Tell me about your cd player.

Pioneer Elite Series - I remember looking at those when I bought my first Arcam back in the day.

D.D.

 

Yeah!!!... My mate had this one.

The "Stable Platter" Mechanism........pretty cool.




Don't think anyone does it now.

Cheers

 

Marantz CD6004

 

I have a Rega Saturn as my main CD player. It sounds great, with a very natural presentation. My early-ish example, however, has an awful operating system that has a habit of telling me that the disc that I've loaded is empty. To fix it I have to lift the lid, remove the CD, rotate it a bit in my hand and then replace it in the player. That normally fixes the problem.

It also sometimes ignores simple commands such as "Stop", whether issued from the remote or the button on the facia. On occasions I've had to turn off the power at the wall to re-initialise the operating system. Frustrating given how wonderful the sound is.

Having said that, my 20 year-old Rotel RCD-965BX LE Discrete, which is also part of my main system, does a better job with some vintage mono pop recordings from the 50s and 60s. Don't know why this is so, but there's more emotion in these old pop recordings when played on the cheaper machine.

 

Marantz CD-6004.

 

I think my first CD player was a boombox back in the 80's.
Following that, I, too, owned a Sony Discman. I loved its portability.
Also during the 80's I owned a Magnavox (Philips) CDB-483. IIRC, it was well-regarded at the time. I liked its programmable memory function. Too bad it had to be sent back twice for repairs, including once where its whole guts were replaced. Wish I still had it.
Since then, I've owned several nonmemorable players.
I use a Kenwood 10 disc changer in my car, but only take it along if I know I'll be driving long enough to hear at least one full CD.
Today I own an Oppo BDP-83 universal disc player. I really like its video and audio playback (despite the quirkiness it, too, suffers from).

 

I freaking love CD. I have more than 10k of them, I think it's the greatest format EVAH

My first CD player was a Sony Car Discman. That thing still works great, amazing. Going on 30 years old?
Then I had whatever the entry level home deck by Sony was in 1986(?) or so. No idea what happened to that.
Then I had an NAD, after that a better NAD. Sold the first one, second one the display backlight is out. Loved 'em both.
Then I had a really expensive McIntosh, which sadly was not that good.
Now I have an Oppo 105. Which I think is the biggest bang for the buck in audio I have ever had.

 

My first two or three CD players all barely lasted a year. I finally settled on a single disc Technics that sounded good and seemed pretty solid. Kinda wish I still had it. But when laserdiscs came along, I got a Pioneer LD/CD changer combo player, which is still ticking and remains my best sounding CD player. The only downside is that if I use the five-disc changer function, it scratches my CDs, so I have to use the single disc center tray.

 

You guys have made me realize that I've had remarkably few CD players.

In early 1985, I got this little Technics; I think my whole family chipped in to get it for my 16th birthday:

It probably sucked, but it was my favorite thing ever at the time.

Then sometime in the early 1990s I got a Sony single-disc player - can't remember the model, but it was mid-line, like upper non-ES range, black, with 20-track programmability: Basically your typical Sony early 1990s player.

In the mid-'90s I upgraded to a CDP CA70ES carousel changer I got as an open-box/demo unit at my local Tweeter (remember those shops?):

Still have that one in my secondary system, hooked up to a Marantz 2230 and a pair of those nice little Pioneer BS22 speakers.

And finally, my current player, which is my new favorite thing ever:

 

We purchased our first CDP in 1985 from Pacific Stereo in Torrance, CA. It was a Sony, low end and died two weeks later. We took it back to the store and it had just gone out of business. We contacted Sony and were provided an address to a local Authorized Repair Shop. We didn’t get it back for 6 month. While waiting on the Sony, we got a bunch of magazines and researched different CDP’s. At that time the Denon 1500 was the darling of the reviewers so we purchased one. After a few month listening and buying compact disc the 1500 wouldn’t play one disc. It was Synergy “Cords”. By this time the Sony had been returned and the CD played fine the it. We called Denon, they didn’t believe us and asked bring the CD and player to their repair facility. The CD in question would not play in any 1500 CDP but played in an older unit. They kept the CD and player, said they were sending them to Japan gave us a refurbished 1500 and few Denon CD’s. I currently have a Esoteric DV-50 CDP.

 

That's a great story!

 

The Good Guy,

Yes, it may seem lazy, but, it is not so easy to find certain CDs to simply pop them into my player. I have over 4300 CDs, which exceeds my memory capacity (but not my device's), so quite often I can only remember certain information about the one I am looking for, most often what the cover looks like. It is MUCH easier to scroll through the collection on a music server to find by cover art or any other information I can input, such as musical genre, to find what I want. It is also easier to sample stuff I have bought but have not listened to very much. I did not realize how much more accessible my collection has become until I loaded it on a server.

 

I love my Yamaha player. I got it for like $35 and I use it everyday. It sounds better than my Sony recorder deck. I have considered upgrading but I can't justify it.

 

I haven't got one. I have a 3 box digital source, though.

The Bad Guy

 

It isn't possible to appreciate how different the listening experience is when a collection is accessed via media server. It's just one of those things that one must do for themselves in order to "get it". I'm one of the few who ditched disc spinning entirely for several years only to return to it, which I did for reasons which won't impact most here.

 

I thought this thread was about cd players and not music files that are deteriorating as we speak.

 

Tulllman,

This thread is about players, but the issue of servers arose over my statement that I have gone to a server even though my cd player (Naim CD555) sounds better than my server.

How do music files deteriorate? Are you talking about the files themselves somehow being corrupted or are you talking about failures of hard drives? I have not heard of anyone claiming that the files themselves "deteriorating" or otherwise changing with time (ones degrade to zero?). That would be an interesting subject.

Thanks.

 

Does the CD-555 have digital inputs? If not, then what DAC is attached to your server?

 

Let's here more talk about YOUR cd player. Honestly spare me any vinyl/download talk . Thanks!

 

I actually bought a new CD/SACD player today.......a second hand Esoteric X-03SE. I will be keeping the Oppo 105 I already have.

And the rationale for buying an older player when I do play hi-res downloads and Blu Rays is the fact 95%+ of my listening is on disc-I have also been buying an awful lot of SACD's over the last year.

So I've went backwards to go forwards in my system-the sound is superb if I say so myself. Esoteric A-100 amp and Proac D40R's make up the rest of my system.

I've lived with it a week on dem and the price was right so I pulled the trigger......the big down which I considered and considered and fretted about was the fact there is no digital in but as I said above the majority of my listening is disc playback so I don't think I could have spent my money better. Superb build and sound.

 

Line Magnetic LM-515 - the best I have ever heard CDs sound
Oppo 105D for SACD DVD-A
Rega Planet for second system

 

Did you find the redbook and SACD playback on the Esoteric to easily beat the Oppo? I'd think so. The Esoteric is from 2008, right? But it's a pretty serious hi-end player. Enjoy!

 

This is my main player of late, the original first Arcam Alpha with the highly rated Philips TDA1541a DAC chip, a superb sounding player!

 

Man that is just plain cool. Actually I think it's dipping into awesome territory. Thanks for the pic.

 

Yes JH it pretty much left the Oppo standing. I wasn't quite sure what to expect as my system was as good as I had heard but obviously there is always room for improvement as the Oppo in theory was my weak link . The improvement in detail is remarkable as is the resolution and overall it just paints a more musical picture especially I found with some recordings that perhaps didn't really seem that great. I think my player is only 5 years old but in digital terms that's a long time. I'm still working through discs but it is a very enjoyable experience. To be honest I am not noticing a difference between SACD and CD improvement just an overall effect of stepping up several levels.

I still though think the Oppo is an amazing machine for the money and everything is relative... trying to quantify the original cost of the Esoteric versus the Oppo is nigh on impossible and my good lady said to me the Oppo better not be going-it's a great family hub....the Oppo was a player I initially found a little awkward but would now only sing it's praises I'd recommend it to anyone if they were in that budget area and interested in investigating multiple digital formats.

I think digital at the moment is very very tricky and really dependent on where your focus lies-having heard the X-03SE I dreamed of the K1 with it's digital but the cost of even a second hand one is massive and even then I'd be running the Oppo into it for Blu Ray and probably downloads. So as much as I ha doubts and realised this was a compromise purchase I did not like the thought of handing back a machine that was giving me so much enjoyment.