vintage cd player and cd format compatibility

Ebster

Hi, you all are great. I just joined up.
finally assembling my mancave system. Keeping it cheap with a 70's Sansui 330 I trash picked, and SMALLER ADVENTS I got at an estate sale for 15 bux. Good foam!!!!
Looking to experience a 5000 series NAD cd player or Rotel, et c from the 80's or early 90's under 100 bux.
I have no idea what kinds of cds I can expect the player (s) to be able to read. I expect that SACD would not be read, but what about
burned cds in cd r, cd rw,

the gold tinted cd's, the bluish tinted ones?

There is some interesting vinyl first pressings avail on cd that sound
really crisp on my 5003 marantz player. THanks for all your sharing.

cnh

Welcome to Club Polk!

What is a Sansui 330 (the S-330 are Acoustic S speakers 3 way)? Is that an amp, integrated, some kind of receiver? In any case, I'm assuming it's some form of amplification; along with the small Advents it should be a nice vintage system.

Don't know much about old NAD CDPs and compatibility...maybe someone else does.

I have some vintage gear myself among other things. Am currently testing a pair of Dynaco A25s on a Marantz 2265.

Enjoy!

cnh

Big Dawg

Welcome to Club Polk. You have lots of choices to get a decent budget CD/DVD player that can play SACD for $100.

For example:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DENON-DVD-2200-DVD-SACD-PLAYER-ORIGINAL-BOX-REMOTE-/220840156307?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item336b195c93

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Denon-DVD-1930CI-DVD-SACD-Player-/140598403373?pt=DVD_Players_Recorders&hash=item20bc51612d

This one will probably go well over $100, but is less than that now:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Denon-DVD-2910-Region-free-DVD-CD-SACD-DVD-audiophile-/180716795376?pt=DVD_Players_Recorders&hash=item2a138f75f0

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Integra-DPS-8-3-SACD-DVD-Player-/230666113362?pt=DVD_Players_Recorders&hash=item35b4c59152

pitdogg2

I would go with the Denon1930 out of all of the players listed. It will basically be a 3910 player and plays all little 5" discs and 3'ers if you have any.(i got 2 little CD singles)

cnh

Good suggestions above. But I thought this guy wanted to buy 80s/90s gear. Why. I don't know because even the best of lasers are not going to stand that test of time. Also. a more recent piece should have greater compatibility with more dics?

cnh

stuwee

Welcome to Club Polk Ebster! I assume you want the vintage look. As mentioned most of the older players have issues not just with playing CD-R's and stuff, but many are on their last hours of the laser working at all :frown:. If the looks of the system are important, why not find a nice little used portable dirt cheap, they sound pretty good and you could hide it out of the way, you could also hunt down a used Entech DAC or similair for cheap for even better sound with the portable, both could be placed behind the amp/receiver.

You don't say where you live, but if you're in a major city check Craigslist for a newer CDP that suits the look you want. I'd personally find a nice one from the list above and be happy with that, CDP's aren't something to cheap out on, a good one will play burned discs and sound way better than an older one or a portable. Happy Hunting

Ebster

Sorry, the Sansui 330 is a receiver. A small one.
No, it's not a looks thing, just a budget thing. So I was hoping someone could tell me if older, better brands could read all/some the new formats, and then I could snag a "classic" good older one and enjoy relatively cheaply, esp. if I could find one that honestly had few hrs on it. SOme one recently posted a NAD 5240 or some such number, claiming it to be NIB. It would last a long time, be under 100, but if its diet is limited, I dunno.

The other idea would be to go with an older one, accept that only certain cds would be heard in the man cave, and be very thankful that I have a nice Marantz 7600 dvd player AND a living room where I can listen to the newer cds.

Also, if someone burns a cd from an mp3 vs wmv format, would this affect readability , even in newer players?

SO, save up, cough up a little more, get something from this millenium.

Thanks

George Grand

You won't have those Smaller Advent tweeters very long if you try and get manly with that Sansui thing. Try and get some roast beef behind those things first, and then come back and I'll sell you a NAD 5330.

stuwee

George is right clipping a small amp/receiver into those Advents will not be a good thing, lot's of nice higher powered gear around if you're patient for very little money. start hunting thrifts and check CL daily.

Most older CDP's won't play CD-R's, CDRW's, your call on that. Newer mid-line CDP's ar selling cheap too. I'd go newer(ish).

BTW, great score on those Advents, they like some power, clean power for dynamic peaks

larry777

Canuck Audio Mart has a Technics SL-PD687 5 Disc cd player recently listed for $10. Full working condition. It likely was made in the mid 90's. These are good players and were well made. I still have a similar player and never once had a problem with it. It dosn't play SACD and I havn't tried CD-R or CD-RW and no manual to check if it plays them ( You could probably find out on line though ). Price wise its about the best you will do,although the other suggestions mentioned earlier in the tread are all excellent for more money.

Ebster

The Smaller Advents are rated 4 ohms, the Sansui 331 is 8 ohms, 20 wpc.
Is it the lack of wattage that causes clipping / poss. damage, or is it the 8 ohms running into 4 ohm spearkers? I have a Sansui 70 70 that runs 60 wpc, but is also rated 8 ohms. Would that be safe to use w/ the advents?
THanks for your caveats on this. I have never cranked them up....is playing quietly also risky with mismatched impedance or little power?

Evrythngmatters

Hi. I run a NAD 5200 cd player that had about 3 hours total use when I picked it up not long ago. Here is my take on what cds it will and wont read.

-90-95% of store bought cds it will play fine
-50/50 store bought with light scratches
-maybe 1 in 20 that are burned and have a medium amount of light scratches
-0 with heavy scratches
-seems to like Maxell CD-R burned at 1X speed, will read discs burned at faster speeds but takes longer for it to read the disc. I did try Sony and some generic no name and it was a no go for those with this player.

IMO you will want a more modern player for that cd you just have to listen to. I have a few others I use that are only a few years old and they read everything, even with lots of scratches. Most of these scratched discs I am mentioning I had back in the day when I was not that into audio as I am now. Just my .02.

cnh

Ebster wrote: »

The Smaller Advents are rated 4 ohms, the Sansui 331 is 8 ohms, 20 wpc.
Is it the lack of wattage that causes clipping / poss. damage, or is it the 8 ohms running into 4 ohm spearkers? I have a Sansui 70 70 that runs 60 wpc, but is also rated 8 ohms. Would that be safe to use w/ the advents?
THanks for your caveats on this. I have never cranked them up....is playing quietly also risky with mismatched impedance or little power?

Most 'vintage' receivers can handle a 4 ohm load. The problem is that they don't have much more wattage with that load than with an 8 ohm load so you can still clip the amp and damage the speakers when there are very 'dynamic' passages that draw on the receiver's reserve power. So, to put it simply: more power is more power.

Yes, the speakers would be 'safer' with the Sansui 7070 but you could, conceivably, still clip the amp if your not careful. But you'd be better off with the higher model Sansui for now.

cnh

George Grand

I have a NAD 5530 mint, and a Denon 910 also.

Ebster

Thanks, folks. THese are useful replies for me and others. It would be really neat to have a thread or FAQ, where people would list which players they have, and which cd formats work on them.

For a small receiver like 20 wpc, does the size of a separate amp matter?

stuwee

Ebster wrote: »

Thanks, folks. THese are useful replies for me and others. It would be really neat to have a thread or FAQ, where people would list which players they have, and which cd formats work on them.

For a small receiver like 20 wpc, does the size of a separate amp matter?

The thread on what works on what would be nice, but the players all age over time and the laser's become more problemmatic, my partners older Panasonic DVD/CD Prog Scan used to play everything but SACDs and DVD-A's but lately has issues on some CD-Rs and CD-RWs and it seems to be getting worse :frown:

If your Sansui had preamp outs, you could just get a bigger amp to use, but most of the lower output receivers didn't offer that feature, a shame because they were the ones that really needed it :rolleyes:. It was a cost issue from the manufacturer. A nice Marantz 2230 on up would give you that flexiblity with a great preamp section and you could find a nice 100wpc power amp that double down's into 4ohms for all the power the Advents need.