Vintage silverface CD player options?

[Tusec]

Just wondering which silverface era CD players you guys consider to be the "good ones". I'm building my first vintage stereo rig and want to keep things looking uniformly silver (currently have a Yamaha CR-640 receiver and will soon have a silver Pioneer or Technics turntable). There are piles of blackface CD players out there but silverface units are tougher to find.

Also, I see the year 1987 come up from time to time as the dividing line between the early generation players and what might be considered the modern generation. In general, the pre-1987 players are seen as interesting museum pieces while post-87 are seen as truly viable and good sounding.

Any truth to this? Is '87 the correct dividing line and what changed around that time?

Here is my recent silverface CD score:

It's a Harmon/Kardon HD300 about which I know almost nothing except that it has nice clean lines and was made around 1987. I don't know if it falls in the early or later category but it works flawlessly and sounds nice. It would be interesting to A/B it with a known good sounding later unit to see how it measures up.

 

[jhoyt]

Luxman made some nice ones, I'm awaiting arrival of a Luxman D-404 right now.

The big thing in CD players, from vintage to modern, is the DAC. Early DAC's were primitive by today's standards. The best way to go would be to find a vintage CD player with a digital output, and connect it to a modern standalone DAC. Best of both worlds!

 

[Tusec]

Well, this one has only the analog outs so no outboard DAC option I guess.

In terms of DAC evolution, was it a smooth progression or are there some key leaps in the technology that can be identified?

 

[Nakdoc]

Well I was going to list a few, but what you have is really good. I'm trying to think of good sounding silver face CDs and I am drawing a blank! How about a B&O? The CDX was pretty good.

 

[Tusec]

Here are a few possibilities I found in Google images. Anybody familiar with these?

Accuphase DP-60

Denon DCD-1550G

Denon DCD-1650AL

 

[Tusec]

And here are Luxman D-404 and Bang & Olufsen CDX:

 

[Tusec]

Here is a very early Philips CD-303, representative of the first generation players:

The pic appeared in an earlier AudioKarma thread...

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=97901

...which features, once again, a reference to the mysterious landmark year 1987:

I've got many Belgium made Magnavox and Philips CDPs and changers, almost any using the swing arm pickup will track just about anything. Just the nature of their better players I guess. Most of them sound pretty good. I have about a dozen or so various models and the performance is pretty consistant with anything 1987 or earlier. I think as long as you stick to ones made in Belgium as opposed to Mexico most of the Magnavox players of that era were pretty good.

Does anyone know what happened in 1987 that made it such a dividing line?

 

[KentTeffeteller]

Best silver faced players:

Magnavox FD 1000 SL
Magnavox FD 1010 SL
Magnavox CD 303
Revox
Studer
Tandberg
Bang & Olufsen Beogram CDX

 

[gladiator335]

What about Kyocera?

 

[BrocLuno]

I had a Kyocera - it was Ok for the time but any modern multifunction DVD player will beat it handily. Currently I use an Onkyo DV SP404 in silver (Burr-Brown DAC, 192 KHz, etc.) so as to not offend the classic gear it sits with

 

[avionic]

Don't forget Cambridge...Not Vintage,,But silver

 

[jdurbin1]

Tandberg made a silver faced CD player?

John

Best silver faced players:

Magnavox FD 1000 SL
Magnavox FD 1010 SL
Magnavox CD 303
Revox
Studer
Tandberg
Bang & Olufsen Beogram CDX

 

[austi15]

Huh, I picked up a h/k HD300 a few months ago...It has a black face though :scratch2: sounds very nice, about as "tubey" as 80's CDP's can sound.

 

[BrassTeacher]

As an aside, is it just me, or does anyone else wish we could get the lasers we had back then with the DACs we have now? Part of what made the B&O CDX, as well as the B&O Beogram 4500, as wonderful as they were was that ultra-nice Philips laser, which isn't really available anymore (not cheap anyway).

 

[KentTeffeteller]

Yes, there was a Tandberg silver faced player. The first model had an early production run in silver. Very limited production (may have been a prototype in reality).

 

[BrocLuno]

As an aside, is it just me, or does anyone else wish we could get the lasers we had back then with the DACs we have now? Part of what made the B&O CDX, as well as the B&O Beogram 4500, as wonderful as they were was that ultra-nice Philips laser, which isn't really available anymore (not cheap anyway).

No. it's not just you - I think that would be the best of both worlds too

 

[ehoove]

A Philips DVD 963SA might be an option. They can be had for around $100 and feature SACD and 192k upsampling. Good looking silver face with blue readout. I have had 2 of them.
Regards,
Jim

 

[jdurbin1]

Cool! I assume you are talking about the 3015 or something earlier still... did it use a matching red LED display to the tuners from that period, or the same green display as the production players?

John

Yes, there was a Tandberg silver faced player. The first model had an early production run in silver. Very limited production (may have been a prototype in reality).

 

[Retro Stereo]

I personally like this one, and it'll be tough to find a better sounding one too:

Oh, and no DAC needed with this one either, so it is the best of both worlds....



Retro

 

[ddanrr]

Here is a little different approach for a silver cd player. This is a Sony verticle unit, actually was part of a mini system, but I use it as a stand alone CD player, it has normal phono outputs so you can connect it to an amp. The face on the bottom is aluminum, it has simulated wood sides, glass front, the buttons glow blue, and the CD loads through the top like a toaster. It sounds really good and I like to be able to watch the disc spin as it plays. Its a Sony CMT-EX1, out of production but I found mine on the auction site for less than 40.

-Dan