Martyn Miles
pfm Member
I bought a Sony XA777ES, which cost over £200 new, for £600 a few years ago.
It’s by far the best CD player I’ve owned.
CD Players, worth spending over £2,000?
- Thread starter Peter McDermott
- Start date
I bought a Sony XA777ES, which cost over £200 new, for £600 a few years ago.
It’s by far the best CD player I’ve owned.
Paul Mc
pfm Member
I have this model too. Magnificent.
trebor
Member
Do you find it silent in operation?
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linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
It’s down to what’s available though, manufacturers can get them sounding very good indeed. What’s most important is availability of replacements. My Ikemi, manufactured mid 2000, needed a new laser earlier this year, so did 20 years on its first one, its back in full working order and sounding epic, and I have sealed spares for the future. What the Ikemi does have, is a custom made metal loading mech.
As for availability of replacements for the CD12, which was a premium Philips mech... well all I can say is “oh dear”. Availability of Philips spares has been pitiful for a long time.
Darren
So gentle when he tries to understand.
Scary! I'm thinking that the way forwards is either to buy new or, to use a cheap transport with an excellent dac. Much as I love old cd players, the transport thing scares the pants off me.
Darren
So gentle when he tries to understand.
Thats a lovely thing. Hope you enjoy.
That's what Rega have done. All of their current CD players, including the Isis, use a cheap transport designed for portable CD players. The have dedicated spares stored for each Isis sold and my guess is they also have boxes of the things ready for when the other players start to fail.
linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
Choose something with a readily available mech and buy a spare or two.
linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
The last I knew, they were using Sanyo CD mechanisms, it’s a full size CD mech, the Rega players are top loading, but the loading mech and the actual transport mech are separate and interchangeable parts. The original Apollo and Saturn used the Sanyo SF-p101n, as also used in later models of the Linn Classik Music, Genki and Ikemi.
I believe the Planet and Jupiter (2000/3 variants) used the Sanyo SF91, also used in earlier models of the Classik, Genki and Ikemi... parts are readily available for all of the above!
There is no loading mech on the Apollo-R, Saturn-R and Isis. You manually clip the disk onto the hub. The transport is mounted on the underside of the top plate.
linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
Yes, but that’s not a mech for a portable player, that looks very much like a Sanyo SF-p101n mech, change the hub to a conical one and it’ll fit a tray loading mech. It’s used by lots of different manufacturers in different loading mechs. Take a look at this link...There is no loading mech on the Apollo-R, Saturn-R and Isis. You manually clip the disk onto the hub. The transport is mounted on the underside of the top plate.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B079H2ZWDD/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
Scored one of these transports used which I'll have in the new year
Details – Audiosector
Have been using a bunch of different CD players (Marantz CD67SE/Rega Planet 2000/Teac PD-501HR) with a Naim dac and pretty disappointed in the lot compared to my previous CD5/Hicap. Yet to be convinced the culprit isn't the dac as first more modern Naim kit I've owned and sounds more hifi than musical.
The gent I purchased the unit from purchased an Audiomat transport.
I've owned a PD Amp-1 integrated based on 47 Labs design as well which I loved to pieces so hoping not to be disappointed. Needless to say the aesthetics would likely turn off many....
Details – Audiosector
Have been using a bunch of different CD players (Marantz CD67SE/Rega Planet 2000/Teac PD-501HR) with a Naim dac and pretty disappointed in the lot compared to my previous CD5/Hicap. Yet to be convinced the culprit isn't the dac as first more modern Naim kit I've owned and sounds more hifi than musical.
The gent I purchased the unit from purchased an Audiomat transport.
I've owned a PD Amp-1 integrated based on 47 Labs design as well which I loved to pieces so hoping not to be disappointed. Needless to say the aesthetics would likely turn off many....
Why not?
linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
Too big, too power hungry. The mechs used in portable machines are very much scaled down. It might be usable in a ghetto blaster type machine, but it’s deeper than most personal CD players, before you even factor in the suspension mountings it sits on, too deep for an in car type player too. There are hardly any portable machines even manufactured anymore, that market has gone.
I guess cd players like Naim with the Manual front loading drawer aid the longevity and reliability of these players.
linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
It’s pretty unusual for a CD tray to be the death of a CD player, belts can fail, easily replaced, some Philips loading mechs suffer with brittling gears which strip their teeth, again, easily replaced.
I don't see how it's too big? It looks smaller than a CD. I didn't make up the idea that it was designed for portable players, I read that somewhere.
Portable mechs tend to have little to no wasted space. They often include integrated trim that enclose the mechanism. The mech shown above looks to be several cm thick. Compare it to something like this:
I couldn't find a photo of that mechanism with a CD mounted. But using CD specs and some pixel math, here's an approximate representation of the size of a CD versus that mech. The spindle is 15mm diameter (105 pixels in the image). A CD is 120mm diameter or 60mm radius (420 pixels in the image). You can see the CD is significantly smaller than that mechanism.
I couldn't find a photo of that mechanism with a CD mounted. But using CD specs and some pixel math, here's an approximate representation of the size of a CD versus that mech. The spindle is 15mm diameter (105 pixels in the image). A CD is 120mm diameter or 60mm radius (420 pixels in the image). You can see the CD is significantly smaller than that mechanism.