Looking for a CD Player

Check out the Teac 701t.  Music Direct has a good price on them now.  I have had one since August.   Nice machine.  

Unless you are using a separate dac, the cd player needs to have one built in.  

I have a Denon DCD-1700NE.  For $1500, it's a really nice player.  It has SACD, but you don't need to use it (if you don't own SACDs, you don't need the capability). 

You only need SACD Capability (super audio cd, read by a different laser) if you have or plan on buying SACD Discs. I had some and bought some more, but no longer, they aren't really worth it after the itch is scratched IMO. A standard CD, via great player, can sound terrific.

Lasers get old/weak relative to hours played, use caution buying used. And, they can go out of alignment, many used units play CD, but errors when trying to play the SACD version.

I went from a surprisingly great sounding Sony changer that died, CD only, to a Vintage Sony Single SACD/CD Player XA5400ES (learned about it here). I was playing almost all vinyl, until I got the xa5400es, now I am still re-discovering my many CDs, and buying used cds, used vinyl, trying not to buy anything and listen to what I inherited.

IF you do not need SACD, you might consider a CD Changer, I had two changers that sounded terrific, the Sony that died, and I kept an Onkyo Integra CDC-3.4 in one of my systems, they still sell it new, Crutchfield has good info about old stuff, Amazon has it, dual wolfson processors was why I tried it, found out how great is sounded compared to 9 others I tried (none high end expensive).

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-LESwRLiMqtt/p_164CDC34/Integra-CDC-3-4.html

My search's conclusion, it's a salad of ingredients, chosen processor(s), over-clocking, anti-jitter, proprietary filters, ... you hear and prefer ......, 

comments and help I got here

Sony xa5400es discussion here

note: they keep going up in price, I was shocked I had to pay $1,000 nearly 3 years ago

DSD Processor, not conversion to PCM

Better CD Sound, the search

A DVD Changer can keep you rocking

some play Blu-Ray DVDs, SACD, CD,

often not mentioned, just look for the SACD Logo on the face of the unit

no mention in description, but it plays SACDs

400 disc dvd plays sacd/cd, seller says FLAWLESS

GET A BAD BACK AND KNEES LOADING IT, THEN A FAT ARSE NEVER GETTING UP

your 1st question, need a DAC, yes, somewhere

a CD PLAYER has a laser to read the 1’s and 0’s and a DAC to convert them to analog line level signal.

a CD TRANSPORT just spins, it’s laser reads the 1’s and 0’s, sends the digital out to an external DAC.

some, not all, CD Players with their own DACs, let you choose to send the digital signal out to an external DAC, i.e. you can use the PLAYER like a TRANSPORT.

@smerk I am a retired audio guy who has a vinyl set up but listen to CD/SACD's amost exclusively.  I don't stream.  I have had players from multiple companies over the decades.  You don't need an SACD player unless you have a bunch of SACD disks.  Get an all in one player with the DAC built in.  I have had multiple  players that were modified by Modwright: Sony 999es, 5400 and Marantz. My opinion is if you can get an upper end Marantz that is newer such as the  SA-10 or Ruby that would be great.  Also, The TEAC CD player is reported to be very good but slightly above you price range new.  I  own a current Esoteric player which is my end game player at a significant cost.  Good luck!   

It’s a lot easier to listen to them after ripping. And it’s easier to play ’em in a top loader. No waiting for a tray or mechanism to load and eventually break.

We have a esoteric k03x for sale an amazing reference player 

Dave  and  troy

Audio intellect  Nj

My goal was to find something I liked as much as my original Onkyo Integra DX-7500, hoping not to move way up high in price, 

When I asked here about better CD and SACD sound, OPPO was highly recommended by quite a few members.

I tried two Oppo's, nothing special to my ears, that's why I say 'preferred' not necessarily 'better'. I kept going until I settled on my Sony xa5400es. I liked a Marantz's CD sound, but it wouldn't find SACDs, and I wrecked it trying to fix it.

I bought mine used from a person not a store, once you narrow down your list, you just need patience to find a lightly used unit from the original owner. I see nothing but stores with the Sony at the moment.

Here's a DX-7500, everyone liked it here like they do the current xa5400. SACD's didn't exist back then

Onkyo Integra DX-7500

Anyone know about this unit with a ModWright Mod, tubes ....

sony dvp-9000es with tube mod

If you decide that you don't require SACD take a look at this Rotel.

I try to keep up on what's fairly new/good as my CAL deck is pushing 25 years now.

The Rotel is around $1500-$1600 with tax.

https://www.rotel.com/product/rcd-1572mkii

DeKay

@smerk 

We're senior age, too.  We got tired of albums and CD players, so we went with streaming all the way, and we love it.  We've never been happier!!!!  I understand you opted not to stream your music.  Just my 2 cents.  Good luck on your CD player search.  Happy listening.     

@kennymacc 

The cost of streaming??

Not computer or phone savvy - so all help is better for this OLD MAN.

Now that you are tempted by streaming look at a Innuos Zen mini. It will kill two bird’s.
Qobuz is $12.99 a month. 

@smerk

We subscribe to Tidal as well as Qobuz (Qobuz was cheaper 3 years ago than it is now), at a cost of about 10 bucks a month each. We also rip our old CDs as well. We made sure we purchased very high quality streaming components and cabling in order to get the very best sound quality out of our streaming audio system that we could afford. The combination of #1-sound quality(most important), convenience, and ease of use, made streaming just irresistible for us at this juncture. We just love it, and couldn’t be happier!!! Happy listening