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DVD player as a dedicated CD player.!

DVjorge

DVjorge

Active Member
Hi all,

I have seen many good quality DVD players going for almost nothing since the blue ray era began. However, good CD players are still expensive, including the old ones. For instance, Pioneer Elite, Marantz, Arcam, etc, dvd players ???

Some of them are THX certified.

What do you think about this idea ??

Thanks for any answer and greeting for all.!
 
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What's your definition of "expensive" vs. "inexpensive"?

If you get a used Oppo unit, you will be able to play more than CDs. One of the oldest Oppo players, the DV-980H sells for about $50 - $100 on eBay and will play SACDs, in addition to CD and DVD, and sounds pretty good.

The newer used Oppo units will additionally play hi-res (24bit/96kHz) FLAC downloads, DSD downloads, and Blu-ray audio and video.

The newer the unit, the greater your range of options for enjoying high-quality high-resolution recording formats.
 
Yep, great Sony players too can be had for pennies on the dollar. Picked up three of the 900's in the past few yrs for less than a C-note, and one of the 999ES, also for about the same. More commonly found in black. The jukebox is part of the ES line so still a pretty good performer, not like the single players, but real convenient for the little lady, just set it for shuffle play

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I use a Denon DVD 5910 DVD/SACD/DVD-Audio/CD unit as my CD player in a second system.

Introduced in 2005, the DVD 5910 is the successor to Denon's previous flagship player, the DVD-9000. While I am not a fan of the Burr-Brown DAC chip, the transport mechanism & laser unit is top notch and built well.

I use the optical output from the DVD 5910, which bypasses the internal DAC chipset, and that plug into a Yulong D18 Sabre DAC, which then feeds a Yamaha CR-1010 receiver via RCA.
 
DVjorge said:
Hi all,

I have seen many good quality DVD players going for almost nothing since the blue ray era began. However, good CD players are still expensive, including the old ones. For instance, Pioneer Elite, Marantz, Arcam, etc, dvd players ???

Some of them are THX certified.

What do you think about this idea ??

Thanks for any answer and greeting for all.!
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There isn't a cut-and-dried answer. I used a Sony DVD player as a CD player for years that I thought sounded fine, that is until I got my Tascam CD player. You just need to do some research.
 
I do this, I currently use an oppo dvd player, before had a marantz ud7007. The problem is these type of devices have many settings hidden in the gui, which you can't reach without having a display hooked up. For my 2 channel system I still use a standalone player for this reason.
 
awillia6 said:
In that case, you could just as well have used a $5 Goodwill spinner made 15 years ago with EXACTLY the same effect. But to each his own.
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Maybe...but it all depends on the quality of the component and its internals. I got that unit new and used the heck out of it as the primary CD & DVD player for years. It's still going strong and having re-purposed it as a transport in no way diminishes the quality or value of the unit. It's worth a hell of a lot more than $5 that's for sure.

In comparison, the quality of a "$5 Goodwill spinner" would be questionable. I have, however, spent a grand total of $4.99 on a Goodwill dual well cassette deck. It works great but there was no way of telling how it would do until I got it home, cleaned it and punched the Play button. So cheap can sometimes be good, sometimes not. Ya take yer chances.
 
I found a Cambridge Audio DVD89 at my local Goodwill, and use it exclusively as a CD player. I didn't notice it has SACD capability too until I got it home, (BONUS)! I like how it sounds.
 
Yamaki said:
Maybe...but it all depends on the quality of the component and its internals. I got that unit new and used the heck out of it as the primary CD & DVD player for years. It's still going strong and having re-purposed it as a transport in no way diminishes the quality or value of the unit. It's worth a hell of a lot more than $5 that's for sure.

In comparison, the quality of a "$5 Goodwill spinner" would be questionable. I have, however, spent a grand total of $4.99 on a Goodwill dual well cassette deck. It works great but there was no way of telling how it would do until I got it home, cleaned it and punched the Play button. So cheap can sometimes be good, sometimes not. Ya take yer chances.
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You're dodging and weaving.

As a transport (spin and read CD, output the bitstream digitally via optical or coax), your lovely unit and the Goodwill basket case with the missing remote are exactly equivalent FUNCTIONALLY. Each perfectly fulfills the technical specifications associated with producing the bitstream from the CD, period. Your past history and love affair with your unit when you demanded much more of it (i.e. DAC) has no bearing at all on what you've presently tasked it to do. As an example, say you wanted to "repurpose" the unit as a paperweight. Fine. But wouldn't an equivalently weighty cinder block fulfill the functional requirements of paperweight duty every bit as well as your lovely lady? (Try looking at things from the POV of the paper, or in your case, the downstream DAC).

Finally, it's not about cheap being sometimes good as with your cassette deck; it's about equipment (WHATEVER its price) meeting the functional requirements set for it. Set those requirements low enough as I did with the paperweight example and you did with the trivial task of producing a digital bitstream from a CD, and just about ANY piece of equipment with a tray and an output jack can manage it. THAT'S the point. Hope you get it now.
 
whoaru99 said:
Can you explain why the digital output of that higher model Denon player will result in better sound than that from the $5 one?
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If you need me to explain why a "better" transport "is" a better transport then I guess you need to speak with an English major lol.

It's like asking why a tt that spins the record more accurately, more immune to outside influences, etc matters. The dac can be thought of as a cable extension, no matter how good it is, crap in one end crap out of the other.

Ok let's look at this a different way, take two identical cd players, set one on top of a paint shaker while playing, which do you think will sound better? So, it seems that the heavier, more solidly constructed, better built, better laser assembly, etc etc transport will, well, transport better. It's actually pretty simple.
 
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Grenadeslio said:
If you need me to explain why a "better" transport "is" a better transport then I guess you need to speak with an English major lol.

It's like asking why a tt that spins the record more accurately, more immune to outside influences, better laser assembly, etc matters. The dac can be thought of as a cable extension, no matter how good it is, crap in one end crap out of the other.

Ok let's look at this a different way, take two identical cd players, set one on top of a paint shaker while playing, which do you think will sound better? So, it seems that the heavier, more solidly constructed, better built, etc etc transport will, well, transport better. It's actually pretty simple.
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I'm quite familar with all the assertions and theories why it might, the point is that "No" is final and certainly is not guaranteed.
 
whoaru99 said:
I'm quite familar with all the assertions and theories why it might, what I'm after is how you can definitively say "No".
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Well, one way is by trying the same dac with different players and getting different results, and I can assure you all models tried were better than using one of my kids game systems as a transport lol.
 
whoaru99 said:
There is no bickering. It's simply a point that it is unwise to never say never, so to speak.
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If you're implying somewhere I used the word "never" could you please quote me as some proof?

And you just contradicted yourself and said never lol.
 
Grenadeslio said:
Well, one way is by trying the same dac with different players and getting different results, and I can assure you all models tried were better than using one of my kids game systems as a transport lol.
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I have, with literally the equivalent of a $5 player and several different ones up to more than $1000 used as transports.

It's the basis for my opinion.

In fact, those who partipated actually preferred the the analog outputs of a particular CDP more than the most expensive player used as a transport with the Benchmark DAC-1 that was the common external DAC used for comparison.
 
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