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

It does not get any more WTF then this.

 

Interesting.

From my experience, if any of what you said is true in your above posts, then there would be no reason whatsoever for anyone to pay more than a couple hundred US$ for any CD player, since, as you say, there isn't much difference between any CD player, even if they spec identical.

In my experience, CD players sound vastly different, even those that share specs.

I wonder why that might be, given the rest of chain remained identical?

 

I've always tried to work toward a neutral system, then when it's nearly complete fine tune with cabling and speaker position. As we've all found out moving the speakers even a few inches closer to room boundaries can increase bass output, if thats what your looking for.

 

Build a pair of this and use them between your Cd player and Phono pre. You may like the sound
http://sound.westhost.com/project80.htm

 

I completely agree with you about CD players sounding different.

Back about 15 years ago I was running a Yamaha 5 CD Changer, ADCOM GTP-400 preamp, and a Yamaha amplifier (MX-630U). The amplifier wasn't anything special, and certainly one the their highly regarded models from the 70's/80's. I went into a local hi-fi shop, and told the owner I wanted to upgrade my sound. He immediately said the amp was the weak piece in the chain and allowed me to take home and trial a behemoth NAD power amp. The thing was like 60lbs of rack mount fun with cooling fins on the side. I replaced the little MX-630U and started listening. The amplifier swap made jack squat difference. My volume wasn't dialed up as high, but the overall tone made no perceptive change to myself nor my wife.

I brought the NAD back, and decided to give a Rotel RCD-950 a try. Immediately the music sounded smoother, more analog, tighter bass, and less fatiguing. That was the last stand alone CD-Player I ever bought. I'm not sure if it was a product of the electronics used in the output stage, or the Wolfson DACS that made the difference over the Yamaha. Since that day I've been a speaker and source guy.

 

I took an Optimus 3400, attached it to a 50 amp hour stack of gel-cells filtered by 5 farad of capacitors and used the little portable CD player's spdif out into a t.c. electronics M-2000 as a DAC. More bass weight and clarity of pitch than any other CD player of the time [1995]. Battery power for digital transports seems the way to go for me.

 

I don't understand the obsession with a neutral system. Then you're locked into the mastering engineer's vision of what music should sound like, and let's face it...this is usually not a good thing. I would say that in terms of records/cds that actually sound good, it's about 30/70 in favor of those that leave something to be desired, and probably more like 20/80 or worse in reality. What's wrong with flavoring the sound of your stereo? You see nothing but people complaining about this or that sounding bright or muffled or too thin or with too much boomy bass. Then these same people claim to want a "neutral" system. I don't think that most really understand what that is. I don't want a neutral system. I want one that sounds good to me. This would be like arguing that I should eat all my food "neutral" without any salt or pepper or oregano or lemon and that it should be cooked minimally. I understand this philosophy, but how utterly boring. No thank you.

Let's not confuse a "neutral" system with a good system or a "colored" system with a bad system or vice versa. There is nothing wrong with resolution, finesse, and sophistication. Remember, though, that those qualities come in all shades, shapes, and sizes.

 

i have a circa 1995 technics that is warm and bassy. more recently a sony 5400 es is slightly warm and very smooth. my marantz sa8005 is very neutral (and awesome).
i have listened to the latest rega players and find them anything but warm and bassy.
the line magnetics can likely sound warm and rich depending on tube selection.

 

Warmest (but not the most bass heavy) for me, has to have been the Quad CD77.

 

It's a free country. Others might be inclined to find that the Icon players do, however, offer the kind of sound the OP is after, and at least Paul Rigby, reviewer at Hi Fi World, suggests this is so.

 

It does have the type of sound. It's just that the music doesn't flow. The tonal balance and voicing are right, but that's about it. At least that's what I perceived. Then there are the reliability issues, but that's another story.

 

I think the point is that you can colour the sound as you want directly through, for example, EQ. It is actually quite difficult setting up a neutral system and you never quite get there in a home system. Apart from compromises with transducers, most people need to compromise room treatment with aesthetics. I believe the aim is to build a stereo and room environment to be a silent witness to the original recording material. By definition that is true hi fidelity. After that EQ compensation can be made for individual recordings, formats and tastes. This is, IMHO, a far better approach than choosing coloured components and then be stuck with that for all your sound material, eg having a "warm" system might sound good on recordings that could do with a bass boost but equally it may result in bloat on bass heavy recordings.

 

The problem is that adding an EQ is another item in the chain and I'm not willing to sacrifice transparency and resolution. I'd rather carefully match my preferred components and keep it as simple as possible. I agree with everything you said, though.

 

The Musical Fidelity nuvista tube SACD played CDs very smooth with lots of bass.Loved it but they had bad mechanisms from Phillips which were not repairable.
I replaced it with a vintage Meridian 508 CD only player.Sounds as good as the tube MF .Smooth rich detailed highs and mids.Rich bass.
Ive never heard a midfi Japanese CD that was any where near as rich and smooth.

 

Fair enough. There is an argument though that transparency and resolution is always compromised if the whole system (ie including room acoustics) is not neutral. That is because any octave emphasis will mask sound over or above that frequency and vice versa. But I agree that a neutral sound may not please everyone. Btw, the EQ I'm referring to is not the old slide control stuff that was part and parcel of some older equipment, but rather digital noise shaping devices at the pre-amp stage. Unlike the older stuff, these are more precise and do not introduce circuit distortions into the sound.

 

I'd have to say a couple Rega players (Saturn, Apollo 35th Anniversary edition) qualify, but they always sounded a bit artificial to me.

The Triode TRV-CD4SE is easily the nicest looking CD player I ever tried and it certainly qualifies. Unlike the Rega players, I thought it sounded very natural and I'd be happy to own one. That said, I replaced it with a Denon 100th Ann., which is more honest sounding and offers the benefit of SACD playback.

 

http://www.upscaleaudio.com/ah-njoe-tjoeb-4000-with-supertubeclock/

 

This was my Dad's first CD player, and therefore the first one I ever listened on. I don't think I've ever heard one I've enjoyed as much. I always put that to nostalgia, but maybe it's something more...

 

That's the one I was talking about.

 

The only Rega cd player I've ever owned was the Planet 2000 and I would have to say that I agree with you. I'm still curious to hear the original, though.

 

I just returned from a friends, I'm not sure if it was the CD player or other things within his system but it was nice and warm with great bass. I like the sound of the Oracle almost as much as the looks, anyone got a picture handy ?

 

Jolida JD100, very happy with mine.

 

By vintage, which unit do you mean? I've got the 1072, which sounds pretty good to me. But I don't do a lot of swapping out to audition different options. Thanks.

 

I think the 855 is a classic. The models with the TDA1541A chip are preferred.

 

Thank you.

I had the Kyocera DA-810 which employed the Philips TDA1540 chip (I believe). I really liked that machine, but alas I sold it recently. I use a Rotel 1072 when I want to listen to CDs.