Classe CDP-1.5, 1 or .5 experience??

I owned the CDP .5 cd player and have some cd player experience to semi back up what I will say. I will tell you my experience strictly from a quality of sound perspective. I wanted the .5 to be great. Its specs, looks, company reputation were and are impeccable. It was not. After owning it for 2 months a buddy of mine brought over his Marantz CD63SE and left it for a while. The two players sounded IDENTICAL. I confirmed this later on via several other unbiased people and some switching and even long term. I sold the player and got something better for even less $$$. I now own the Meridian 506.20 and completely love it. It is way more refined than the CD63SE. At the bottom I will include a list of CD Players I personally have owned. After several calls to Classe I got the answer that this player (and the CDP1) only carried their name and was not designed or built by them. Classe may be a fine company but their digital is a complete joke. 1.) Classe CDP .5 2.) Rotel RCD 990 3.) Krell KAV 300CD 4.) Meridian 506.20 Keep looking there is much better out there. Also from my experience the Rotel was WAY nicer than the .5 so the 991 may be something to check out. Good Luck.

Thanks to all for the input so far....when used properly this site can help us share experience.....and make better choices.

I had cdp.5 cd player. It sounded great, better than the Sony XA7ES that I have now. Tracking was the big problem. More than 25% of the cd could not be played.

I have CDP.3 for last 2.5 years and it has performed both mechanically and sound wise flawlessly unless CD's themselves are dirty or contain scratches. Obviously I can't vouch for the other models. I also have their amps CA-400 and CAV-150, Pre-amps CP-45 and SSP-50 and they all sound great. Great values to boot.

Hi...just some other information from my first post (the first one in this thread). After returning three 1.5s for skipping, the dealer told me they had to return 2 or 3 others for the same problem - tracking/skipping. The best players I have ever heard or owned were: anything by Meridian, and California Audio Labs. After the bad experience with the three Classe 1.5s, I auditioned and purchased the CAL Audio Labs CL-15. Price: $1,595 ($2,100 with balanced inputs). Great sound, great machine from a company that specializes in CD players. Stereophile rated this model as "B, but borderline Class A in the right system". While no one should buy a component based solely on a Stereophile rating, check it out or audition it and see if you agree. By the way, I still like Classe amplifiers and I own one.