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Looking for a small CD player for use on my desk

The Shocker

The Shocker

Super Member
I've been using a Sony Discman D-33 on my desk for a little while and have been pretty happy with it.

What made me unhappy with it was my purchase of a Sony CDP-950 full size CD player, with a Philips TDA-1541 DAC in it. That CD player has spoiled me. Nothing else I own sounds as good, at least to me.

But the CDP-950 is a full-size CD player, and takes up more room that I want. I'd like something smaller I can put on my desk. Ideally, I'd like it to be Discman-size, but I am sure that's quite impossible, unless Magnavox made a portable CD player with a TDA-1541 in it.

Is there a small footprint CD player I can put on my desk that's not going to break the bank? Vintage/used is perfectly acceptable.
 
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I suppose an alternative might be one of the DIY DAC boards, and stream from a PC (ripped CDs if you prefer...), instead of a CDP...
 
Look for a player that was designed to work with a minisystem. They'll be significally narrower than a standard player, andd several of them had digital outputs, so you can add your own external DAC.

Or come to think of it, some minisystems with built-in CD players had a digital optical output, and many of them were quite small. As an example, check out the Sony HCD-SD1 or CMT-CP11.
 
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Closest thing to Discman sized is the Olasonic NANO-CD1 which is a transport, so you would need an external DAC, they are also pretty pricey even second hand, but the build quality is very good.
 
www.moon-audio.com

PD-505T CD Transport

Based on our original CD drive design used in the CD-5020A, which boasts a record for many years of use by professional products, we developed a new design optimized for the PD-505T. Utilizing semi-floating mounting and a new drive circuit design, we have realized CD reading that is accurate and...
www.moon-audio.com www.moon-audio.com
 
mr.jones said:
www.moon-audio.com

PD-505T CD Transport

Based on our original CD drive design used in the CD-5020A, which boasts a record for many years of use by professional products, we developed a new design optimized for the PD-505T. Utilizing semi-floating mounting and a new drive circuit design, we have realized CD reading that is accurate and...
www.moon-audio.com www.moon-audio.com
Click to expand...

I'll see your cute CD player and raise you a built-in FM tuner: :):)


71spJ8Koh7L._AC_SL1500_.jpg
 
Or use a CDR drive, and pull the digital output stream (SPDIF) into an external DAC...


<goes upstairs to computer junk pile, digs out two CDR/DVD drives from 2002/2003, finds they have identical interfaces, with 2-pin digital connector>

Since you would be connecting it to a custom DAC, you could bypass the optical or coax interface, and just send the logic level signal direct to the SPDIF receiver chip...
 
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Vintage Linn Mimik CD players can be had for nice prices on eBay. These players are know to have an analogue sound, as Linn tried to emulate the LP12 turntable sound. I had the Karak III and can testify that this was Linn's trademark with their CDPs.
BTW, their players have switchable International voltages.
 
cpt_paranoia said:
Or use a CDR drive, and pull the digital output stream (SPDIF) into an external DAC...


<goes upstairs to computer junk pile, digs out two CDR/DVD drives from 2002/2003, finds they have identical interfaces, with 2-pin digital connector>

Since you would be connecting it to a custom DAC, you could bypass the optical or coax interface, and just send the logic level signal direct to the SPDIF receiver chip...
Click to expand...
I have a CD-ROM hooked up to my Mac mini for ripping. CD-ROMs/DVD-ROMs get pretty noisy when they spin CDs up. I'll revist the idea and see if there is a CD player app for my Mac that plays the CD at 1X speed. A lot of apps will spin the CD 40X and buffer the track and play it. So, every time a track changes, it sounds like a jet engine taking off.
 
The Shocker said:
That Teac looks nice.

Moon Audio will never get a penny of my money. That snake oil outfit doesn't deserve the time of day.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've been very tempted by that Teac unit. I'd like to know more about it's internal tuner -- mainly is it analog FM or HD Radio only or both. Info on the tuner seems pretty sparse. If it's analog, that would be really compelling (doing FM via streaming now, but radio streaming is almost always very low bitrate).

I don't know anything about Moon Audio. I did happen to notice that the first review on the Amazon listing provides some comments on the comparison between the Teac and the Moon Audio unit. Kind of have to take some Amazon reviews with a grain of salt, but it's a data point:

Cut & Paste of a review from here: https://www.amazon.com/PD-301-X-Player-Slot-Silver-Released/dp/B09XTQGTCX/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1R6ISF7T6QG7S&keywords=teac+pd-301&qid=1700866514&sprefix=teac+PD,aps,177&sr=8-1#customerReviews

Love the small size, quality, and features. Not only does it play CDs, but also has a built in FM tuner for listening to the radio, and a USB slot for playing files off a USB stick. In addition to RCA line outs, it also has both optical and coax digital outs so you can use it as a transport, which is what I was mainly looking for since I already have high quality DACs. I tried all 3 types of outputs and they were all excellent but optical was the best in my system. I also have another similarly sized CD player/transport (Cayin Mini CD MK2), which is also pretty good but this Teac sounds even better than the Cayin out of its digital outputs. The Cayin does sound a little better out of its analog outputs compared to the Teac out of its analog but, since I’m using the digital outs, the Teac is the winner here. The pulling in and ejecting of the CD is also better on the Teac. The Teac also seems to deal with scratched discs better and I’ve had no problems playing any CDs on the Teac whereas I had one CD that the Cayin just would not read for some reason. All in all, I’d recommend this Teac over the Cayin unless you will only be using analog outputs. The seller was also excellent. It arrived from Japan surprisingly fast.​
 
Here is 21 minutes of pure snake oil from Moon Audio:


Moon Audio makes a good quality cable. But these guys claim that you need different cables depending on the type of music you listen to, and brand of headphones.

One of their cables is silver-plated copper. Silver-plated copper is objectively inferior to pure silver or pure copper.
 
The Shocker said:
CD-ROMs/DVD-ROMs get pretty noisy when they spin CDs up
Click to expand...
Running at 52x yes, they do. But most IDE/SATA chassis mount (not USB external) drives also have a simple 'play' button on them, with a headphone socket and volume control on the front, and line level audio (4-pin) and SPDIF digital audio (2-pin) outputs on the back. When playing at 1x, they're fairly quiet. Some modern CD players use CDR mechanisms...

It was a bit of a fun, left-field suggestion as a way to get a small form factor CD drive to feed a 1541 DAC board, in case you were wedded to playing CDs, rather than ripping & playing back via a computer or streamer.

And I like resurrecting 'junk'...
 
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