advertisement


What was/is your favourite CD player

I have had only one cdp in my main system for the last 23 years :D It's a Naim CD3.5 that ibought new and it's still on the original transport. When the upgrade bug hit I added a hicap. Then changed the internal reg to an Avondale TPR4. I have done extensive modifications to the 3.5 over the years and haven't quite finished yet. OPA627 opamps, alwsr for opamps, flea powered clock with dedicated psu, a dedicated psu for each dac power supply pin (three in total), flea regs for dac, a smattering of gyrators, led's replacing Rset on several LM317 regs, pfm mosfet gyrator pre reg for digital supply (everything apart from the dac), capacitors replaced here and there, acoustica mod no.7.

Then I tried bypassing the whole of the anologue stage and just took the audio out from after the dac data sheet first order filter. Well blow me down, I much preferred it and got to do away with a seven pole bessel filter, tens of passive components, two alwsr and two psu's. Still got some recapping to do and a few more lovely led's to put in a few more lm317 circuits . In the dark with the lid off my 3.5 looks like a Christmas tree.

But it's not really a 3.5 anymore. Sounds fabulous to me, I couldn't want for anything else. Got a spare unmodded 3.5 to compare the mods to and a spare VAM transport so hopefully I can keep this thing going for another 23 years. I am obviously very attached to it after owning it so long and spending so many hours working on it. It's a miracle it still works as the motherboard has been in and out more times than my kids have had hot dinners.
 
For little money the Cambridge Azur players ain't bad - I keep a 540c V2 on second system duties as I've never found anything to better it for the amount these can be had for S/H. I keep meaning to pick up a 650c to see if it lives up to the spec.

BUT for main duties, a Naim CD3.5 was my go to CD spinner for a decade. In stock form its good (better than your experience with the CD3) but with an Avondale SPX it was a serious contender. That combo saw off a CD3 / CD5 / CD5x and a CDX/CDPS. Now Rob, I know you have a SPX...:)
 
Favourite must be my Linn Karik, bought it new I guess about 27 years ago... still works fine plus I’ve had a spare laser tucked away for years. It was my first CD player, as it was only one I could actually listen too.
Most wanted CD player, Linn CD12, but went Unidisk 1.1 route instead.
One of best players I’ve heard, Rega IsIs, better than any player from Naim.
 
Although I now use a Naim 555 , that aside I would say the next most enjoyable /musical cd player I owned would be the marantz 63 KI signature.
Stephen
 
My current Rega Apollo-R as transport and Deltec PDM3 DAC is the best I’ve owned by far, and being two ‘shoebox’ sized components take up no more space than a single unit. By saying that it won’t play SACDs, and I have a surprising amount of those, so I have a Marantz SA8005 upstairs for that. I do toy with the idea of buying a serious high-end SACD, Luxman, Accuphase, Esoteric or whatever, but I’m nervous about dropping that sort of cash on something where if the transport becomes unmaintainable it becomes scrap. I do certainly like CDs/SACDs and would only swap to streaming if I had to move somewhere very small in retirement. I just like the ‘collection’ aspect of it, some CDs really are beautiful items.
 
For me (and perhaps somewhat ironically), my favorite CD player was the Naim CDS2. The original CDS was the first CD player that sounded "right" to me, and the CDS2 improved on that greatly (IMO, obviously). Easy to listen to, hugely informative and involving, and neutral with respect to the music played. I'd be interested in comparing to my CD setup now.
 
I bought an Arcam Alpha+ some time last century. Modded it to hell and back (e.g it had at least 3 iterations of Trichord clocks, umpteen different PSs, even totally redid (then un-redid) the grounding) and it still works - absolutely amazing!!

Best sounding CDP was a Cambridge CD2 (Stan Curtis' bodged/tweaked masterpiece). I managed to get the Arcam pretty close.

I also had a Philips super cheap CD723, which with mods was supposed to be a giant killer. Taught me that turd polishing will only get you shiny sh1t.

Most disappointing CDP - Rega Saturn (or Satan, as I called it). Awful, brash sounding thing.
 
I've been through a few; I was an early adopter !

Philips CD100 - I liked it, no crackles and pops and iffy vinyl pressings. Ideal for those quiet classical passages.
Philips CD580 - bought when the 100 started making some funny noises. It was ok
Rotel 965BX - I hesitated between this and the Marantz CD63. English Audio in Hereford left me alone in the demo room for a couple of hours until I made my mind up. Great service. I miss Adrien's shop! And a really good player.
Audiolab CD8000 - Came into a bit of money. It was good, if a bit dry.
Tag McLaren CDT20R - I'd discovered ebay by now; oh dear ! The CDT kept breaking, though; not reading discs. It had a new transport, which helped - for a bit.
Tag McLaren DVD32R - It had the replacement Sanyo drive, so I hoped I'd dodged its well-known problems. Well, I had - for a couple of years or so, when it gave up the ghost.
Primare BD32 - I've had it for 6 years or more, now. It was expensive, but so much better than anything else I've had. It's a great-sounding player, whether it's playing CD, SACD, Bluray or streaming from the network.
 
I avoided CD players until I couldn’t. Hated everything I heard until the quad 67. never bought it but a few years later I demoed a meridian against a Unico. No contest. 15 years later the Unico is still here and it’s outperformed a gyrodec all that time
 
I had a 63 KI a few years ago. Never really fell in love with it. I found it too bright and a little aggressive. Years later I purchased the Rotel above. Love it and IMO it is a better player than the Marantz.
 
Auditioned a CD5X and an Ikemi and bought an exdem of the latter £1,299 IIRC. I used to play it 2hrs+ every single day, sometimes 5hrs. I had to tell friends it was used more than my £4k car in spite of a 60 mile commute. It brought out textures and subtle details that were fabulous. One Saturday morning 7 yrs later, having set up Spotify and a Firestone DAC, I listed it on eBay for £850 and it was gone by lunchtime. An amazing machine, which still gets rave reviews by owners now. And strangely it hasn’t dropped much in 2nd hand value. Now I’ve got an Arcam D33 I feel I’m probably back at Ikemi joy. Hard to say as I’ve changed amp, room, house, speakers since. But the Ikemi defo had an ability to bring out singer’s personalities.
 
Very pleased with my late Wadia, which is the best I have owned. Fond memories though of the Avondale ACD3 and prior to that the Linn Ikemi. I bought the Wadia as a stop gap until I find my final CD player. I haven’t though explored the possibilities thus far, which means the Wadia is doing a jolly good job.

I should also mention my Sony X707ES. That’s not going anywhere. In fact I have a donor player for the laser.

And a mention in dispatches too for my Rotel 865BX, on standby should there be a need for a stop gap.
 


advertisement


Back
Top