CD player recommendation?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Detroiter in the South, May 23, 2020.

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  1. Detroiter in the South

    Detroiter in the South Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Savannah, GA
    I need some good recommendations on a quality CD player to aux into my late ‘70s Technics receiver. I don’t need anything that does more than basic cds (or have the budget for it). Just something that will play cds as well as possible.

    Thank you!
     
  2. George P

    George P Notable Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Yamaha CD-S 300

    Cheap, super reliable and sounds great!
     
  3. Cherrycherry

    Cherrycherry Forum Resident

    Location:
    Le Froidtown
    How cheap?? Under $100 or $50?
     
  4. Detroiter in the South

    Detroiter in the South Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Savannah, GA
    Under $100 would be good, if you think that will get me something good.
     
    cdgenarian likes this.
  5. Mikeybc

    Mikeybc Listener

    Location:
    Northern Ontario.
    Should be able to find an older Sony. Technics, Philips etc for 100 easily.
     
    cdgenarian likes this.
  6. Detroiter in the South

    Detroiter in the South Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Savannah, GA
    Are most CD players pretty equal in sound quality, or can there be big differences?
     
  7. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital

    All the players in your price range are probably punk and mediocre, however in the higher price range you absolutely will find much better CD players. If you already have a nice DAC, the $100 player or transport with a coaxial output would
    be a possible choice.:righton:
     
  8. Detroiter in the South

    Detroiter in the South Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Savannah, GA
    Ah! You just completely opened my eyes. Is that whole process of digital conversion another reason that records are usually perceived as sounding better?

    I guess I need recommendations on a good DAC, or do most higher end CD players have the built in?
     
  9. Richard Austen

    Richard Austen Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hong Kong
    Buying used CD players is always somewhat risky since they're getting quite old but if you go to a local pawn shop or places like it you can buy inexpensive players that were fairly expensive in their day.

    If you think outside the box a little but you might consider buying a LaserDisc Player - these machines usually had quite good CD player sections and because of their size and weight they were often better at reducing noise. But be sure it works well - play a cd open and close the drawer half a dozen times - make sure it reads the discs. This goes for any CD player you buy used.

    Avoid changers - they rarely hold up. A dealer here where I live refuses to sell Onkyo - likes the single disc player but said almost every Onkyo changer he sold came back failing.

    You can pick up Laserdisc players that were $1500 new for $100. Interestingly some of them are going up in value in Asia as people caught on to their superior transports.

    If you really want something new - you're going to have to go higher - The Yamaha mentioned is $300 so you might want to look at something like the TEAC 650 at $180. Remember that $20 in 1990 is now $40 in 2020.

    Teac CD Player with USB and iPod Digital Interface
     
  10. Richard Austen

    Richard Austen Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hong Kong
    All CD players have a built in DAC - otherwise they are called CD Transports.
     
    JamesKL, nosliw, bever70 and 2 others like this.
  11. head_unit

    head_unit Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA USA
    Well that is another generalization (like "all Class D amps sound bad") which has some historical roots which can turn into legend and taint an entire category. On the one hand, famed classical recording engineer John Eargle once told me he felt that PCM could capture the sound quite accurately. On the other hand, like any other new technology, there were missteps in the early days of digital. The biggest sin was dumping master recordings from tape onto CDs-OOPS, those tapes had been mastered and equalized for VINYL and sometimes* thus sounded like absolute dogsh!t. The A/D and recording console and D/A technologies were, like any other new technology, not fully developed.

    Many years on, CD digital can make very very lovely recording. OR, stuff that sounds like crap, same as tape of vinyl or whatever. Some people (myself included) prefer well-done digital due to absence of snap/crackle/pop and wow/flutter, plus the low noise floor. Many prefer it for convenience. Some still prefer vinyl, which could be due to "they're used to euphonious distortion" or due to hitherto unclear differences.

    Back to the CD player, as @Richard Austen says, anything old may just die on you. Newer "good ones" I suspect are still expensive out of your budget. I don't see anything interesting on Craigslist by you. New ones seem above your budget and don't look interesting either.

    I actually think you'd be best off getting a new cheap DVD player and inexpensive DAC. The trick is less expensive disc players moved towards HDMI-only output but few DACs have HDMI input, I suppose due to licensing costs. So you need a player that still has coax or optical output. Maybe this, from $23 open box, has a coax out
    https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sony-dvd-player-black/4790684.p?skuId=4790684
    AND still has analog outputs, whose quality is probably decent if not amazing. Inexpensive DACs, start another thread for that, I'm not expert at all. Or you can go nuts looking at this Digital Audio Converters (DACs)


    *(Kansas Point Of Know Return and The Who's Tommy, I'm looking at YOU!!).
     
  12. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    My only issue with using an outboard digital to analog converter with a cheap digital out dvd player is if the the OP has quite a few old pre-emphasis discs.
    *No issues with my old stock US Kansas Point of Know Return, excellent sounding disc :)
    Another rec for George's Yamaha 300.
    [​IMG]
     
  13. jkauff

    jkauff Senior Member

    Location:
    Akron, OH
  14. BSC

    BSC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Glasgow, Scotland
    I don't think you need to overcomplicate it...I would go with the Yamaha recommended on the second post. With all due respect all systems have limitations at your budget Yamaha will give you excellent performance probably well beyond the competition....
     
  15. Detroiter in the South

    Detroiter in the South Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Savannah, GA
    Thank you all for your advice! I can go a little higher for a ready to run unit if it simplifies things. Maybe I’ll just sell my original What’s Going On lp. NO- just kidding.....
     
  16. ukrules

    ukrules Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kentucky
    For new, the $200-$300 range is what's worth buying. I like the Yamaha CD-S300 since it has a front USB port with iOS device integration. This allows one to play lossless files from their iPhone/iPod/iPad. Accessories4less.com often has these refurbished but appear to be out-of-stock at the moment.
     
  17. JeffMo

    JeffMo Format Agnostic

    Location:
    New England
    @GMfan87' did you see this thread and post?
     
    GMfan87' likes this.
  18. Brother_Rael

    Brother_Rael Senior Member

    Keep a good eye out for a Sony CDP-911E. I bought one for around £60 recently and am delighted with it. Tons around, nice sound to it, decent build and plenty of spare parts kicking around, including lasers. It's not ES range, so you'll not pay through the nose either. Recommended.
     
  19. head_unit

    head_unit Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA USA
    Way back in the day, when Thomas Edison invented the CD player, I bought a TEAC for my best friend's wedding. It was not something she had though about at all so they liked it a lot. And it STILL works fine, their kid just graduated college so it's lasted a long long time.
     
    fretter likes this.
  20. head_unit

    head_unit Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA USA
    What I have now is DIDP-107199, pretty sure a remaster, D142532 "Mfg. for BMG Direct" CD club. I think this had some good points but maybe rather brickwalled? I don't have my original to compare to yours. What exact item is your disc? I'll have to listen to Apple Music, see how that is.

    Back to the OP, I'd kinda concur with @Brother_Rael Sony kept pretty good standards for 1-bit DAC (as opposed to Technics 1-bit which I never cared for...either probably having much more to do with power supply and analog circuit implementation than the actual chip). If you get the DVD player + external DAC, you can play the Dolby of DVD-Audio discs, and music DVDs with a stereo PCM layer. That's not a lot of discs, but there are some interesting titles. OR you can move up to a Blu-ray player and get Blu-ray audio titles, if that's of interest.
     
    c-eling and Brother_Rael like this.
  21. spartree

    spartree Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
  22. Brother_Rael

    Brother_Rael Senior Member

    Teac? Probably got another 20 years in it!
     
  23. spartree

    spartree Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
  24. JRead

    JRead Active Member

    Location:
    England
    Hello Dits,

    I bought a Philips CD723 from a lady in Edinburgh and spent the same amount of dosh on modifying it, it sounded really good.
    I started making my own Cd's and as soon as I put one in it would say very rudely; "This disc has not been finalised" which of course it had!
    Anyway I typed the phrase into Google and amongst the answers was a guy who'd had the same problem and bought a cheap CD/DVD player.
    I bunged one of my discs into our DVD Recorder and it played it straightaway.
    I went to Argos and bought a Lucky Goldstar CD/DVD Player for £32.00.
    I laughed my socks off when I heard it, it made my CD723 sound like Monty Python's dead Parrot.
    And of course it'll play anything without being rude

    Cheers - J
     
    Swann36 likes this.
  25. Detroiter in the South

    Detroiter in the South Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Savannah, GA
    Wow, if looks matter, that would look great with my vintage Technics....
     
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