Proceed PCD and PDP

[canuckaudiog]

It seems I may have stumbled upon a gem of some kind. Today I picked up a Proceed PCD (labelled as an MRC 100) and a companion piece, the PDP. The PCD is a dedicated CD player, and the PDP is a dedicated DAC.

These pieces were high end in their day, the PCD retailing for around $1700 USD in the early 90s. Not chump change for a CD player, that's for sure.

Does anyone know anything about these pieces at all? The PCD piqued my interest because of the Phillips CDM1 MK2 transport. It seems some major upgrades can be had by swapping the op-amps out. I may do that but, for now, I am quite astonished at how good this over 20 year old CD player sounds.

Some information can be found on The Vintage Knob about them (along with pictures): http://www.thevintageknob.org/proceed-PCD.html

(Not my photo)

 

[Raynald]

I sold those when they came out. Proceed was a division of Mark Levinson in the Madrigal days. They did digital and HT gear. Very nice stuff.

PCD= Proceed CD Player
PDT= Proceed Digital Transport
PDP= Proceed Digital Processor

There was a 2nd and 3rd generation as well, PCD 2, PCD 3, etc.

 

[Mister Pig]

When I first got back into audio in the late 1990's I bought a used PDT2 and PDP2. They were very good components, and I was quite impressed with them. Of course, I sold them a few years later to buy a Sonic Frontiers SFCD1, which actually I never liked as much. With the Proceed components I used an Illuminations Orchid digital cable.

I have always wondered how the Proceed pieces would compare to modern digital components. That looks like a stack that is in nice condition.

Regards
Mister Pig

 

[canuckaudiog]

Thanks for the responses fellas.

@Raynald, what did you think of them? Seems the reviews I've found are fairly favourable. My own listening with the CD player so far is really positive. It's quite a nice unit. Even just as a transport it's an excellent player. I have yet to try out the DAC, I'm curious about that too, though I doubt it will be better than my Audiolab m-DAC.

@Mister Pig the picture isn't mine, but they are in very nice condition. I was lucky and also got the original boxes with packing materials, manuals, and remotes with them.

 

[stish]

I had a PCD3 for close to 20 years. I had been through several CD players before getting the Proceed, and simply lost any desire to look further. It eventually developed some tracking hiccups causing me to move on. I currently use a Marantz CD6004 as a transport feeding a Schiit Gungnir MB, which I love. However, I suspect I could easily live with the Proceed again if performing flawlessly.

 

[jjohnson]

I owned the transport a few years ago. It sounded fantastic and worked flawlessly. Of course I sold it. By the way, you rarely find one with a remote but any universal will work with it.

 

[Raynald]

Thanks for the responses fellas.

@Raynald, what did you think of them? Seems the reviews I've found are fairly favourable. My own listening with the CD player so far is really positive. It's quite a nice unit. Even just as a transport it's an excellent player. I have yet to try out the DAC, I'm curious about that too, though I doubt it will be better than my Audiolab m-DAC.

@Mister Pig the picture isn't mine, but they are in very nice condition. I was lucky and also got the original boxes with packing materials, manuals, and remotes with them.

They were great units. Typical Levinson, they were accurate rather than romantic. The separates were better than the PCD, you should get results somewhere in between by using the PCD as transport with the PDP. The later versions did bring nice improvements, part of the sales pitch on the first gen as that everything would be upgradeable and future proof, they ditched that pretty much right away unfortunately.