2. amps-preamps
  3. 181856-137606

Best Basic CD Player (no SACD, USB, etc.)

Hey guys! Old dude here! My Panasonic SL-PJ316 CD player took a dump after years of faithful service. I started looking around for a replacement only to discover CD players with price tags into the thousands of dollars!! WTH??  Ok, I know there is SACD, USB, bluetooth, etc. BUT, I am not going to try and re-purchase my entire CD collection of almost 40 years to buy a SACD player. And, from what I've read, the USB, streaming lot seems to cause problems in certain players. ALL I need is a high quality, basic CD player that won't cost thousands of dollars. Any suggestions? Yamaha? NAD? Marantz? I'm "all ears". Thanks, for the advice. Best regards, Rob

shutupuface

Showing 2 responses by vonhelmholtz

vonhelmholtz
911 posts
 

I wanted my CD play to sound like my analog play and I managed to get it close by ripping my CDs on a $40 drive via DbPowerAmp and then streaming the CDs. DbPowerAmp makes sure that the stored file is bit perfect. I have no idea what your system looks like but if you have a streamer, most streamers will stream off of a USB drive and many off. NAS. CD art gets automatically stored with the ripped file.

I resorted to this approach for both audio quality and convenience. My physical CDs are now in storage. I tried to find a CD transport under $1000 and just didn’t like the sound quality.

vonhelmholtz
911 posts
 

@oldaudiophile 

There's only so much you can do with digital. 

I doubt that you meant this as a guiding principle.  This statement is true, but I doubt that many of us will come close to the ultimate digital. 

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