best CD player for a vintage set-up?

I reckon a Rotel RCD-965BX would fit the bill.

 

I think my Rotel 855 sounds great.

 

I would go for a new player in the Denon or Marantz range. All prices & the option of black & silver.

 

Marantz 63b toploader built to last

 

Why would you want an early cd player? None of them sounded worth a crap. At least the ones I heard.

 

Hey, Jerry. Does that mean you have a first system cd player that you like more than you do the 855?

 

There was a monster thread about a giant killing onkyo running.....
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...-dac-dedicated-cd-player-onkyo-c-7030.365660/

 

I went with a Tubed CD player for my vintage system. I wouldn't recommend my Sheng-Ya, as it's been trouble prone, but there are other, cooler looking options out there.

 

A great vintage player and not all that expensive would be the Magnavox/Philips CDB-650. I bought mine in 1990 it was a top line model then made in Belgium. Very nice sound with a great sounding DAC and a very high quality transport. I used mine in a vintage system for over 25 yrs. I do like that player.

Listen to TonePub I like his recommend as well. Others in this thread are also very nice. You really do not need a new high end unit for what you're doing. Middle road will do fine if you go that route.
Have some fun with it.

 

No specific suggestions, but many CDPs will tend to overdrive the inputs on many vintage receivers and integrateds so variable output is a big help. If not, a pair of attenuators can be put inline, but the variable out makes it easy.

 

This may be wrong but my view on a vintage set-up is that it should be vintage, meaning sans CDP.

That said, I stream Pandora and the like through my 1969 Zenith stereo console via the tape input so my opinion is probably off the mark here. Then again, I only stream vintage correct music through it. It has a working turntable but you know how it is playing records; such a nuisance...

 

I find the question confusing. Seems you like the look/sound of vintage gear, now you want a recommendation for a CD player but it isn't exactly clear to me if you want a descent vintage / older player to stay vintage or you want a great sounding CD player to maintain the great sound of your vintage gear. I believe you mean the second choice, which in my mind would eliminate "older" / vintage CD players since their sound cannot compete with a newer player manufactured in the past couple of years or 2014. In this case there are a slew of good CD players out there and without a price range and if tubes or solid state is important it would be difficult to make a recommendation that would be close to hitting the target and not just a stab in the dark. Price range? Tubes or solid state? You want the best sounding or something that is truly vintage and therefore the best sounding is unimportant?

 

Meitner Audio CD players (old series) are good candidates due to their Mahogany wood cases.



I own some of their amps and their PA6i+ preamp.

Scott

 

I've had a number of vintage CD players. I particularly like old Philips units, Sonys and Nakamichis. I would caution you that failure rates are high, but sometimes the sound is quite good. I cannot agree that the least 24/192 machines just outperform some of the older ones. It depends, at least to my ears.

Three I like:

Philips CD960 - Philips transports tend to work the longest. Many older Philips/Magnavox CD players keep on going and sound great!
Nakamichi CD2 - Has classic dual Burr-Brown TDA1541A.
Sony - CDP508 Has dual TDA1541A DAC and is co-developed by Sony and Marantz. One of finest Sonys.

Some on eBay or in thrift shops are in terrible, some fair and some great shape. It depends.

Good luck.

 

I went to the thrift store a couple weeks ago, and found a Technics SL P500 CD player for $10. I am stunned at how good this old player sounds. It also appears to be very well built as well. If some of the vintage/80s players sound this good, a high end player must be out of this world.

 

Goto http://www.thevintageknob.org/
Much to see there for vintage CD et al.

 

Go with a CD with a tube section. I think there are several out there including Vincent, Jolida , Luxman, etc

 

Pioneer LD players are great for cd playback and the later models have up to 24-96 DACs. The analog outs are very high quality since that was the primary audio output for the format until digital rolled around and later they had to keep them for older equipment. That said, I found the Yamaha DDP-1 for demodulation of the Dolby ac3 5.1 on later Lasers and discovered a test mode that passes PCM. This big thing has three Burr Brown DACs inside it and makes CDs sound even sweeter.
I use my late model DVL-700 for CDs and it works flawlessly.

 

The Pioneer DV-79AVi sounds great with vintage Fisher, HK, Sansui and Mc equipment. It's built like a tank.
From what I'm reading, Pioneer made/makes decent CD players that won't break the bank.

 

That is a very nice player indeed!

 

'New' CD players is the way to go for me. Newer CD players sound great and don't have problems.

Everything else... vintage.

 

In the last few years I've sampled many vintage single tray CD players through great amplification and great speakers and for the most part it was OBVIOUS that a vintage player was easily the weakest part of the equation. However, I found a few vintage players that sounded VERY good to me and held their own in the sound department.

From my experience I liked the sound of the following:

Magnavox CDB 650 (extremely balanced and neutral)

Magnavox CDB 582 (although this one isn't as popular as the 650, I like it every bit as well, maybe better)

Marantz CD 50 (I was surprised how well this one performed, great soundstage)

Onkyo R1 DX-3700 (a dark horse as there isn't much info on this player, but I really liked it. Very non fatiguing player although seems to hit somewhat of a sound ceiling when pushed to perform compared to some others on my list. Where the Sony X55ES really fills the room with fullness, this one struggles a bit when you increase the volume. At a normal listening level it's excellent)

Sony CDP 505ESD (very natural sound and one of the best interfaces I've seen on a vintage player)

And my personal favorite.....
Sony X55ES (probably the best vintage unit I've heard hands down, EXCELLENT unit)

There were some other units that performed decent as well....
A few Pioneer players, a couple of Denon units, maybe a Teac and a Sansui (I think V1000?) that I'd give an honorable mention to.

Also I haven't sampled every unit ever so I am by no means the authority and final say on this subject. I'm sure there are other models that are every bit as good as those on my list, I just wanted to mention these in particular in case you see them at a flea market or thrift shop that they are safe to buy if you can get them cheap!

 

I guess as the question was asked in 2010 more items have become vintage! Even SACD?