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CD player: Better to buy new lower-end, or older higher-end?

I agree with Terry O.
I bought a CD/DvD player for $40 bucks about 3 Years ago and Its still kickin Strong.
 
I paid just over twenty bucks for my JVC XL-V151 CD player (1992) and it plays everything that I throw at it including CD-Rs and scratched discs. While a brand new player may be nice and shiny and make you feel good, I don't have a need to spend that much dough on something.

If you feel that you need to spend that much then go for it. But there are plenty of examples of those of us who spent at lot less and are satisfied.
 
I have read so many posts. Using a DVD Cd player , buying an older Cd player, buying a new Cd player.

Any music format that requires anything mechanical has problems. Any internet music might have downloading problems. Also the quality of sound isn't there.

My Technics Sl-10 has outlived my Cd players. My Yamaha Cdx-490 is on it's last legs. I still don't know how many legs it has. I thought of buying a new NAD maybe the Cambridge or Marantz is better.

Any advice of the sound of the NAD, Cambridge and Marantz would be appreciated. I wonder if anyone has compared all 3.
 
I'd spend my money on a decent DAC. Much more versatile than the typical CD player.

You can use any CDP or DVD or universal player (SACD and DVD-A playback excepted) that has digital output as a transport, can be used with pretty much anything else having digital output like your computer, squeezebox, or even TV, etc., and in many cases these days USB output can also be connected to the DAC.
 
sKiZo said:
...We can mostly rely on the analog side to be adequate to the point where any inconsistencies aren't all that noticable.
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I disagree. I think the analog side is most likely to account for the majority of any differences you hear.
 
whoaru99 said:
I disagree. I think the analog side is most likely to account for the majority of any differences you hear.
Click to expand...

You know, it's funny that you say that, as it's exactly what Dan Wright (ModWright) mentioned last Thursday when we were discussing several of these issues.

I also agree with what you said about the importance of a good DAC.
:thmbsp:

Best Regards,
TerryO
 
Daniel. said:
You didn't say whether you have a modern computer somewhere near by. Now days one can record all their CDs onto say iTunes on an Apple (records too with the right software) and then send the tunes via WiFi to an Airport unit plugged in close the the stereo, and from that using a toslink to a seperate DAC into the stereo.
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Yes, you can but different programs inflict different things on your music.
 
whoaru99 said:
I disagree. I think the analog side is most likely to account for the majority of any differences you hear.
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Indeed but that's why as much care, effort and expense should be spent getting the analogue side as good as you can before committing it to digits. Garbage in, garbage out.
 
charles 1973 said:
I Hate to ruin the party but I've read about issues with a cambridge unit that won't play them. Perhaps a defective unit, I doubt it would get so much credit if it didn't play CD-r's If you choose to buy one I'd suggest you double check just to be shure.
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I guess that the unit you mention (or the CD-Rs involved) had some issue: I owed two Cambridge Audio units, a CD 4 SE (from the early 90's) and a 640 C v2 (from 2009). None of them had any troubles with CD-Rs (at least with the brands I use: Verbatim, Sony, Ridata, TDK). CD-RWs are a different matter as they were not included in the list of readable formats in the user's manual of the 640, IIRC. When writing CD-Rs on a PC, it is always a safe advice to use low speeds (6X in my case) and a good CD writer ( I'm currently using a Pioneer DVR 118L that never produced a defective recording). I've also found out that an ailing PC power source can yield bad CD-R recordings (e.g, with a larger proportion of errors that may not be corrected by all CDPs).
 
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Peter Walker said:
Indeed but that's why as much care, effort and expense should be spent getting the analogue side as good as you can before committing it to digits. Garbage in, garbage out.
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I don't disagree, but if you're buying commercially made CDs or commercially prepped music files then you pretty much get what you get unless there are better audiophile versions available.
 
Thanks for the link Guiller. Just what I was looking fror. Reliability has been an issue which is the problem I have had with my Yamaha CDX-490 since the player was new in 1993.

I heard a Krell cd player that ran 4500$ in the late 90's. Much superior sound compared to the 200$ single disc at the dealers. Who has that kind of money to spend when they all break eventually.
 
I did buy a Sony DAS-R1 dac, TOTL at the late 80's, used from the auction site for a little above 400 USD. I hooked it up to several cheap CD Players using the coax input, and that's one of the very few DAC's that really, really created a difference.

I know it's not easy to come across a DAS-R1 but it is not very rare also. (I wouldn't buy the R1a) And there are many 30 USD used CD-Players with a decent coax output everywhere.
 
I'd like to thank everyone who replied here - and that's a lot of people. Four pages and still rolling. Many views, much color, lots of opinions - that's what makes it a community. Really helpful to get so many opinions.

I also asked this over at another, more high-end board - they're crazy over there - and garnered just two replies. But one of them was Kal Rubinson dunking on me, so it must have been a good question.

=K
 
TerryO said:
You know, it's funny that you say that, as it's exactly what Dan Wright (ModWright) mentioned last Thursday when we were discussing several of these issues.

I also agree with what you said about the importance of a good DAC.
:thmbsp:

Best Regards,
TerryO
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This is why, for my $400, a PC with JRiver suits me better than a transport and outboard DAC. My computer plays (upsamples) to 24/192, as does JRiver. That's redundant, I know, but it assures me that I'm getting the highest-quality, albeit upsampled audio. YMMV as always, but I hear a difference that I can no longer do without, between the computer sound card and the Media Center I have a lot of control over my sound, and I don't have to worry about my lens going bad anymore than one would using the built-in DVD burner in the PC. I still have a bunch of Sony-type CD players (BPC, nothing fancy but serviceable), and it seems that they are hitting the market the way cassette decks did a few years ago.:yes:
 
K-wey this is a nice forum. I have come across many people on other forums that feel the need to put other people down.

I enjoying debating some highly technical topics.

Since I think most forum users would agree if obtaining a higher level of a listening experience can be obtained by sharing and learning from each other it should be done as a gentlleman.

Unfortunately some people are not.

Good listening.
 
sm19422 said:
K-wey this is a nice forum. I have come across many people on other forums that feel the need to put other people down.

I enjoying debating some highly technical topics.

Since I think most forum users would agree if obtaining a higher level of a listening experience can be obtained by sharing and learning from each other it should be done as a gentlleman.

Unfortunately some people are not.

Good listening.
Click to expand...

I guess we are just a subset of society, with different life experiences, education, etc, who happen to enjoy music and the equipment on which it is reproduced.

Similar to politics, religion, food, you name it!
 
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