I recently wanted to spin some of the CD's I have collected over the years but have not yet ripped to FLAC. Working with my old CD player it became clear that it is not long for this world and I needed a new one. I didn't want to spend too much money and did not care about an onboard DAC since I intended to hook up to my main system's Streaming DAC via TOSLINK.
After shopping around a bit, looking at everything from a vintage McIntosh (too spendy & too old), a discontinued unit that matched my main streamer (way too spendy), and even browsing through local craigslist ads, I settled on the Teac PD-301-X. I found this one on the Big Bezos for about $100 less than MSRP.
The Teac 301 is a combination CD player and FM tuner. I consider the FM tuner a nice bonus since I don't have one in my main system.
Unboxing found a well packed unit, a small plastic remote that uses AA batteries, an FM antenna with a push-on connector, a small switching power supply, a manual in Japanese (the english version was available on teacusa.com as a pdf download), and cheap RCA interconnects.
I hooked it up to my system via TOSLINK optical and checked out the FM tuner. Without measuring I cannot say definitively but it seems to have good sensitivity, reasonable noise rejection, and acceptable stereo separation with the included antenna . I live in a suburban area in the pool-table-flatness that is central Indiana, so I have a large number of FM stations nearby. Your results will likely differ based on geography.
I have played a few CD's made from the early 1980s thru the mid 2010's, and in varying conditions from pristine to "it once served as a coaster at a college party" and it has not had any seek or read issues so far. The transport does make a little noise, but not so much that I can hear it over the music at low volume.
So far so good! If it misbehaves with use or time I will update this post.
I wrote all of this in answer to comments made on the "what's your latest audio purchase" thread. Hoping this is the kind of info y'all were looking for.
After shopping around a bit, looking at everything from a vintage McIntosh (too spendy & too old), a discontinued unit that matched my main streamer (way too spendy), and even browsing through local craigslist ads, I settled on the Teac PD-301-X. I found this one on the Big Bezos for about $100 less than MSRP.
The Teac 301 is a combination CD player and FM tuner. I consider the FM tuner a nice bonus since I don't have one in my main system.
Unboxing found a well packed unit, a small plastic remote that uses AA batteries, an FM antenna with a push-on connector, a small switching power supply, a manual in Japanese (the english version was available on teacusa.com as a pdf download), and cheap RCA interconnects.
I hooked it up to my system via TOSLINK optical and checked out the FM tuner. Without measuring I cannot say definitively but it seems to have good sensitivity, reasonable noise rejection, and acceptable stereo separation with the included antenna . I live in a suburban area in the pool-table-flatness that is central Indiana, so I have a large number of FM stations nearby. Your results will likely differ based on geography.
I have played a few CD's made from the early 1980s thru the mid 2010's, and in varying conditions from pristine to "it once served as a coaster at a college party" and it has not had any seek or read issues so far. The transport does make a little noise, but not so much that I can hear it over the music at low volume.
So far so good! If it misbehaves with use or time I will update this post.
I wrote all of this in answer to comments made on the "what's your latest audio purchase" thread. Hoping this is the kind of info y'all were looking for.
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