Looking for great cd player with analog volume

Audio Aero Capital
EMM DCC2 plus transport

RA Opus 21

Mark Levinson no 39 or 390s, Krell kps.25c.

I second the Resolution Audio Opus 21 nomination. Very detailed and musical player. Comes closer to analog than any other CD player I have heard.

My second choice would be the Cary 306/200, with the optional volume control. A bit more expensive, but it also has HDCD decoding.

Audio Aero Capitole. Mine has the volume control that you ask for and this part of the unit is tubed. Great sound. Also, I use the toslink to feed it from my Satellite, the coax to feed it from my DVD player and the newest versions come with an analog passthru so you can run your tuner through it.

No pre necessary.

Here's a thought,

I just picked up a benchmark dac-1 and I'm going straight into the amp since it has a stepped volume control. Some report that its voloume pot quality is mediocre but as is usually the case the more open the volume is the better it sounds. At this moment the sound is better using its volume control than when I ran the dac wide open with good quality passive pots at the amp.

All that to say that if you have an amp with low gain or one with low input impedence that is harder to drive so that the pot on the dac must be more "open" you would have tremendous sound. Pair the dac-1 with a $200.00 used s7700 and you would have a killer digital set-up. I'm using the Ridge Street Audio digital cable too BTW, for $270. (scarey good!) good luck

Add The Theta Miles CD Player to your list.

I have owned all of the following CD players w/built-in volume and prefer them in this order (favorite at top of list, least favorite at bottom)

Resolution Audio Opus 21
Quad 99 CDP
Cary CD-308
Theta Miles (superior balanced version)

The Opus 21 is excellent, but I needed to decrease my audio expenditure, so I sold it.

The Quad 99 CDP is an excellent value at $1499 list. I paid $825 used for mine and it is one of my best audio investments EVER!

Enjoy,

TIC

Check out the APL 3910, with digital remote, it is the BEST player I have ever heard, yet, I have owned the MF tri-vista, and AA Capitole II.

Sony XA-7ES