Need Help to choose CDP?

GATOR3000

Hi all,

Looking to buy a new CD player. The CD Players below are my three choices and not necessarily in that order:

ORIGINAL A8T CD Player (Tube and SS)
SHANLING T80 CD Player (Tube only)
Cambridge 640C v2 CD Player (SS)

Need help to choose one. Which one would you buy? All help is welcome and appreciated.

Thanks

Gator

Chicomoralessxm

Well i don't know about the others but i'm a fan of the Cambridge equipement hey if you can afford it give music hall and rotel a look as well

F1nut

I haven't heard of the Shanling T80. Did you mean the T100?

Also, look at the Jolida JD100A and the Eastern Electric MiniMax. Both are tube output and have my recommendation.

Fireman32

+1 on the Jolida thats my next purchase.

GATOR3000

F1nut wrote:

I haven't heard of the Shanling T80. Did you mean the T100?

Also, look at the Jolida JD100A and the Eastern Electric MiniMax. Both are tube output and have my recommendation.

No man, I'm talking about the Shanling T80, The T100 is way out of my range, but Shanling sure makesnice products.

Cheers

Ricardo

Take a look also at the BADA HD-22; tubed output and I am very happy with it; as good as the stock Jolida 100.
http://www.pacificvalve.us/BDHD22.html

AndyGwis

Zombie just posted a link to a nice rotel 1072 CDP, if that's hifi enough for you. It's a great deal at $350 or whatever the guy is asking.

Chicomoralessxm

did you make up your mind already? have you considered rotel or even music hall??? kinda curious as why you are limiting your choice to those 3???

GATOR3000

Chicomoralessxm wrote:

did you make up your mind already? have you considered rotel or even music hall??? kinda curious as why you are limiting your choice to those 3???

Hey Chico……….wazzzzzzzzzz……Uppppppppppp??? OK, to answer your question, I didn’t limit myself to only those three models I have listed. I have been doing a lot of research quality/price/SS/tube/integration with my system/availability………….blah…..blah…….blah. Anyway these are the three models I came up with.

Just to keep you informed I have ordered the “Original A8T CD player”. Why I have chose Original A8T CD player is:

1. Price is right. What I mean the unit is coming from USA and I have to pay duty and taxes and I have checked with Canadian customs and the total fee is reasonable.

2. The A8T is build like a tank. The quality is awesome. It weights 20.9 lbs.

3. It has a huge heavy duty toroidal transformer. WOW……..this is a monster!

4. It has two separate outputs. One is stand alone SS output the other is totally separate tube output that uses 2 12AU7’s tubes.

5. It is easy to roll tubes in this CDP. The 12AU7 tubes are very common and relatively inexpensive. The A8T uses only two of them and replacing stock 12AU7 tubes with NOS like Mullard, Telefunken, Amprex, Tung-Sol just to name a few, will totally change the sonic signature of this CD player. So I have a lot of room to play around, experience and enjoy different kinds of music.

In a nut shell that is about it. I just didn’t see myself buying a CD player that is “plug and play” type. I wanted a CD player which is more versatile like the Original A8T.

I did look at the new “Cambridge 840C CD player” with the 24bits/384kHz upsampling. Very nice unit, but way overpriced for my taste and no tubes. I have auditioned this unit for 2 hours. Like I said, very nice sound, but there was no feeling in it (IMO). The music coming out through this CD player was very clean, detailed, but cold! There was so much detail that it sounded almost unnatural if you know what I mean. We all have different ears and tastes for music.

Anyway, hope I satisfied your curiosity and answer your question why I have chose those three CD players?

Cheers

Gator

I-SIG

+1 on a rotel 1072. Easily in the neighborhood of the very nice DAC's like the Bel Canto and Benchmark.

Wes

beardog03

I can recommend the Jolida, and the Ah! 4000...

I have both and love them both ...very different machines, but that`s why I have both..!!

Roy Munson

I auditioned a lot of cdps before I settled on the Jolida..I highly recommend it!

beardog03

what are the other components that your going to use in this 2 ch set-up ?
Depending on what the rest of it is made up of,
you can find a cdp that fits into that paticular rig with better synergy...

I have found that after I modded the AH! (upsampler, tubes, dynamat. power cord, etc..) that it is a very good CDP.

The Jolida is also a great cdp...I plan to do the upgrade mods on it soon also..

I have never heard a shanling cdp, but really like what I see..!!

also there is a write up of the Bada in this months Affordable Auio E-zine, if I remember correctly

GATOR3000

beardog03 wrote:

I can recommend the Jolida, and the Ah! 4000...

I have both and love them both ...very different machines, but that`s why I have both..!!

Yes, I do agree there are a lot options to buy a CD player. I did consider the Jolida 100A. Very nice player, but would of liked the one with “Level 1” upgrade at least. This would put me right over my budged. Canadians are limited to lot of audio gear unless one wants to fork out big $$. Like I said the Original A8T CDP was reasonably price with the options I was looking for.

I’m going to upgrade signal path, power cord, tubes……blah….blah…..blah….ultimately this will be sweet sounding CD player in this price range.

Gator

GATOR3000

beardog03 wrote:

what are the other components that your going to use in this 2 ch set-up ?
Depending on what the rest of it is made up of,
you can find a cdp that fits into that paticular rig with better synergy...

I have found that after I modded the AH! (upsampler, tubes, dynamat. power cord, etc..) that it is a very good CDP.

The Jolida is also a great cdp...I plan to do the upgrade mods on it soon also..

I have never heard a shanling cdp, but really like what I see..!!

also there is a write up of the Bada in this months Affordable Auio E-zine, if I remember correctly

Thanks bro, very good suggestions on CD players. I have looked at Bada CD players too, very nice machines. The front plate looks almost the same as the Jolida 100A CDP.

For now the rest of my 2 channel rig is Antique Sound Lab AQ 1003 DT integrated tube amplifier (30 wpc) with Rti8’s or Lsi15’s. Ultimately I will be looking for more efficient speakers, haven’t decided which one as yet.

Hope my Original A8T CDP will come before Christmas. I will give you guys a full report/opinion on this player after I get it.

Cheers

Gator

beardog03

cool..!
look forward to hearing how it goes...

I agree with you on te level 1 mod.
I`m getting ready to mod my Jolida as soon as funds are available

I am also interested in what speaker choice you make..