Best Sub $500 used CD Player

I've had experience with five under $500 players in the last month or so and been able to A/B them pretty thoroughly in various combinations, the Music Hall CD-25, a Cambridge Audio 300se with upgraded opamps, an AMC CD8b, a Philips 963 DVD/CD player and a Toshiba 3950 DVD/CD player. With that many options and a fairly small price range, it's impossible to say just one was clearly best but here are my observations.

If you've got $500 that you don't need for anything else and are interested only in the best two-channel audio, get the Music Hall. If you want to spend that same money and are willing to give up just a little audio quality for high quality video and the potential for multi-channel audio, get the Philips.

If you want to spend $100 on sound and $400 on something else, and you can live with a little less quality, buy the Toshiba (or a JVC 600 series DVD player.) The two players in between, the Cambridge and AMC, are also very nice for the money, both between $100 and $200 used, sound somewhat better than the inexpensive DVD players and the ergonomics are better.

They all do a good job for what they cost but the Music Hall is the only one that makes me stop when I'm walking through the room and just sit down and listen.

Afro18, yes, the Shanling 100 is the same player as the Music Hall CD-25. I'd point out, though, that the one for sale now on ebay is a 220-volt version and would require an external transformer to be used here. The cost of a transformer good enough to not affect the sound, plus the shipping, would bring the cost up to or above what a used CD-25 usually goes for here on Audiogon, not to mention the potential import hassle and duty payments.

I highly recommend the player, though, wherever you get one. I bought a used CD-25 for $350 and it was an absolutely exceptional-sounding piece of gear in stock form.

After reading some stuff about the various modifications, I decided to do the easy ones myself. It's now got extensive sound-dampening applied to the inside of the case and a high-quality power cord.

The best upgrade, though, was replacing the stock opamps with 8066 opamps. the pair cost $54, which is a substantial percentage of the purchase price, but the difference in sound is remarkable, way beyond what you'd regard as a 'tweak,' more like getting a major speaker uprade. The sound is much cleaner, more articulated, and the bass is dramatically more realistic. It's a very simple procedure, as well.