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What was/is your favourite CD player

well have had a few and only one that stays is the Rotel 955 with a host of upgrades by S-Man of this parish, very different sound to my other Naim CD3, but that really punches hard, the CD£3 great for sheer impact and quality of bass the Rotel not as hard hitting but loads of detail and tight control.
Always wanted to try an ACD3 as enjoyed an AAA5 many years ago.
to confuse the issue have a Rega Dac if i ever get a digital out on the CD3 that might be interesting.
Had full size Rega Apollo nice player little heavy on the bass and not as controlled as CD3
still learning what works fir my ears tbh
 
I forgot about another player that I had and enjoyed for several years. The California Audio Labs Tercet Mk3. Nice sounding player.
 
The best I have ever got CDs to sound at home was using a PS3 plugged into a Cyrus DAC X+ using a short Toslink cable I bought from E Bay for £4.
 
My favourite CD player was a Copland CDA 823 (which replaced an Exposure XXIII cd player). This was partnered with a Krell KAV400xi amp and Dynaudio Contour 1.8mk2 speakers. Lovely sound. Perfectly balanced with the rest of the kit and I could have lived with that for ages but being a fool I swapped it all for Naim gear!
 
Meridian 507 24 bit, by far the most enjoyable, though don't miss it much as seldom play CDs. I tried many chep to mid level players in the early days, apart from the Marantz CD50SE none of the others sounded all that great.
 
I loved my CDX2/XPS2. I eventually got a (used) CDS3 but it wasn't a significant step up, at least not in my system with Avondale amps. In fact it didn't sound anywhere near as good as my Planar 25 and soon after I gave up on playing CDs seriously, since I didn't want that kind of money invested in obsolete gear after the kids came along.
 
Naim CDS3 was where I left off before going to an NDS streamer. Others I remember fondly were Roksan Attessa transport + Pink Triangle DaCapo DAC. That was thrilling. Big respect still for my first foray into Cd too: Marantz CD63SE.
 
In chronological order
Marantz CD 63 se
Cyrus 8x + PSX
Pioneer 9700
Audiolab 8000 CD
Shanling CDT 100 modded beautiful to look at as well as listen to
Chord BLU with Chord DAC 64
Currently Chord Blu with Chord QB76 HD.
Each one an upgrade on previous model.
 
I bought my first CD player one year ago today!! I was never interested in the whole silver disc game.however something opened my mind
Covid !
I had to sell my klimax lp12 due to Covid and had no turntable for the first time in 50 years
I bought a Marantz cd7300 so I would have something to listen to and was pleasantly surprised
I sold that when I saw a Rega Saturn up at a bargain price
I now have a Rega Saturn installed with a Mana sound clamp running into a Marantz HD DAC1,(also a pink fish bargain),
via chord anthem digital cable and have bought my favourite couple of hundred albums on cd
all for £2 or £3 delivered you can pick and choose everything you want!
It sounds amazingly good
I know how it did sound and back to back the linn was better but in isolation I don’t miss it
I just sold 3 LP albums on e-bay which paid for it all how incredible!! I am even thinking about an isis if cd can be this good and I can find one cheap enough :D
Cheers
Tony
 
I bought my first CD player one year ago today!! I was never interested in the whole silver disc game.however something opened my mind
Covid !
I had to sell my klimax lp12 due to Covid and had no turntable for the first time in 50 years
I bought a Marantz cd7300 so I would have something to listen to and was pleasantly surprised
I sold that when I saw a Rega Saturn up at a bargain price
I now have a Rega Saturn installed with a Mana sound clamp running into a Marantz HD DAC1,(also a pink fish bargain),
via chord anthem digital cable and have bought my favourite couple of hundred albums on cd
all for £2 or £3 delivered you can pick and choose everything you want!
It sounds amazingly good
I know how it did sound and back to back the linn was better but in isolation I don’t miss it
I just sold 3 LP albums on e-bay which paid for it all how incredible!! I am even thinking about an isis if cd can be this good and I can find one cheap enough :D
Cheers
Tony

Finding something that brings the excitement is cool isn’t it?
And c.d’s are pennies.

I am going to be raiding charity shops for c.d’s - now I realise how musical they can be.
Years of trying to find a charity shop album/records and now I scan for c.d’s.
I do know that a lot of charities throw away c.d’s as they have such little interest. Same with DvD’s, they take up space, and if they aren’t selling it is dead space.
 
I do know that a lot of charities throw away c.d’s as they have such little interest. Same with DvD’s, they take up space, and if they aren’t selling it is dead space.

Condition is a big issue, a lot of such things charity shops (well managed ones anyway) throw out are in too poor condition to be much good to anyone, but they do tend to be good at getting whatever they can from rag merchants, recyclers etc etc. The shop's location and customer base tends to determine what stock will sell, larger charities are very good at moving stock between their stores to where it will sell. CDs, games and films they don't have a market for they might sell to CeX, Music Magpie etc. A lot of the skill is knowing what is worth what to whom or who to ask. I've been consulted a few times by charities I have connections to, on one occasion a non-working Arcam CD5 was rescued from a box destined for a recycler, where its weight would have earned the charity a few pence, and I found it a home on here with a fishie who wanted it for spare parts and very kindly donated £50 to the charity for it!
 
Modified Naim CD3.5 :) I added four extra psu's for the flea powered tent labs clock and one for each of the three dac chip power supply pins. Bypassed the anologue output stage and relay altogether so no psu needed for that. Dac pin 28 has a flea regulator and the other two dac supplies have led voltage set lm317's with flea style gyrators before them. Some of the other lm317 regs have been converted to led voltage set. Oh and I put a PFM mosfet gyrator before all the lm317's in the purely digital stages before the dac chip. The original transformer only powers the digital bits.

It sounds nothing like the original especially since I bypassed the anologue output stage. Still using the original transport which is 24 years old. Got a couple of spares so hopefully this cdp will keep going for another 24 years:D
 
Condition is a big issue, a lot of such things charity shops (well managed ones anyway) throw out are in too poor condition to be much good to anyone,

I look in small independent charity shops, the condition of c.d’s are usually excellent.
(the ones I am interested in anyhoo)

3 for a quid usually.
 
Sony DVP-S9000ES - Its been with me getting on for 10-years now and I just can't bear to part with it. Real downside is just the shear size of it but other than that, its superb.

Preferred it over a Rega Apollo, Apollo-R, Toshiba SD-9500E and a few other Sony players. Also had a Teac VRDS-10SE and Rega Planet mk1 which I don't think were any better although thats from memory rather than comparing side by side.


Puresound A10
by Robert Seymour, on Flickr


Sony DVP-S9000ES
by Robert Seymour, on Flickr

At the moment I'm using a Yamaha NT670D as it has built in Streaming which I am using more. I don't think it sounds as good as the Sony with CDs though.


System
by Robert Seymour, on Flickr
 


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