New or Old CD Player?

I cannot recommend the Hegel Mohican...

Like the rest of their players, it simply comes off as a rebadged Opera Audio Consonance CDP, typical of that outfit's efforts in the first 5 years of this millennium.   At $5000, you're spending 2X - 5X for machines that proved historically unreliable and more than decade old technology.

Reading the Herb Reichert Stereophile review, I see two errors:
1.  CLEARLY a Sony (source of most of the problems with the Consonance players) transport / laser, not a Sanyo
2.  Opera Audio Consonance, who OEMs Hegel components, manufactures in China.  The review states in black and white the machine is made in Norway.   As usual, the rear panel does not have a "Made In" statement, but only Hegel - Oslo, Norway, etc.   Personally, I have a real problem with the way Hegel handles this

@twoleftears the Sony transport makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Back when they manufactured them in Japan, Sony turned out the very best CD transports in the audio business.   The shift away from Japan production in the mid-2000s proved catastrophic.  Since then, I'd feel uncomfortable buying any machine that use them, let alone a $5000 player.  Ironically, at that same time, Philips, who had produced less than mediocre CD transports got their act together, and became the one you wanted.  Sanyo also makes a decent CD  transport today.

Personally, I'm more than a bit leery on spending real money on a CD player, the Achilles heel of an audio system.  Other than a good older machine, I prefer going for something with a more robust CD reader like a Sony 5400ES SACD player, Oppo, or the like, and if that didn't sound good enough, feed it into a DAC.  I find it silly that I can buy a Samsung or LG DVD writer at my local computer store for $14.99 any day of the week that offers night and day better reliability than the CD laser assemblies used in multi-kilobuck audiophile players

@twoleftears sorry, I don't know much about Primare.  I believe you are right the TEAC transports.

I also believe history proves you find yourself in very good hands with  Bryston.  Even if the CD assembly has gone out of production, I can't see them leaving their customers out in the cold

@twoleftears while I have no first hand experience with the TEAC / Esoteric transports, their reputation proceeds them.   More than "very good", many have labeled them class leading.  However, I will defer to @jafant and if he knows they're in-field performance has shown them less than exceptional, I believe him.

Incidentally, the Philips transports acted just about perfect in my experience.  I **may** have encountered one defective unit in a Consonance CD120 Balanced, but I apologize, as that recollection could be incorrect.  Otherwise, they have performed without issue for me.

Now...speaking of the Consonance CD120 Balanced, I no longer have any and didn't dig deep enough for pictures, so I cannot speak with absolute confidence in comparing the internal layout.  But this Hegel Mohican gives me a strange sense of deja vu.  Outside of the digital out connector and an extra line of printing where they included the Hegel name, the rear of the two machines look identical.

I wanted to simplify and streamline what I felt seemed like an overly broad and confusing lineup.  So along with the far stronger interest in non-oversampling DAC topology at that time, once Consonance switched the CD120 Balanced from the Philips to the Sony assembly, I then only featured the CD120 Linear.  I set the North American retail price at $995 for each, and felt both sounded better (though quite different from one another) than anything at that price point.

Though no ones likely interested, I keep a Consonance Reference 2.0 SACD player for myself.  I rescued a pile of 21 of them, and got at least 16 of the second generation units back on their feet.  I love the tube output and analog volume control that provide excellent sound without needing to use a preamplifier even if I sometimes do.  Its sonics get nosed out by the Reference 2.2 MKII CD player, though the SACD capability is a trump card for me.  And that Sony SACD part has so far (knock on wood) held up.  When this player dies, it owes me nothing 

@imgoodwithtools CONGRATULATIONS on the ARC player!  I listened to one, and it certainly sounded like a serious contender.

Hope you love it, and it provides you with the joy we all hope for 

@twoleftears WOW, indeed!

On the other hand, you do get a few upgrades for the additional $4000 Hegel charge for this player: a more sculpted faceplate with the three buttons on each side combined into one, a different digital out connection, and the Sony CD assembly.   Oh wait, that last one might be a downgrade.

Dont get me wrong, the CD120 Balanced put forth an excellent sonic presentation for its $1K price point.  Just that seeing them go for $300 would upset me had I just dropped $5K on the rebranded one.  Somehow, this company skates by this stuff, and their continued growth shows they know more than me

@trelja "I cannot recommend the Hegel Mohican...

Like the rest of their players, it simply comes off as a rebadged Opera Audio Consonance CDP, typical of that outfit's efforts in the first 5 years of this millennium. At $5000, you're spending 2X - 5X for machines that proved historically unreliable and more than decade old technology."

Based on the internals @twoleftears provided, I must reiterate my non-recommendation of the Hegel Mohican.  Comparing the rear panels of the Consonance CD120 Balanced shows what appears the reintroduction of a $1000 machine, discontinued 12 years ago with a new faceplate, digital output, downgraded CD mechanism, and going completely against better and better digital becoming more and more affordable, a price tag 5X higher than it used to be

http://www.canuckaudiomart.com/details/649267251-consonance-cd120-balanced/images/1202196/

https://www.stereolifemagazine.com/news/item/1235-hegel-mohican

Personally, I find this dirty pool.  And I'm going to call it out.

I have a lot of experience with the original.  In no way do I feel it's not an excellent sounding CD player.  At its price point, it bettered most of its competitors.  And for a few hundred dollars, I heartily recommend anyone to move forward, and would even feel happy to have one myself.  But $5000 bought much better performance then (even within the Consonance lineup itself via the Reference and Droplet models) and even more so today.  Indeed, Mohican seems the appropriate moniker