Which CD Player has the best sound quality?

Do you feel better now that you've put me in my place? I'm sorry to have run afoul of your personal dictates for this thread that you didn't start.

As for THE BEST sound quality obtainable from a CD player, it is an unanswerable question. If there were an answer to that question that didn't rely on other factors, most notably subjectivity, there would be no need for this thread or any number of threads here. So, yeah, I offered my opinion since that's all we're going to find in this thread is opinions.

 

It is reasonable that the one that measures the best, will also sound the best. If we don´t think it does is another matter, as we color the sound a lot when listening.

 

What do I care how a CD player measures? They probably all measure PERFECTLY, and yet all sound a little different. We were talking about SOUND... as in what our EARS perceive, not what a specs enthusiast measures.

When one CD player sounds lively and dynamic, providing a sense of live instruments being there in the room with you; compared to another CD player that sounds lifeless and lacking in the performers' enthusiasm, which spec would measure that difference?

When one CD player clearly differentiates the wood of a clarinet compared to the brass of a saxophone, but the other player just melds them together as almost the same, which spec would measure that difference?

 

So, what you're saying is, in essence, generally speaking, is that you don't like my Shanling?

Well, just wait and see if I invite you to my next party.

(spoiler alert: you're invited!)

 

Always good to have the thought police here to keep us kids on the straight and narrow. Any chance the policeman sells CD players?

And how is someone to be able to recommend a good CD player except by their own purchase and use experience? Or is this thread only for dealers and reviewers?

Besides, are not all the CD players going the way of the VHS machines?

 

double like for @spacecoyote post above

 

Well, You can have that opinion, and I won´t attack You for having it; like You are very prone to if it doesn´t fit Your thinking.

 

It’s a nearly forty year old technology and all of the kinks were worked out generations ago. Every player above a dollar store price point sounds excellent.

A $200 player and a $20,000 player are more alike than they are different. Any measurable differences are more like to be a company manufacturing the player to be less accurate than the other in an attempt to promote a “signature sound”.

 

If we are talking about the CD player with the absolute best quality than I'm sure its something I can't afford so I'll keep modding the units that I can afford.

 

No I didn't say that I don't like a Shanling. In fact, I think they sound quite good. I just want to know if it really is one of the VERY best sounding CD players offered by any company, at any price. Isn't that the spirit of the OP's qeustion?

 

Not at all..DVD blew VHS out of the water in regard to picture quality.. DVD and future formats were also far more convenient than VHS in every way.

In contrast.No physical audio format has been proved to significantly better the sound of CD since it was invented.Or be more convenient.

 

I tend to attack you (but trying to do it more gently now) only because you are so one-dimensional about sound. It seems that you don't believe in sound... you believe in specs and technology. I don't understand why you are in a thread about "sound".

 

Yes, albeit a narrow interpretation of the question.

Sometimes anecdotal generalities are more useful than mellifluous critical reviews.

 

For less than $200 new, I really like my Onkyo 7030. This model is prone to skipping due to footfall on suspended floors, although I had zero problems on a ground floor. It's a stripped down version of Onkyo units costing much more and apparently good isolation was one of the sacrifices.

But soundwise it was on another level above a once-upon-a-time flagship Technics CD player. However, a friend preferred a Marantz while auditioning both, claiming the Marantz sounded more like the hi-rez files that had spoiled him.

 

I’m glad we all think we have answers for the OP, but I have no idea what he was after by asking these “popcorn” questions and he has not returned. I doubt he’s in the market for a dCS, a Naim CD555 or other stratospherically priced machine. I smell a whiff of troll.

 

Mine

 

Well, I am thinking that the differences in sound, from CD to CD player, may not be related to the digital technology. It may be more dependent upon the analog output "art" of preserving the dynamics and the nuances of the analog signal, once decoded from the digital information.

 

Actually, it depends on what you mean by "significantly." Most (or should I say many, but including me) have concluded that playing the files ripped form CDs provides better SQ than playing the CDs on CD players. The player I'm using for comparison is an Oppo 105. As for better SQ than CD, some would argue in favor of high resolution digital incliding SACD, but I'm not going there right now.

As for more convenient, there is no comparison. I play all of my ripped CDs and ripped SACDs in addition to downloaded digital music from the convenience of my easy chair, controlling the music from my phone. Easy as can be.

 

Well, as I can't access your profile page, this post is pretty useless.

 

OK, no more "thought policing" from me in this thread. I'm done expressing my opinion about digital for now. I'll just check back occasionally and see how you are all responding to this question of "best sounding" CD players. Thank you , by the way, to those who did identify with some of my thoughts. If anyone here HAS ever heard an over-$10000 CD player, please let us know if it sounded any better than a unit from K-Mart or Walmart.

 

You don´t understand that You shouldn´t attack me or anybody else? As for the rest it´s not something I care to comment.

 

Enablers take the bait again.

 

Disagree about files ripped from CD sounding better than CD.That is not the case my experience.Certainly not through the workings of a PC or Laptop (no matter how good the outboard DAC).I haven't heard the Oppo 105 so cannot comment on which format sounds better on it..No controlled blind listening test has ever proved HD /SACD to be sonically superior to standard 44.1/16 CD playback.

 

I agree with this 100%. As I stated up thread the best cd player I've heard is the Resoulution Audio CD50. And when I say heard, I mean owned as I don't believe I can't fully understand how something sounds without living with it. Listening in a store or show setting doesn't tell me how I'm going to feel about a piece of gear after listening to it for a month.

Here's an example: I owned my CD50 for a couple years when I saw another used CD50 for sale at a doable price. This CD50 had a digital out which meant it was a later version than mine. I bought it, hooked it up and thought nothing more. It was a few weeks later that I had a nagging feeling something wasn't sound quite right with this player even though I couldn't put my finger on it. I removed the top and had a look inside and sure enough the newer cdp had a main board that was a different "revision" than my older unit. Looking at it more closely, the only real difference I could was in the output section. I returned my older unit to service and relaxed again.

As for expensive cd players, the CD50 retailed for more than $3k at the turn of the century. It was pretty expensive for a single box player. At the time the only similarly priced player I compared (owned) it to was a Cary player of which the model number escapes me, but it had the tube output circuit that could be switched in or out. The CD50 was better IMO.

 

I agree with this questioning sentiment. I’ve heard differences in disc players, and I don’t have the most discerning ear. So it is possible for them to sound differently. The further question is where those returns become insignificant, and that is where, in my opinion, subjectivity comes in.