Need ideas for CD players under $800...

steveinaz

I'm looking to upgrade my CD Player, but want to stay at or below $800 bucks. I've considered the following:

Audio Refinement "Complete CD"
Rega Planet 2000
MMF CD-25

Any others in this price range you can think of?

tonyv1

Consider getting an external DAC instead. I'm using an MSB Link DAC III with 24/132 upsampling. Don't scimp on the digital cable either.

F1nut

How about a Sony SACD 555ES? You can step up to SACD and get a Stereophile rated Class A CD player to boot.

har_navalta

How about getting Polk Speaker first...before considering something else:D

George Grand

Well, if you've got the scratch, that Planet is supposed to be pretty nice. I'm not sure I would throw THAT kind of money ($800) at a cd player.

Jesse,

Is the Sony SACD you mentioned in that price range? If so, that might be the way to go, but not $800 for a standard cd player.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grand's)

organ

For that amount of money, you might want to take a look at a transport and DAC combo. The players you listed are all very good.

Maurice

Airplay355

i dont understand this whole external DAC thing...what is it and why is it better? is it like the relationship between a receiver and an amp and a preamp?

George Grand

A receiver, is in fact, a compromise. It is three things, stuffed into one chassis. Tuner stage, pre-amp stage, and power amp stage. Less of a compromise? The integrated amp (pre-amp stage and power amp stage in one chassis), or the pre-tuner (pre-amp stage, and tuner stage in one chassis). The idea behind both pre-tuner and integrated amp is to get the goddamn tuner stage (a source of RFI) away ( AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE!) from the power amp stage. Putting the power amp stage and tuner stage near each other in the same chassis can introduce RFI into the power amp stage, which manifests itself as hash or grain in the mid-treble region. THIS is why the sounds coming out of separates emerge from a DARKER (quieter) background. THIS is why receivers cannot (in my opinion) ever be considered reference amplifiers. They are inherently noisy.

The two stage DAC and transport cd set-up, is in a way, an attempt to NOT compromise. Each piece is designed to do one job, and one job only. No compromise. Unfortunatly, not every DAC and transport system "gel". To go from a receiver to separates, affords a better chance for improvement, than going from one box cd system to a two box separate DAC and transport system. One would get the impression that better quality electrical components would be used in the two-box system, but that's not ALWAYS the case, and perhaps that's why they don't ALWAYS sound better. However, the step from receiver to separates is almost a sure thing as far as realizing an improvement in sound reproduction.

You have a receiver, stick with a one box cd player and move your speakers around. You'll hear differences doing that, long before you hear a difference going from one box to two box cd systems.

Nobody would put Mickey Thompson racing tires on a stock Ford Pinto, nor would a Maserati owner be tooling around on Sears tires. You have to be realistic about some things.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grand's)

F1nut

Yes George, it is. Actually $800.00 is the NEW price. They go for around $650.00 used on Audiogon, but the used ones sell faster than bug spray in the jungle, so ya gotta be quick. I know a forum member picked a demo up at Tweeter for $400.00, he stole it. I think for all that you get, SACD and great redbook, it's a buy and a half at list price and a effn crime at less.

F1nut

Here is a good deal on a Sony SACD 555ES, http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?dgtlplay&1071288995 and here is another (a little more money) http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?dgtlplay&1070660068

danger boy

get a so so transport then spend the rest of your greenback on a DAC. I'm sold on a DAC. It will make even your best CD player out there sound better.

as a matter of fact. i'm going to go listen to some CD"s right now running thru the lovely tube DAC .. bye y'all

steveinaz

Thanks all, I hadn't considered the Sony--but I will now. The new Cambridge Audio players look promising too, in fact they use the same Wolfson DAC as the Rega Jupiter.

Don't think I'll go the seperate transport/DAC route as my system is fairly modest.

dorokusai

I have that 555ES, it has been the best purchase so far....even better than the SDA 1C's.

mikejz84

How about a one of those Pioneer Elite Cd players with the stable platter--They can be had for about $300ish on ebay. My experence is that they sound very good by themselves and make excelent transports---put the rest of the money into a DAC and you will love it.

wallstreet

I would scratch all of those ideas and go with a nice DVD player instead. Kill two birds with one stone. Most of the DVD players outperform the CD players already.

mikejz84

I think I might have found a cheap gem of a cd player--I should get it in about a week--check back.

shack

Originally posted by wallstreet
Most of the DVD players outperform the CD players already.

No way! A CD only player for $800 will outperform a $800 player that tries to do it all (DVD/DVD-R/CD/CD-R/CD-RW/WMA /MP3, etc).

Anyway you look at it the latter is a compromise. I'm not saying the DVD players are bad. On the contrary they are quite good but they simply will not outperform the CD only player.

In fact I have my Panasonic RP-62 and my Sony SCD CE775 hooked up in the same system. We had 2 copies of Bonnie Riatt's Nick of Time CD and synched them up at the same time on each machine (both hooked up to the receiver with optical) and switched between sources. No comparison. The CD only player did the better job. They are similar price and quality machines so the comparison while not scientific is fairly valid.

Just my .02