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Looking for a small CD player for use on my desk

turnitdown said:
I went on the site to buy one and they're sold out.
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These things are all over Ali Express from different sellers. Some models come with a remote control.

This model is larger and has a display to tell you what track you're on and the time.

 
The Shocker said:
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.
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I can’t buy even demonstrably decent stuff from companies that spout snake oil.
 
peterp1 said:
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).
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I've read through the manual for the Teac and it appears to not be an HD tuner. There is no reference to it in the manual. tuners that support HD have the iBiquity logo on the front, which it does not have. It can switch between FM stereo and mono and store stations, but that's about it. It does not support RDS unless you live in Europe, and no AM. It appears to be a basic FM tuner module.

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I do agree it is cute and unique.
 
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ap14608 said:
I've read through the manual for the Teac and it appears to not be an HD tuner. There is no reference to it in the manual. tuners that support HD have the iBiquity logo on the front, which it does not have. It can switch between FM stereo and mono and store stations, but that's about it. It does not support RDS unless you live in Europe, and no AM. It appears to be a basic FM tuner module.
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Thanks very much for doing the research! That’s a plus for me. I wouldn’t mind one that can do both (as long as there’s a user selectable switch), but if it supports only one, i’d rather it be traditional FM for sound quality reasons (bitrate is low on HD radio)
 
Finally there appears to be a pretty decent option for a tiny (relatively) high quality inexpensive CD Player/Transport with an aluminum case. Only $104, though you have to supply your own 5v 2.4amp power supply. Has optical and coax digital out, volume controls also, so you could presumably drive headphones with it. Unfortunately shipping is slow, and I don't like the graphic design on the front panel, but seems like a very good option, and the only quality option for under $320. I'm probably going to order one to use as a transport into my DAC:


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swechsler said:
Says it ships quicker from Aliexpress.
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I've never ordered anything from Aliexpress. Is it safe/reliable? A few weeks ago I was buying a Moza HGP Shifter for my son's racing sim rig, and it was $149 (https://www.microcenter.com/search/...artial&Ntk=all&sortby=match&N=0&myStore=false) at Microcenter (and everywhere else, $169 at Amazon), and Aliexpress had it for $59 :eek::eek::eek: It was advertised as the same model, same picture. I thought it was good to be true, so I ordered it from Microcenter. When I checked AliExpress again just now, the $59 shifter is gone, but they have other listings for it at the normal price of $150.

I'm guessing the $59 was a scam, or a knockoff that they were branding as legit -- but it's gone now.

Getting back to the SMSL CD Player -- several of the reviews on Aliexpress are not good. I did order it from Amazon (before knowing Ali shipped it sooner), the estimate delivery around Feb 10th. Reviews on Amazon are good, but there are only a couple of them.

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I've used this little fellow for over 20 years without complaint...currently in my kitchen rig, but was my main living room CD a while back...

Tivoli Audio Model CD... 8" x 4 1/2" x 6"... RCA output.. 12v DC power... Remote control... lovely solid walnut casing..

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FYI...thinking about it my main listening room rig also runs CD/DVD off a 'compact' Sony BDP-S185 CD/DVD Bluray player... 11" x 7" x 2"... HDMI / Digital RCA out...

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HDMI into my Sony Bravia TV, where I use the TV input source selector menu to 'collate' all my Digital sources, PC lossless streaming, TV etc... (Saves on limited and valuable inputs to my amps pushing everything Digital through 'Aux')

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and then have a ten foot shielded RCA out of the TV DAC to the Aux input on my AKAI PR-A06 & PA-W06 amps (My tuner and turntables like to be a good distance from DVD/TV/PC)

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And thence to the B&W ASW 650 Sub amp and B&W dm 580 satellite towers...

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Works perfectly as far as I am concerned (They say any CD/DVD player that can sample fast enough for HD TV can eat any audio CD source for breakfast anyways)... The SQ performance of this rig is not at all shabby, minimal distortion all the way from 20Hz to 20kHz, & 1 -150 watts, but I reckon I'd have to spend a £ 1/4 million on amp and speaker upgrades to hear the difference of a stand alone 'audiophile' DAC or dedicated audio CD player... Great setup for watching Bluray movies too!
 
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peterp1 said:
Finally there appears to be a pretty decent option for a tiny (relatively) high quality inexpensive CD Player/Transport with an aluminum case. Only $104, though you have to supply your own 5v 2.4amp power supply. Has optical and coax digital out, volume controls also, so you could presumably drive headphones with it. Unfortunately shipping is slow, and I don't like the graphic design on the front panel, but seems like a very good option, and the only quality option for under $320. I'm probably going to order one to use as a transport into my DAC:

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Just ordered one a few days ago
 
peterp1 said:
I've never ordered anything from Aliexpress. Is it safe/reliable? .
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Safe: yes; they offer a 90 day refund on one item per order. I usually purchase in multiple orders to get around this restriction. However, I'm not sure how that works if shipping is charged in addition to the item; up to this point, I've avoided purchasing items where shipping wasn't included. Reliable: they've gotten much better lately. It's a marketplace, so shipping times can vary, but lately I've been mostly receiving my items in about a week after ordering. I purchased a large item from one seller a week ago and they still haven't shipped; I have a suspicion they're not going to since their price was significantly lower than other sellers, and they've since modified their listing to add a shipping charge.
 
Not sure if mentioned but the original PS1 with the rca out was considered a giant killer. I still use one in my office. I had a couple but sold on BT long ago. Not sure how hard to find they may be now.

Stereophile and Art Dudley go Full Blown on the PS1!!

I'm not quite sure why this is happening, but a few months back there was a column in Stereophile about the Sony PlayStation 1 (PS1) as a CD source, specifically the SCPH-1001 model. So today the July issue shows up with a cover story on the PS1 and a full blown multi-page review!! I haven't...
audiokarma.org
 
I bought a small Philips DVD player with RCA for entertainment center CD out to avoid remote conflict with the Sony Blu-ray remote, but am not happy with the SQ. It works but sounds "thin".
 
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