CD Player: Vintage or modern ones?

Hi there. I use a 30+ year old Meridian CD player. I love it! But it certainly has its quirks. It does not play CD-Rs (which sometimes I burn from Bandcamp downloads) and occasionally it refuses to read some CDs (usually ones from small, boutique labels). That said, it does play about 95% of the CDs I throw at it. Anything it doesn’t play I rip and add to my Roon library or I play in my second system that has an Oppo player.

I purchased the Meridian from the original owner and it came with original box/paperwork, etc.. The seller gave me a one year guaranteed and if I had problems they were willing to take it back. I’ve had it for over two years now. I love the industrial design of the Meridian and think of it as a fun, unique piece on my rack. It does have its quirks, but I’m willing to put up with them since I have other ways of playing music. My point basically being, if you want vintage, then go for something you really want because you enjoy the brand, the history and influence of the component. Perhaps its legacy. And make sure you feel confident with with who you’re buying from. If you want trouble free and want to know it’s going to play everything, then consider new.

As for SQ, I have my Meridian player running coax into my BorderPatrol DAC SE and am very happy with the sound. No complaints — it equals my Stack Audio Link II Roon endpoint going into the same DAC.

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[EDIT] Just read your comment about purchasing the Metronome AQWO 2+. Congrats and very nice! Disregard what I said above :)

There are some "vintage" CD players/Transports that are simply outstanding.  Also, there are a few that have excellent internal DACs also.  Back in the day, Sony and Pioneer were in the CD player wars.  They built their CD players better than anyone else at the time and they were built so well that I have to believe that they lost money on some units.

For example:  Sony's CD777ES (I believe) or 707ES, Pioneer Elite's PD93, 95, 91, 65 are very nice.  The PD93 is impossible to find and is built so well that it is scary.  Look at the video of the PD93 on the Skyfiaudio web site.  Great site by-the-way.  If you can find it, buy it. 

The Pioneer Elite DV-09, BDP-09 are also built like tanks.  Seriously overbuilt, with very nice internal DACS.  The DV-09 is under $300 USD now and I am an "expert" in repairing them.  What a unit.

I've A/B demo'd the PD-93 as a CD player using the RCA outputs into my Audio Research REF 10 pre-amp.  very nice indeed.  I've then listened to the optical output into my Audio Research DAC 9 DAC, then into my REF 10.  yes, the DAC 9 is better, but the PD-93 sounded so good, it was amazing.  Same for the DV-09. Using this a a transport only, it it hard to beat. Seriously. 

my point, is that you can spend a few hundred dollars and get a really great CD transport or CD player with a decent internal DAC.

The PD-93 isn't cheap because people in the know, know.

look at Skyfiaudio's web site.  youtube videos.  They do excellent work and the tech there really knows his stuff.  

enjoy

Digital is not the place to go vintage. 
 

last 10 years have been particularly significant as this tech continues to mature. 
 

would not recommend buying anything older than 2015  

@minorl @decathlon1991 i'm also a big fan of the old pioneer elite cdps, which are ridiculously overbuilt, tho i caution that the dv09 and some others don't play cdrs. i still use a dv-79av, which has been bulletproof, plays sacd and sounds great. i see 'em on ebay all the time for <$200.

My best sounding CD playback has been from an SACD/DVD player, the Philips 963SA.  Most other decks sound opaque compared to this one. $300 or less purchased used.

I have also used a Pioneer Elite, which had good tone overall but sounded a little thick (not airy) in the upper frequencies. If your speakers are of the hyper-detailed variety this treble handling might be advantageous.