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Vintage cd player as budget transport - Philips cdm, coaxial out.

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Depthgrammar

Member
I've been enjoying a Magnavox CDB460 for a year or so now as a standalone player in my living room system. Today I hooked it up in my bedroom/headphone system via coax feeding an Audio-gd Dac19 DSP1 (PCM 1704). I hadn't tried it as transport-only and it made an appreciable difference playing cds via the DAC, against the cd player I'd been using. So I got to reading about the Philips transport mechanisms and now a question arises:

I know this model and the Magnavox CDB560 are sought after for the TDA 1541 dac chips (which are of course great - the Dac19 beat it in this trial (for my taste) - but not by much). But let's say you were looking at a vintage player to use as a transport only - the dac chip and filters are irrelevant and you want just the best affordable Philips CDM mechanism, with coax out. What players would you look for? Rotel? Arcam? Philips/Magnavox models?

Aside from the consensus that the Philips CDM-1 was the best and most durable transport, I'm having a hard time figuring out how the others (CDM-4, CDM-9, etc.) rate. Any experts out there care to weigh in? I could just get another Magnavox, but I'm wondering if there's a model that would be even better suited to transport-only use. The CDB 460 and 560 have the Philips CDM-2, which was a plastic version of the CDM-1 that doesn't sound as good, supposedly. So maybe there's a better option...
 
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I personally am skeptical that a transport can make a difference in sound, assuming that any under consideration can retrieve all data with no errors. Stereophile has published articles saying that it does, based mostly on the idea of jitter. However, they are notoriously against the idea of blind testing, so I'm not sure how much weight I'd put into their opinion.
 
Well I've got two transports here and the difference is not even subtle. Not as dramatic as changing speakers, but they definitely sound different. So maybe my old cd player was not capable of retrieving all the data, but I kinda doubt it. In any case, since I'm happy with the sound of the rest of my chain it feels like a worthy upgrade. The Magnavox is going back to the living room so I'd just like something with a comparable transport for the bedroom, hence I'm looking at players with the Philips CDM mechanisms. Just not sure what to look for, as there are many iterations.

Reading around last night I came across the Rotel RDD 980 - transport only with the Philips CDM9. Not sure how that would compare to the CDM2 in the Magnavox, but it was top of the line mechanism at the time. Anyone have any experience with that unit?
 
Did a little more research on the Magnavox players, as they seem to be the cheapest options with the Philips transports. Thought I'd share my findings. Looks like the higher end models used CDM2 variants over CDM4, so I'm guessing those are more desirable. The players with the CDM1 and CDM0 seem to not have digital outs - bummer.

Found the following info here:
https://www.hifi-advice.com/blog/cl...philips-cdm-range-of-swing-arm-cd-mechanisms/

"CDM 2/10 – plastic and miniaturisation. I’ve heard only two players with this transport and both sounded way more average than the ones with the CDM1 transport. Coincidence? Or proof that the transport matters more than many people want to believe? The rare CDM2 was a white resin-cast version of the CDM1 v3."

So it sounds like CDM2 may be a better option than 2/10, if not up to CDM1 level. My CDB460 has CDM2/10 and sounds pretty good as a transport.

From this database:
http://vasiltech.narod.ru/CD-Player-DAC-Transport.htm

I came up with this list - all the Magnavox players with CDM2 variants + digital out:

MAGNAVOX CDB460
TDA1541 – SAA7220P/A
CDM-2/10

MAGNAVOX CDB465
TDA1541 – SAA7220P/A
CDM-2

MAGNAVOX CDB473
TDA1541 – SAA7220P/A
CDM-2 / CDM-4/11

MAGNAVOX CDB560
TDA1541 – SAA7220P/A
CDM-2

MAGNAVOX CDB650
TDA1541 – SAA7220P/A
CDM-2/10 / CDM-2/29

Guessing that any of these would serve as a good budget transport option, with the 460, 560 & 650 (?) as the best standalone players.
 
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Sure - this is listening via headphones - HD650 and R70x. I would say that the Magnavox as a transport makes my other player/transport (Shanling EC1B) sound slightly congested in comparison. The frequency response is more or less the same but the soundstage is a bit wider, the imaging a bit more dimensional/weighty, and there's a bit more perceived air around instruments with the Magnavox. The change reminds me of when I first switched my headphone amp to low gain - which I prefer. With the R70x using my old transport, some cds - mainly classic rock type stuff, sounded a tiny bit flat or muffled. With the Magnavox I no longer have that feeling - the same cds sound like they should. I wasn't expecting the Magnavox to make a difference, I didn't want to like it better - the Shanling fits better in my setup. But I found it to be an improvement, enough that I'm rethinking things.

By the way, the Shanling has served me well for a couple years now - I still think it sounds good and is a good small budget option. Only in comparison did I feel it suffers a bit. And these differences are small but readily noticeable to me.
 
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Depthgrammar said:
Did a little more research on the Magnavox players, as they seem to be the cheapest options with the Philips transports. Thought I'd share my findings. Looks like the higher end models used CDM2 variants over CDM4, so I'm guessing those are more desirable. The players with the CDM1 and CDM0 seem to not have digital outs - bummer.

Found the following info here:
https://www.hifi-advice.com/blog/cl...philips-cdm-range-of-swing-arm-cd-mechanisms/

"CDM 2/10 – plastic and miniaturisation. I’ve heard only two players with this transport and both sounded way more average than the ones with the CDM1 transport. Coincidence? Or proof that the transport matters more than many people want to believe? The rare CDM2 was a white resin-cast version of the CDM1 v3."

So it sounds like CDM2 may be a better option than 2/10, if not up to CDM1 level. My CDB460 has CDM2/10 and sounds pretty good as a transport.

From this database:
http://vasiltech.narod.ru/CD-Player-DAC-Transport.htm

I came up with this list - all the Magnavox players with CDM2 variants + digital out:

MAGNAVOX CDB460
TDA1541 – SAA7220P/A
CDM-2/10

MAGNAVOX CDB465
TDA1541 – SAA7220P/A
CDM-2

MAGNAVOX CDB473
TDA1541 – SAA7220P/A
CDM-2 / CDM-4/11

MAGNAVOX CDB560
TDA1541 – SAA7220P/A
CDM-2

MAGNAVOX CDB650
TDA1541 – SAA7220P/A
CDM-2/10 / CDM-2/29

Guessing that any of these would serve as a good budget transport option, with the 460, 560 & 650 (?) as the best standalone players.
Click to expand...

CDM2 is an amazing transport. It is virtually skip proof. OK, nothing is skip proof but it will tolerate shocks like few others. I could play bongos on the top of my 650 and it would not skip. Try that with a Sony. And, the CDM2 would read and play scratched CD's that other CDP's in my stable could not.
 
I've had vintage CD players and don't think they're worth the hassle, no matter how you plan to use them.

Some are reliable, and some aren't, and anything 20-30+ years old is a ticking timebomb as far as repairs and unobtainum parts go. Had a Philips with the famous DAC chip and ended up selling it as a parts unit. That thing was chock full of capacitors and other components going bad - not worth it to get fixed or mess with.

I had an old H/K CDP that was much more reliable, in fact it is still going but I gave it to a friend when I bought a new CDP a couple years ago.
 
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