What is the warmest, most bass-heavy cd player you have ever heard?

I don't want my CD player to be warm and bass heavy and I don't want my record deck to sound that way either. Both should make some stab at accuracy making the fabled warm vinyl sound a myth or the result of poor playback equipment. Warm bass heavy CD sound is not doing the job of reproducing music in the same way as a warm vinyl sound is failing.

 

Cal audio Icon MkII, not overly warm but nice and smooth.

 

I purchased the Onkyo C 7030 CD player and the sound is great for being a budget player. I feel like it has a warm sound to it and I highly recommend it, especially for the price of less $200 USD.

 

Of what I've heard and one of which I still use to this day- I'd say Rega Jupiter 2000, original Rega Planet, and California audio labs icon are more close to analog than newer players that I've heard or owned. The Rotel 1072 was in my rig for awhile as well, and after awhile I did'nt like the way it played music. I think the others are more musical players and closer to convincing "analog like" sound. I can always play a record for convincing analog sound too. Grado cartridge makes a beautiful analog sound.

 

I didn't say it was... I was just addressing your concern that CDs are sounding too thin vs. vinyl, and was offering you an affordable option that I felt would solve the problem. Clearly it's not what you're looking for so...

 

The original Rega Planet.

My heart broke awhile back when mine gave up the ghost, finally (transport failed; and they don't make those anymore.) That was a player that got CD playback right: as relaxing and organic a sound as any turntable I've heard.

If you've the cash, the Line Magnetic 515 tube deck does a pretty good job (and is perhaps more 'resolving' than the Planet.)

I get by with a Naim CD5/Flatcap XS combo.

 

I had one of these!

 

Another vote for Rega cd players ! But more warm than bass-heavy. Rega and JBL speakers from the 70's are great combination if you want warm/bass/analog sound IMO.

 

E Sound Signature if you can find a good 2nd hand one- new getting expensive now. Mine has worked flawlessly since 2008 and I find it holds its own against my Rega Saturn.
http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/esound_e5se_e.html

 

These are warm tonally, but not smooth. The sound is mechanical and comes off as simulated rather than a pure stream.

 

Actually, I misspoke. I remember now that there was a very old Rotel player that was warmish. Sorry about that.

 

Do they have any trouble with skipping and/or repeating the same passage?

 

I wonder what David Shaw would have to say about that...

 

May I respectfully suggest that your vinyl playback system might be off, if conventional Redbook CD players sound thin next to it? Because getting flat, uncolored response from a CD player is essentially a piece of cake - if I ever heard one I thought sounded noticeably "warm" or thick in the lower registers, I'd think of it as defective. Correct (which is to say flat) vinyl playback is trickier though far from impossible. You may like the "warmth" better and you're entitled - but that's what tone controls are for, when uncolored material is being accurately reproduced and the listener still finds something wanting. If it's built into the playback of either LPs or CDs it's a distortion you can't take it away, only try to compensate for in those cases where due to well recorded material it's not needed.

 

Probably something with a valve in the output stage - by Tube Technology or the Ah Toeb Dutch tweaked
Marantz 63s - in fact a 63 Ki Sig is the warmest, and still good CD player I have heard that hasn't got valves.

 

Yeah, if you are not concerned with detail, and 80s Rotel deck with the right ICs will get you a fat warm sound. I had a dual 16-bit that was very listenable, musical, as they said at the time. Some Lindsey Guyer ICs really finished if off.

 

I heard this back around 1988 or so and it was the warmest i have ever heard.

Stax Quattro II

 

It is quite possible for a CD player or DAC that measures flat to sound bright and wimpy, or to lack heft in the bass even though the bass measures flat. A frequency response graph doesn't tell the right story. An EQ isn't going to fix the treble or bass in those situations because the problem isn't due to the CD player or DAC having too much treble or not enough bass. The problems are elsewhere.

 

I have a Rega Apollo and while I wouldn't call it "bass heavy", I would say it's warm as far as CD players go and sounds more "analog" than any other CDP I've owned. I haven't been able to comfortably listen to any other CDP since I got the Apollo (though I don't doubt others exist that I would like ).

 

What about an accurate CD player run through a tube buffer?

 

I've already heard his opinion. I don't agree.

 

I still have a Rotel RCD-950 that I bought ages ago. It definitely had a vinyl like quality to my ears, and still works great to this day. Very smooth sounding unit with nice tight bass.

 

Point taken. What I meant to say is that it shouldn't sound "warm" or "cold" as most DACs these days are transparent and neutral. If the OP has a preference for a warmer sound (I'm presuming this means a mid-bass emphasis and rolling-off the top end) then it is better to do that through a good pre-amp EQ or add a good sub. Most of the time the culprit for a lack of bass or other forms of non-linearity is either the way the source material has been mastered or an issue with the speakers and room acoustics. The first best approach is always to deal with the issue at the source rather than compensating for it through other equipment in the playback chain. As for the prediction part, no probably not, but I can predict if it will sound neutral and most of them do.

 

Sony 338ESD with BB ladder-dac is a lot warmer than my Cambridge 840C

 

Don't bother. He isn't.