has a good headphone stage. Using my AT HT MX50x pro headphones, which are ruthless on exposing poor audio sources, the CD6007 was exact and uncoloured. Therefore, if you want a great mid level CD, as a complement to a high quality vinyl system, it’s very good value.
It has digital outputs but I prefer the analogue connection into my Cambridge. That means the Marantz’s sound processing is very good. Hence its What HiFi awards. Great VFM and nicely made. Recommended for systems up to about £4K like mine. Definitely recommended with its partner 6007 amp and speakers up to about £1k, if they are reasonably sensitive, as the heart of a good music system. Just get to those car boot sales and buy up all the 80s and 90s DG, Phillips and Decca classical CDs you can.
Thank you for the Audiolab 6000 CDT review as it prompted me to purchase one. My OPPO gave up it's digital ghost and I was looking for a replacement. This unit is a very steadfast logging hundreds of hours now and not a bit of problem. As an inveterate tinkerer. I like having a separate DAC that I can upgrade or change at will (Now a Schiit Gungnir Multibit) I also appreciate being able to tune the sound of my system with different digital cables. I happened into an expensive ($450) silver digital cable at a good price that is quite impressive however, one day out of boredom, I decided to do some Coax cable bottom feeding and ordered several cheap Coax cables from Amazon and Ebay. I was pleasantly surprised to discover some gems. I am now listening to a $30 digital cable with the expensive one on the side lines. I also discovered that the same company that makes my expensive cable also makes an excellent $90 cable. I'll post some suggestions when I get more time just in case anyone is interested.
Hi James - yes would be interested to hear of any good value coax cables you have come across. I currently use an atlas integra coax and a blue jean coax cable in my setup.
Also interested here. Thoughts on Optical vs Coax also welcome! At the moment I’m weighing up a CDT plus Dac vs a nice all in one.
@@fabers92 Hello Niandra, Not sure if you are asking me or Paul, but I'll offer an opinion as I'm an old guy with many opinions welcome or not. There is nothing wrong with a good sounding CD player, Ive owned many and only recently went from my Oppo 93 one piece Blue ray player to separates because the old Oppo streamed itself up to digital heaven. If you find one you like, go for it Find a dealer who will let you take one home and return if not to your liking. The only down side to an all in one player is as DAC technology advances, you may find yourself interested in updating the DAC in your CD player. Id recommend getting a CD player with a digital coax (SPDIF) out so eventually you could use it as a transport and add an outboard DAC of your preference as technology advances.
I have done a lot of testing of Optical vs Digital coax and although some optical cables like the Lifetec sound very good, they are inevitably bested by a good coax cable in my experience. The Audiolab 6000 CDT is a marvelous transport. Before spending a lot of money on digital cables, I'd try a Canare Coax available available on Ebay ($20) as well as the Apogee Wyde Eye or Mogami 2964 (About $45 each) on Amazon. These were the best I found for under $50 and are very capable fine sounding cables in my opinion. I don't know what your budget is, but there are a lot of good DACs around it seems. I am partial to Schiit products (Lots of reviews on TH-cam) but you can find good reviews on the least expensive Denafrips DAC, the MSFL 400 and other Chinese units. Never heard Chord but the are highly respected.
This doesn't need to be expensive. Mabe find a used CD player with a good transport and digital coax out, add an inexpensive cable and a Schiit Modi multi bit a Chord Mojo, or a MSFL 300 DAC and you have it.
@@fletchermunson6225 thanks very much, lots of useful info. That is a fair point regarding dac technology- they seem to be getting better and cheaper at an alarming rate.
Ah, and Oppo is interesting, or maybe a Sony bdp. Playing audio blu rays would be a great bonus.
Thanks again for the help- and apologies for my rushed reply.
Love your videos, always look forward to hearing what you’ve got to say, with great interest.
My favourite option is to find an older player from the late 90s, my current player is a Sony cdp-s1 which is as basic as it gets, but it runs as a transport because I run it with an external dac (smsl m100 mk2) so I technically brought a new cd player without buying a new cd player.
I know this model is far cheaper than any you mentioned at around $150 US, but I've had my Onkyo DX-C390 for a few years now and I'm about as pleased as I could be. It's a six disc changer, has both coaxial and optical digital output as well as RCA and it sounds great. Nice to hear about the new manufacturing standards, too.
This model brand new is ~$850 today. Covid did a number this past 11 months
@@Bliccyriccy03 WTF?!?!?! That's completely insane.
Thank you, interesting as always.
Unlike turntables eBay is the place for quality bargain CD players, the hipster rip off price for any old garbage hasn't taken hold.........yet.
Still buy CD's, recently, £30 for a 24 track double vinyl album or a 48 track triple CD for £9.99, no brainer.
I've always had and liked Pioneer CD players, built to last and seemed to play anything, can be a touch bright but easy to tame.
Last players bought by myself and family have all been Marantz (6006UK was the last) fine quality bang for your buck, plays CD-R without issue, based on my ears I couldn't justify spending a penny more.
Thanks for our thoughts, Stephen. Appreciate it.
A Pioneer DV-575A universal player is my everyday CD player - being usually listed on eBay in the DVD player category, it slips under most audiophiles' radars. I got mine for a mere £17. It has the same qualities you mention for Pioneer's CD players, plus SACD and DVD-A compatibility. Lest anybody say "DVD players all sound the same," it absolutely blows away my Pioneer DV-2750.
I see Steely Dan - Gaucho, Two against nature and The very best of there. You have great taste. They're my favourite band of all time!
Cyrus cd-t through an old Audiolab M-DAC with a Chord Clearway coax cable is VERY impressive, great video btw.
Forgot to add that this video is great, I still listen to and buy new CDs and will purchase a new player this year.
Hi Paul,good video.One must not forget the trusty Marantz.All things to all things digital.From the well regarded all in one 6111,to sacd 12.All complete with a rather good head-amp.Keep it up mon.
Over the last 5 years I've built up a sizable cd collection on the cheap...box sets 2nd hand galore....enough classical music to last me a lifetime as they were virtually giving them away at charity shops and boot sales and ebay ..I just swooped in buying artists I liked entire back catalogues 2nd hand off ebay and amazon.. ....I've noticed though that prices are creeping up and bargains whilst still out there are harder to find...but I've slowed down as I already have more than I need...some are still in their wrappers......it reminds me of when everyone ditched vinyl....I gave away my own well kept collection of 2000 lps when I switched to cd in the late 80s ..last year someone gave me a fairly good turntable but I prefer cd...I keep a handful of obscure lps I bought purely for nostalgia purposes as I like occasionally to hold and look at the covers ( Geoff love James bond themes...a TV themes album...a The Who "the story of the who"...a bert Weedon lp .a Tommy steel family album..all childhood stuff..lol) but...but I think cds are better sounding...more pure and after decades of listening to clear precision of what cds offer I find the faint crackling you detect sometimes in quiet passages of music really annoying...I even could hear it on a brand new Celeste album my son bought me so much so that I bought the cd version which comes with extra ...long live the cd and cd players...I thought at one time thet might stop producing then so bought a new one as spare...but I've been using my technics one and an old pioneer for the last 30 years so my new marantz 6006 uk edition will probably see me out as I'm in my 50s lol....Great channel BTW...
Still loving my Linn Ikemi, fabulous sounding machine and beautifully built... as for “digital”, well CD is digital. There’s no reason why streaming shouldn’t sound awesome too, I have a Linn Klimax Renew DS/1, it’s nothing to look at (in fact it’s tucked behind a Kallax unit), but it sounds sublime, hard to imagine anything sounding notably better.
One of the things often missed is the fact CD is read from physical pits on the CD. Ripped files are held in a magnetic format on the storage drive. I think this is where some of the magic is lost. If you want a 3D sound-stage, with real depth, avoid CD at your peril. I love the format. Long live the CD...... ps I have a Cyrus CD XT SE2 with psx-r power supply as transport into my Audiolab M-DAC, powered with Longdog Audio's, toroidal based, linear power supply. These are connected with an Atlas Opus OCC copper coax cable. I have had many CD sources but this really satisfies. I also have the DAC board grounded and all hifi tuning supreme fuses in IEC inputs and plugs. Gone whole hog (as been upgrading for some 25 years) to all Merlin Funnel Web mains cables too. Job done.... :0)
Why would anything be lost by storing a ripped CD on magnetic media or even flash media ?
@@ProffAndy I am just trying to find the reason cd sounds obviously better than a streamer of multiple times the cost. Depth of image is obviously better and I demo this for a living. I have a few cd players around £3.5 to £5.5k and all clearly beat an award winning £10k streamer we have, including when playing hires and DSD. On paper this is not logical but it is an uncomfortable truth to the industry.
@@alext2933I'm not surprised that several cheaper CD players can sound better than a more expensive streamer. There's a lot more CD players to choose from, and therefore there's a better chance of finding a CD player you prefer the sound of. However, there is no technical advantage of reading digital music from a spinning optical disc versus reading it from a spinning magnetic disc or flash memory. In theory a manufacturer should be able to produce a streamer that sounds at least as good as a CD player at a similar price point. Streaming players have been around for a few years now, with more products slowly becoming available. There's a big opportunity for a manufacturer to produce a streamer that beats, or at least equals the best CD player in each price price bracket.
I recently bought a Leak CDT. I would have liked to have compared it to the Audiolab 6000CDT, but "lockdown" got in the way. All I can say is that it has increased the enjoyment I get from listening to CDs, and WAV files (It has a USB port) recorded from LPs, sound (as far as I can tell) just like the original. Well worth a listen. Used via an Arcam iRDAC II btw.
Hi, may I ask how you’re ripping your LP’s? No idea, but interested in preserving my records, and I imagine it’s a nice way to enjoy them when being a bit lazy.
I record my records from phono stage into my zoom h6n audio recorder... For film work.... Wav files 36bit and then through software to declick slightly. I done sit into tracks so just like record side a b and sometimes if I paused right it is just one 40ish min file (1.8gb though)
I have two Pioneer DV 563a DVD players I use to play CDs and they sound fantastic, especially on my tube amp system. I have tons of vinyl records, but I’m moving back towards the CD due to the cost of first pressing and used vinyl, and the sound is great!
I have a Roksan Caspian M2 CD player and matching M2 integrated amplifier and they are a stunning combo. I went from a high end Audiolab pre/power amplification with a top Arcam CD player and it beats it hands down. By the way, the amp also handles vinyl very well too.
Add the m2 power amp sounds even better
I used to read Stereophile religiously, that is until I completed my hifi system and started spending a fortune on photography. Back in those days (circa 2010) Stereophile reviewers gushed over the Ayre C-5xeMP, which retailed for $6,000. These days you can find them on eBay for around $2,800. They play CDs, SACDs, and the audio portion of DVDs. (Ayre still makes a CD player for $10,000.)
My understanding is that the analogue section of the Ayre C-5xeMP is discreet components, not chips (which can only help). The designer (whose name escapes me) was renown among audiophiles for his exquisite sounding equipment.
I used to work in a recording studio and had many opportunities to hear master tapes reproduced on Studor and Ampex tape machines. Compared to that experience, I was chronically disappointed with vinyl, which never captured that in-your-face, utterly transparent, focused sound.
The Ayre C-5xeMP playing a good CD reminds me of those days. Vinyl doesn't.
I have been buying CDs since 1986 and funnily enough the number of CDs I buy every year keeps increasing. Also, I have been buying SACDs since 2003 and Blu Ray audio discs since 2013. The silver disc is my source of happiness (along with my family, of course!)
@E. O. I have never done any ripping. I don't even know how it is done. All I know is that my oppo and Esoteric players give me all the sonic pleasure I enjoy day after day when listening to the likes of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Scarlatti, Richard Strauss, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, Aretha Frankin, Julie London, Frank Sinatra, Pink Floyd, Genesis, The Who, Blood Sweat and Tears, The Band or Dire Straits, to name a few.
Which player do you play these disks (specially sacd’s) on John ?
@@BelgianDrummer SACDs and CDs on Esoteric K07xs and Blu Ray discs on oppo 105 EU.
@@johnz4860 thanks for the info!
Vinyl is trendy nowadays but CD as you rightly state has improved. I bought some budget CD players a couple of years ago for around £200 a piece, they featured 36 & 24 bit DACS as used in top models & I was surprised how good they were infact sounding up with high tech products of yesteryear in the 2 to 1K range.
The Rotel CD11 Tribute is quite good for the $600 US price tag.
Got tired of the “convenience” of iTunes and losing items they no longer sold. Considering I already had a good sized collection of CDs and there are still quality releases of older albums on CD, I took a chance on the Tribute. I’m glad I did. Wondering when they are going to apply KI’s work to the RCD 1572. If they do that then I would take a serious look at picking that one up as well.
I have no qualms of being a part of a niche market as a CD users. I have a a AVR with proper speakers, and physical media will always trump streaming on many levels. I am a heavy tech user. I have Spotify. One thing I noticed with having all the music at a touch of a button on your phone or whatever you play it on, you rifle through songs, skip tracks, use it to often for background noise. Streaming has made music disposable. Almost like fast food. I recently got into vinyl, and started buying more CDs again. I sit down with headphones and MINDFULLY listen to a full album like I use to when I was a kid before the internet was a thing. It is such a great refreshing return to how I listen to music.
The Marantz hdcd1 makes for not only an excellent small footprint cd player, but also an excellent transport. It even includes a very good built in headphone amplifier.
Stay safe Paul. Thnx for your reviews.
I just found out recently how good of a CD player my old XBOX 360 is. I've been testing a bunch of my old, scratched cd's and it plays all of them without skips! I'm 45 and my cd's have taken a beating in the last 30 years.
These are all great! I've be slowly reducing my CD footprint though, in favour of ripping them all to quality files. I still continue to purchase discs however, but more with an eye toward ripping eventually.
- Red
I have a lot to learn about modern hifi being an audiofile from the 1980’s/90’s. I am using a Technics CD player that I have had for about 10 years that I thought sounded good but it looks like technology has come on. I had been concentrating on just buying records, CD’s and tapes with my expendable income and neglected to update my playing equipment but watching your channel has made me realise I could maybe do a bit better. Once I get back on my feet and the world gets back to some sort of normality then I will need to visit some hifi stores and have a good listen once again.
It's hard to beat the bang-for-the-buck and disc-format versatility of a Sony blu-ray player w/ coax output plugged into your favorite $100-ish DAC. Great sound from your cd's AND concert video dvd's/blu-rays (Peter Gabriel's Secret World alone is worth the price of admission.) I can't see spending more on a dedicated cdp unless one is cd-centric in their listening habits.
I'm with you, although my Sony Bluray player is connected to my Onkyo receiver via HDMI, but with SACD's, it sounds fantastic. So called Audiphiles may scoff at such a set up, but I am happy enough with it, it is versatile, and gives good enough sound quality, and at the end of the day, digital is just bits and bytes, or 1's and 0's. And if truth be told, there aren't that many transport manufacturers out there, so you may find some "high end" players have the same internals as lesser models, with a slight tweak to the output boards, or preamp to give a slight aural difference. For me, your choice of amplifier and speakers is what makes the biggest difference, and the mastering/pressing of the CD. The fact that many CD's are reissued as "ReMastered" versions, is as much a factor in the final audible results, as spending thousands on a new player, or DAC. It all seems a bit like snake oil to me. Audiophiles will disagree, but hey, it's their money they're spending, and us cheapskates benefit, when innovation trickles down to the mass market. So keep it up, SUCKERS!
Paul, you are a wealth of information, thank you. I would have to say you are the Hans Beekhuyzen of the British audio community (that is meant as a compliment).
I feel rather lucky to have made the choices to this point. Time to sit back and enjoy the music. My first gear was Heathkit tuner and amplifier. My Prima Luna amplifier is using Gold Lion KT77 power tubes. The EL34 based tube is musical joy.
Thank you :) And I'm glad you're enjoying your music.
I have a Prima Luna Evo 400, Rega Planar 8 with Apheta 3 Cart, Marantz SA8005 SACD into Dynaudio Contour 60s. Not where I'll end, but I love it for now.
Great video @The Audiophile Man!
I had the McIntosh MCD500SE SACD/CD/Dac for 5yrs. Wonderful player that I used by connecting it straight into my MC402 power amp. I recently replaced it with the McIntosh MVP881BR Universal Player which plays multiple audio formats and I got a dedicated preamp in the Mac C52. My System sounds phenomenal! The original Gallo Acoustics Reference Nucleus Speakers, Time Portal cables and Furman IT Reference 20i finish the rest of my System. 😃🎼👍🏾
Can you hear the difference with SCAD Vs CD
Excellent presentation ... as always. Thank You Paul. Best wishes.
Vinyl records are usually recorded digitally first then streaming companies usually buy up said recoding so they can be streamed and charged for this, however I prefer to either have a cd or rip it to a server of high quality thus giving me the ability to play what I want without further charged!
I love that Mott the Hoople album, and the one that came before it.
A central benefit of the CD/CD player, is the mere fact that not all artists are not available digitally. Prince while alive kept his catalog out of it. Other estates avoid digital or restrict catalog for streaming. "It is better to have physical music than just access to the content in the long run". Artists or estates can pull catalog from streaming. Digital platforms can be compromised, subject to crash or be sold to companies who place new terms on users. For those reasons in addition to sound quality, cd will always be a winner.
Oh, forgot to mention my favorite Wave Bose, a very practical (with Bluetooth ), stylishly designed, producing a beautifully sonorous base that fits my small condo room.
I just undusted my cd collection that I haven’t used for the last 23 years. The reason is that I’m currently upgrading my hifi with new speakers, and also looking into high res streaming devices, paired with a decent external DAC. That DAC got me curious how my old cd’s would sound if I’d hook up a cd player to it. So I bought a cd device with digital out for 5 euros from the local 2nd hand shop. And I’m blown away by the clarity, resolution, dynamic range and sheer power.
Having said that, I still wager that if you buy music now, the best quality would still be if you buy a WAV or AIFF and play it from a ‘bitperfect prepped’ computer, to an external DAC. Though in that case, a cd player is the more convenient playback method. 😅
Question: should I rip al my CD’s as FLAC onto my media server and play it from the streamer (Wiim Pro/Geshelli J2)?
Superb video!!
For a reliable, great sounding, budget CD player with a small footprint, the Yamaha CD-S300 can't be beat. Mine is over 4 years old, never a single problem, it reads every CD I play on it. CD-Rs - no problem.
However, I think for 2020, a good SACD/CD player is in order. I wish they made more of them. Denon's DCD1600NE is reasonably priced, built like a tank and sounds great.
I’m a CD veteran also, my old standby single CD Sony has started tracking erroneously and I’m now in the market for a dedicated CD transport to mate with high-end powered 2.1 system that has its own DA. Good stuff here.
I still buy CDs. They sound great! If you are buying music on a streaming platfrom, you're not sure if it will not close in a few years. Nothing will ever beat a physical copy!
Just picked up a Rega Apollo R used for a crazy good deal. It has reopened a forgotten world of music for me. Music I have invested so much money into years back then put in storage as I switched to vinyl.
I love vinyl and will continue to spend money on it. But a proper CD player is a game changer! It's really hard not to be impressed woth how clean it sounds. Especially when you want to listen to your music LOUD!
I was listening to my CDs on my Luxman D-03X paired with it's brother the 509x and I was hearing many more things that I didn't hear before when I used my Sony XA5400ES. I actually listened to 4 cds in a row with no track skipping, which never happens.
The D-03X DAC while streaming and using it's internal DAC is very composed. Vocals and strings are crisper with more sustain, it's dynamic and smooth like its CD player! No fatigue at all! I've been listening for 6 hrs straight and have ordered more discs for as little as $5. 👍
I had a Rega Apollo twice. Worst unit I ever owned. Wouldn't read Red Book CDs. Kept getting the runaround and excuses from my dealer and the manufacturer.
I've been an audiophile for over 40 years and it was one of the worst customer service experiences I've ever had. Never again.
Informative, and enjoyable vid ! Cd's forever!!
Still rocking my Marantz CD-63 Mk II Signature.
I have a second-hand Sony CDP-XE510 from 1997 which I got for about 13 GBP. All it needed was a new tray belt and output RCA connections resoldered.
Now I mostly use it as a transport with Yamaha RX-V685 receiver, hooked up via optical. I must say that I prefer its own analog output though, it sounds a bit more smooth than the pack of Burr-Browns in the receiver.
A lot of this comes down to the mastering of the album. There are some cassettes back in the day that sounded better than some vinyl releases today! All because of the mastering process.
Great video Paul. I prefer CD`s over any other media. I use a Denon player and it`s wonderful.
Yamaha Cd-2100 Just purchased and I like it because it sounds incredible. Paired with a Yamaha integrated amp and JBL speakers. Also using a TEAC reel to reel from 1980's and a Bang and Olufsen turntable from the late 1970's. I appreciate your very well presented channel.
Lyngdorf CD-2 💿
I believe it has their ICC (anti - clipping ) proprietary circuit to deal with the infamous CD “loudness wars”
A couple of CD transports not included in your list were the Cirrus CD-T and the Audio Note CDT Zero. I tried to get a used Audio Note, but the CDT Zero model was no longer available. I was able to get a low hours demo Cirrus CD-T unit. I'm using a Meridian Director DAC which seems to be quite a good pairing. Thanks for explaining the rationale to get CD player / transport from a specialist manufacturer. So far I'm very pleased with the result.
Still using my Marantz CD 12 Transport and CD 12a Dac, that’s about 30 years old now. Still sounds fantastic.
I have a very old CD player, the Sony CDP-111 from 1984. Of course it's not new but it sounds so phenomenal. I bought a new Yamaha CD-S1000 and that too is so nice to listen to. That one is around 1300 bucks. I prefer CD over anything else. Using a new modern DAC with a CD player is also great. Great time to be alive and into music.
I went to Best Buy for a CD player last year, not knowing that they wouldn't have any. I ended up getting a cheap DVD player to use with an outboard DAC (SchIIt Audio) to play CDS. Sounds super to my ears.
The DAC makes the biggest difference when it comes to sound quality. As long as the player is built decent.
Hi , Just grabed a Pioneer PD-S703 with stable platter mechanism. (circa 1998 era) Can't believe how good this thing sounds. Love it.
The first cd player to really blow me away was the Marantz cd63 mk2 KI Sig. I still have it and enjoy it, although it's now in my second system. :-)
Paul, at 69yo, I enjoy music. My Music - Woodstock, Baby Boomer music..... I have LPs, CDs, Cassettes, and now subscriptions to Music Streamers. I do agree with your assessment of Steaming music and CDs. Even though my LPs are old (more than 30-50 years old [Meet the Beatles, for example], due to COVID circumstances, I have dusted off my old LPs and played them again. They have their place in the enjoyment scale... except for the cricks and pops from playing old LPs on poor older record players.