CD player, options?

MouthBoy

MouthBoy

MouthBoy

Soldato
Joined
6 Apr 2010
Posts
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Location
Cambridgeshire
Hi all,

I am thinking of getting a cd player to go with my setup for when I just want to listen to my music without my pc being on. I currently have a CA Azur 351a amp, CA DacMagic 100 and CA Aero2 speakers. I love the sound of the setup so not looking to change anything but add to it. I have many CDs and am buying more all the time, so also not interested in streaming services if anyone thinks they may suggest some instead. I enjoy physical media as much as listening to it.

I am not set on CA equipment, but I would like it to be black. Budget of between 200-300. It must do gapless play back and have optical out.

Any ideas? I have been looking at some from Richer Sounds but wanted to ask a wider audiance.

Thanks
 
Had looked at that but I really do not like the look of it.

The others I had looked at where the Yamaha CDS300 as this fits all my requirements but I am unsure if they have tried to do too much on one unit for the price it is, the Onkyo C7030 as I remember my parents using Onkyo when they needed to replace some older Technics equipment and it still works to this day - so good for my confidence of build quality an the last I was looking at was the Cambridge CXC Black. It does not have a DAC in it but I already have one so that would be fine. I am drawn to the fact that is has a single purpose of reading the CDs and lets other devices do the rest. Am I being drawn into the "hype" (for want of a better expression) on this idea though?
 
I had a CXC. It’s a nice enough device. The one thing I didn’t like but is common of this price range is the flimsy tray.

Honestly, my hearing isn’t all that good and I struggle to determine any tangible differences between most CD players. If looks are important the CXC is a good device, especially as you already have a suitable DAC.
 
I am no audiophile (although I am working on it, a little!) but my ears are alright. Since going to "higher end" audio I have really started to notice more in music that I have listened too over the last 20years (I am 31) and its like, "oh wow, I never heard it like that before" which is great. It is really refreshing, hence I am looking for a purer experience. At the moment all my CDs are ripped to FLAC on my PC and played via MusicBee, through the DAC (USB at 192k), to the AMP and to the speakers. It works really well when I am on my PC and want to 'flick' between songs, but sometimes when working I just want to put on a CD and play it through. I work on my laptop and use my PC just for music during the day which seems like a waste.

Thank you for telling me about the CXC that you personally owned, very useful to get an actual 'experience of' comment. Why did you replace/get rid of it?
 
The only reason I sold it eventually was because I rarely sat down and listened to CD’s. I use Tidal to access 99% of my music now, and I’m much more in to films so I changed my system around to suit.

I would recommend the CXC, it’s a decent transport for the money. I think for around that budget you would struggle to better it, especially if you aren’t a fan of the Marantz which is the only alternative I would buy myself.
 
Sounds like some good advice and glad to hear you didn't sell it due to problems. I shall go look at one in the new year and have a listen.

I looked at Tidal but honestly buying CD's even to rip and keep, suits to me so much more. I rarely like modern 'music' and Tidal just does not stock what I would listen too. I also looked at Spotify premium but again the music I listen too is not always on there.

Just to throw a curve ball, any SACD players anyone recommends? I have a handful of SACD's and they have been ripped at 24bit to my PC but it would be great to see how they sounded through a SACD player. I can see they are for sale on RS but at £700 its a little steep for me. Was there a reason SACD did not catch on? I guess it might be similar to that of today's music where the mass market does not have the hardware to make use of FLAC over MP3, so not worth the investment?
 
TALON1973 said:
I'd throw a curveball on this..... I'd try and find a panasonic ub900 4k player. It's a great cd player.
Click to expand...

Can I ask what you base this recommendation on? Looking at it I cannot see anything that jumps out at me to be a great CD player. If it did SACD I may consider it more, but as it would never be attached to a TV it would be hard to justify - of course that is unless I am completely missing something?
 
Read some reviews on it. It's got a dedicated 2 channel stereo output.

Taken from avforum review on the player :-

"
Sound Performance
The UB900 is designed to offer a superior sound experience that is intended to set it apart from the competition and as such it offers analogue outputs, audiophile components and high quality 192kHz/32bit DACs (Digital-to-Analogue Converters). The Panasonic has dedicated two-channel analogue outputs that use gold-plated RCA connectors and in testing we did find the sound quality produced to be impressive for a Blu-ray player. It would certainly work well as a two channel analogue source if that was a feature that interested you. The UB900 supports just about every file type that you can think of and that includes High Res audio, making it a superior music source regardless of whether you're using the analogue or digital outputs. "
 
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I see what you are saying but save for a few albums bought from Bandcamp, most of my music is CD only so only 16bit. The HDD with music on is what I want to get away from. I can use my PC for hi res files or my Fiio DAP. I will still check it out but CD playback is my priority.
 


... if the cd's are already ripped , does investing in a permenantly on nas, rather than PC dependant HDD work ??
then via phone using chromecast/plex play that via a chromecast optically to existing dac.

...seems a pity not to use existing rips;


I use tidal+dac+2.0amp, but rarely use cd's despite have player with its hassle of finding/changing cd's to play a few tracks off of each.

.. clearly a ub900 would be a nice dual purpose 4k player though .. pan shop no longer seems to have 'refurbs' @~£200
 
I genuinely enjoy the physical CD part of it. I guess you could liken it to records for some. Don't get me wrong, some albums will never be played on it due to having only a few tracks i like, but I also have many that I can put in the disc, press play and enjoy all the way through.

Also I have realised that I have my PC on for 40hours a week simply for music. I have no interest in a NAS at this time either, that's a next house thing where I put ethernet round the house.

I also like looking at my CD collection and I think of them like bluray discs to others. I enjoy the collecting.
 
Today I decided to get my not fully working Technics SL-PJ46A CD player out of storage to see if I could fix it. I did this because my wife wants to make sure that I would actually use a CD player if I bought one - which is actually very wise.

I took it apart today and it looked so clean for 28 years old but could not identify the problem. It skips very easy by itself or by any vibration near it. I cleaned the laser and then my wife noticed something obvious. A spring had dropped off a retention plate that holds the CD in place when spinning. Placing the spring back in place seems to have solved all the issues I was getting. As an added bonus it has gapless playback and has optical out so it is now attached to my DAC.

I am going to use this for a while and if I am still using it in a few months look to upgrade. Although I love the retro 80s design, it does have a very low mechanical noise when playing that I can just hear when sat at my desk, and I mean -just- hear. If it was on a shelf somewhere I would not notice, but I am sat very close to it so it is audible between tracks which is distracting. Still a great little CD player though and means that the rest of my Technics stack in storage makes a full system...just need the space to setup now....time for a new house?
 
listening to Tidal this evening was reminded that (like all streaming services ?) frequently don't offer significant re-masters that have been made for albums, just a bog standard catalogue track.
I often use stevehoffman site for opinions on tracks, and like the Kate Bush I wanted to listen to, tidal don't have it ... so purchase is only option.

smeaney said:
it does have a very low mechanical noise when
Click to expand...
unless it is really top end now, maybe oppo, who were making drives for other top-tiers, you could be disapppointed by drive quality/silence which probably peaked in the 2000's for cost effective reliable engineering - we discussed xbox x1 transport noise a while back..
... so technics may still be a contender.
can often find 2nd hand donor machines for replacing transports in older machines too if laser has issues.
 
If you've got a DAC already don't totally discount something like a DVD/Bluray player for use as a dedicated CD transport. I'm way off the pace with this now, sadly Spotify and a lack of dedicated listening time means that I barely use my Cyrus CD player. One day, one day...
 
tom_nieto said:
If you've got a DAC already don't totally discount something like a DVD/Bluray player for use as a dedicated CD transport. I'm way off the pace with this now, sadly Spotify and a lack of dedicated listening time means that I barely use my Cyrus CD player. One day, one day...
Click to expand...

I use my arcam bdp300 blu ray player for cd duties... Got my sennhieser hdvd800 providing the dac.
 
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