Hi-end CD Player advice

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Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
5,367
Location
Dublin, Ireland
Hi there,

My old mans Arcam 6 (using a NOS DAC) bit the dust after years of faithful service so he's looking at replacing it with a quality bit of second hand kit.

Current system:
Linn Sondek LP12
Meridian Pre amp
2 x Meridian Monoblocks
B&W 802 Speakers

Are there any recommendations for sub £500 that are worth looking at?

The only players that come to my mind are:
Meridan 506/508
Naim CD5
Arcam CD36

Any other suggestions?

Mark
 
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You should be about to get one of the Densen B4xx range for that money used. I bought mine after hearing it in a demo when i was demoing speakers and loved it!

Then again i'm a big fan of the Densen sound in general.

Is your dad based in Sydney also by the way? If he's UK based i recommend looking on the Hifi Wigwam classifieds. Some fantastic stuff for sale over there.
 
Has the tray stopped coming out on the alpha 6? If so its the philips CDM9 cog problem, where the cog loses all its teeth) I fixed my philips CD930 by replacing the cog and belt.

TBH, though if its just a transport outputting to a dac, just buy a player based on the transport quality. Don't forget that pretty much all of the players you have listed are philips based.

Here are a few others that are very highly regarded for a reasonable cost:

Marantz CD-94
Kenwood DP-7090
Cambridge Audio CD3
Grundig Fine Arts CD-9009
Philips CD960
Philips CD950/951
Denon DCD 2560
Sony CDP-337ESD
Sony CDP-555ESD
Sony CDP-557ESD
 
A few options:
1. As suggested, if he's going to continue to use the NOS DAC, pretty much any CDP or DVD player could act as a transport. I'm not going to try to claim they all sound the same via digital output, but that would be a cheap option. If he wants a dedicated high quality transport, consider options like a Teac VRDS player, or Meridian 500.
2. Some good CDPs already mentioned, including the 508. Have to say that if I wanted a single box CDP, that a Densen 400XS would be close to top of the pile. Heard one a couple of years back. Brilliant piece of kit and well worth tracking down. Slightly over budget, but IMO well worth paying for. Note that I still have a NOS DAC with dedicated PSU. IMO a 400XS is a good deal better, infact I'd go as far as to say that it's probably on par with being the best single box CDP I've heard.
 
Thanks for the advice guys.

The Arcam 6 stopped reading discs and a replacement laser hasn't fixed it. He is still going to fix it but I know he was considering upgrading the CD Player anyway.

I'd imagine that he'll stop using the NOS DAC if he buys a hi-end CD Player, I guess it'll be a demo and see sort of affair.

I'll recommend the Densen, thanks.
 
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