Tell me about your cd player.

I avoided CD for as long as possible but eventually succumbed in 1989 due to lack of LPs being issued, with an Arcam player, followed in 1997 by a Deva player and when that gave up a couple of years ago I bought a wonderful Sonneteer Byron. I can't imagine having more than one player though

 

Linn Majik - sounds fantastic.

 

Naim CDS 3....love it.

 

I had teh same problem w/this player not recognizing hybrid SACDs. Sold it on Craigslist and bought an Oppo and coudln't be happier as its
connected to both the stereo and TV for blu rays.

 

I am pleased people are happy with their cd players. Despite what you read or what they say more people listen to cd than any other format around the whole world.

 

I own a Naim 555 cdp, which runs off of a separate Naim power supply (555PS). I have mothballed the 555 in favor of using Naim's NDS server and ripping engine (NDS runs off the same 555 PS power supply). The 555 cd player sounds better, to me, than their server, but the server is VERY convenient and gives me much easier means of searching and accessing my CD collection (about 4,300 cds). I do miss the warmer and more "dense" sound of the 555 player, but, not enough to give up the convenience.

 

Thorens TCD 2300
Maybe not the best DAC in the world but i like the glow of the tubes....

 

Currently - Meridian 506 (Factory rebuild), Meridian GO6.

Previously - Yamaha CDX2, Marantz CD63, Rotel 865, Marantz CD42, Arcam CD72.

 

I would be interested in the incidence of failure and how many useful years of problem free playing people typically get out of their units. Many of my entry level and some more expensive units had lazier failures of some sort. My most common problem was loading the silver disk and not being able to get a read without banging the crap out of the unit The cheaper ones were easy throw away but the more expensive made me scream with pain due to the cost of repair which always was not worth the expense. My last two purchases have lasted and are still spinning away happily. Not sure if it was that early units had issues or I was just lucky.

 

Sony 5 disc changer I got in 1998. I still love to fill it and hit shuffle when we have company.

 

If I could talk "she who must be obeyed" into it I'd buy a 555 in a heartbeat

 

Can't you have both connected?

 

This was my 1st CD player - SONY CDP-302, circa 1985.



Built like a tank.

Sometime later, I got a DENON DCM-340 carousel player



And well that's it.

 

I have more than one player because I have more than one system set up. In fact I have four systems so I use four different cd players. It is kind of decadent to have so many setups but it sure is convenient. Sometimes I think about selling two of them and upgrading the remaining two. Maybe some day.

 

Last year my Father-In-Law gave me his old Nakamichi CDC-3A CD player. I was using my OPPO blu ray player as my CD player running into a Cambridge Audio DAC, and although it sounded o.k., I was looking for a dedicated vintage player. The CDC-3A is a six disc changer, but I quickly found a single disc tray on E-bay. This player luckily had the coax digital out on the back. When I put it all together it was amazing. The beauty of this player, there are no belts to go bad or a mechanized tray to gum up or stick. The tray comes out and the CD goes in downside up, you slide the tray in, it clicks, and WOW! There is zero distortion - the background is black until the music starts. The green display is not the biggest, but for a free player that beats many vintage CD players, no complaints.

 

Current player is a Sony XA-5400ES. I bought it used just before the model went out of production for the last time. While I enjoy CD (and SACD, obviously) I will say that it's always been a bit frustrating to me in that it never has quite produced that je ne sais quois of vinyl. I've gone through so many digital player setups that I have trouble remembering them all--from disc treatments, transports, jitter reducers (DTI Pro, Jisco), etc. I'm sure if I was made of money I would have found something before now, but the 5400ES is the closest I've come to not feeling that I was missing something, and in fact had severely reduced my vinyl intake after getting it. Then I went and bought a used VPI Scout and the scales are tipping back.

I have ordered a Marantz SA-8005 to try out. I had an Oppo 105 on trial but sent it back (too analytical for me), but it did start me down the road of high-resolution computer-based audio and that's why I'm getting the Marantz.

Oh, and I still have a working Rotel 855, a giant killer in its day. It works, but it skips if you look at it funny. And two or three Panasonic portables circa 1990 that I used with a Head-Fi amp as a portable system.

John K.

 

I had to part with my Wadia 850 last year because the drawer mechanism stopped working. Luckily I was still able to sell it for good money. I loved this player. While I have a music server setup now, I still covet various CD transports. One day...

 

Hi Dennis,

It would not be practical in my setup to have both the 555 and NDS in operation--that would mean having to switch the power supply connections (two stiff cords with Burndy connectors) and finding a place to put the server (the 555 takes up a lot of space because it is a top loader). Besides, I really do like scrolling through my collection on an iPad and picking out a lot of different items from many discs to create a temporary play list. With CDs that would mean a whole lot of discs that will have to be reshelved, something I hate to do so unshelved discs tend to pile up. Having a server is a lot more fun, but, it was quite an effort to burn each disc and make corrections to the metadata.

 

Good point. The loading/reading mech on mine suddenly failed and had to go back, thankfully under warranty. No biggie as such, but it did make me think for decent money the top- or manually tray-loaded (like Naim) units might, on the face of it, make more sense...

 

Started out with a Luxman player in the mid 80s followed by a couple of Sonys.. I never had a really large CD collection. At its height it was about 400. Now about 150/SACDs or CDs. Thus I was unhappy that I had to go to a relatively expensive Esoteric SACD/CD player to get a noticeable improvement in sonics over even rather well made players such that I don't get listening fatigue.

 

current Cambridge Audio 740....nice player......this is the second one of this model and this one has been in for repair.If when if goes up again will replace with a less expensive NAD model.
first CD was s mid 80's sansui.....then had a onkyo........and a cambridge Azur 540 series

 

The last CD player I bought was a number of years ago - a Sony SCD-CE595 which at the time was considered a budget wonder.

Due to my son's autism, I normally use an ancient Pioneer DVD-V7400 since it doesn't have numeric display. It's been the only component in my system that has lasted for more than five years.

 

This is the closet thing I have to a CD only machine, a Tascam CD-RW900 CD recorder. A Tascam rep was quick to tell me I couldn't do exactly what you see me doing. I bought the unit cheap off fleecebay. As I suspected, though functional, the optical drive was on it's way out. Tascam wants you to buy a replacement from them (at a ridiculous price). Although, I have found (possibly for firmware reasons) only Teac drives seem to work, I have proven that you can put a Teac IDE/PATA DVD-rewriter in as a replacement for the original and thus extend the life of the unit, albeit the tray bezel won't fit the opening. (Nice try Tascam; but, I care not.) I just removed it. Yes, it records as well as plays. In addition, erasing a CD-RW and finalizing any disc is a heck of a lot quicker. The optical DVD drive is also a lot less finicky when it comes to reading CD-Rs burned on other units. I don't like the DAC; however, coax'd out into a "better" DAC, it's all there. It sounds as good as the DAC it's connected to. I have similar theories about the CD-RW900SL (slot load) and CD-RW900MKII; but, have yet to test them.

 

My current CD player isn't - it's a Sony Blu-Ray player ($50). Sends ones and zeroes to my Rega DAC. Very musical combo!

 

I recently found that my Sony BDP-s370 also plays SACD so I'm no longer using it as bluray, DVD player and integrated it into the stereo system. I think it has great advantages such as digital and analog outputs. I never realised any of this when I first bought it in 2009.