Which CD Player has the best sound quality?

I have NEVER heard cds sound as good as they do with my new player. I am amazed how brilliant it is. I have compared it to many others and i have never been happier listening to well mastered cds. I enjoy them as much as my vinyl collection

 

Playback Designs

 

Soulution 746. ($90K retail).Bested the DCS Vivaldi Stack at $200k with Nordorst cable loom

 

What would you consider to be the Top 10 Factors or things to look for when purchasing a CD player under $3K?

 

If I was buying a player at that price point...not necessarily in this order:

1. Service: Some level of confidence that it can be serviced, especially the transport mechanism
2. DAC: Ability to tap into its DAC
3. Audition: Opportunity to try in my home for a reasonable timeframe (30 days ideally)
4. Display: Total disc time, track elapsed/remaining, turn it off, large enough to see across the room
5. USB: A port that plays lossless files
6. Warranty: Robust (beyond one year)
7. Build: Solid, heavy
8. Design: Minimal buttons, writing, etc...can we do away with the old-school Compact Disc logo now?
9. Price: Discounted, dealer demo, refurbished, etc.
10. Operation: Fast loading, quiet enough to sit close to

 

You didn't mention the digital or analog section design!? Sound quality trumps all else. Well, service and reliability are critical as well.

My Sacd player has an FPGA Dac, a great transport (Esoteric), very robust power supply design, Class A analog output, etc. Andreas Koch earned his reputation!

 

I'd love to try Naim anything.Maybe sometime. My Counterpoint amp just keeps going and going. A one owner who barely used it. Solid one e.The seller had it while he was in process of getting 2 Counterpoint mono amps.

 

why? what made this so special?

 

Jees, I used to think all CD Players were the same. Dah!
I recently bought a Rega Apollo CDP... in the words of Neil Diamond > "I'm A Believer" I'm now upgrading my CD collection to try and get the best sounding versions of my favourites
to play in my Rega Apollo..

 

Welcome to hell... I'm messing it's tons of fun over here.

 

Best sound quality, but looks purty...design?

 

If I were buying a single box SACD/CD player with inclusion of a good DAC, without spending crazy amounts of money, two players come to mind, and I'm not sure which one I would go with, as they are both just exceptional, don't you agree? My gut tells me the Marantz "might" be a bit better player, but I sure cannot prove it, and the Yamaha is absolutely stunning! In my opinion visually superior to everything on the market.

Marantz SA-10



Yamaha CD-S3000

 

Certainly not the best, but my old pioneer elite PD-65 was my favorite. I wish I would’ve never sold it.

 

Thanks on those two. I have a Yamaha now. I really like it a lot. I'd never owned a 'quality' player and to my ears noticed a difference right away. Played the then new, Cassandra Wilson, the Billy Holiday muse one, and then D Angelos new one. Both sound excellent. No complaints but, i can't figure out how to have random play on it. Weirdly not straightforward. My old Sony had a much better layout for the controls but, no where near the sound.

 

Can I say it's a three-way tie between Emily Ratajkowski, Kate Beckinsale, and Sofia Vergara?


.

 

Stevie Nicks!

 

Like some 2o year old players for sound / design ..but high maintenance issues I'd imagine.

 

I use a Denon DCD-3000 from the mid 90s (same as the S-10 but in a less elaborate chassis).

Its DAC and analog output stage outperforms the high end DAC in my Yamaha Aventage receiver by a very large margin.

 

How is it possible to answer the OP's question? After all, would not an answer require a reviewer to have experience with all concepts that have been manufactured to play CD's and make a make a digital to audio conversion? In my very limited experience, all eleven CD Players I've owned since about 1989 have sounded the same to me. I now, use my OPPO UDP-205 for CD pleasure and it seems to deliver all there is to deliver.

 

Sonically Ive had a few but not high end ones ( expensive ), true all do the job. Some trays are a bit shakey /noisy. The. There's the aesthetic appeal which for me falls in to high end players which I can't afford or dont want to shell out 2/3 thousand for it.

 

In the early 1980s I was a High End Audio dealer. Was a dealer for Phillips CD player. Kept a Phillips CD80 which was also badged by Marantz. Had it modified by someone in Iowa. It weighs about 35 to 40 pounds. Has coaxial output. Have auditioned many CD players (none over $2,000) trying to find one that sounds better but none yet. As I age (now 76), my hearing is probably not as good as it once was. May try the latest Naim but wish it had a Coaxial output. I use an outboard inexpensive DAC from China ($250.00). Sounds a little better than the one in the Phillips. Not sure this helps the original poster except to make a point that some of the older CD player are worth trying.

 

Naim still use din?

 

Of all the players I own and have owned including Rega's Apollo R I prefer the LM215CD. It didn't cost a fortune either.

 

Sound quality is the same coming from a $30 Walkman or a box costing 10x that. The difference is the feature set which definitely enhances functionality but not the binary information coming into the amp.

 

There is no binary information coming into the amp if you are using the internal DAC of the CD player through the analog outs. CD players sound different because of at least two things: 1. The quality of the transport and 2. The quality of the digital to analog circuit. There are many other reasons, but those two are very basic and obvious.

If you are using the digital output of a CD player, then the major difference in sound quality would be the external DAC used or the internal DAC that some amps feature. The transport comes into play in how stable and accurate it is so that the need for error correction is kept to a minimum.

Heck if all CD players sounded the same, I would hope they all sound as good as the best ones rather than sounding like the crappy ones!

I recently had my Nakamichi CDP-2A extensively upgraded and compared to my stock one, it sounds better. So, no not all CD players sound the same. This bits in bits out argument does not take into consideration the "bits" to analog conversion. The most important part of a CD player that affects sound is the analog section.