We have an old Sony ES CD player 35+ years that is still kicking. A Rotel amp kept blowing fuses gone and one other CD player laser died. The ES still sounds quite good and have it hooked to Nakamichi Receiver 2. The Nakamichi is from my Dad who passed at 94. He originally had Macintosh mono equipment that he purchased in about 1957 to 1959. He did not do a great job on speakers but the Nak is superb. Only problem is the FM inpuit is not coax had to use a flat wire old tv 50 ohm converter and the wires are weak.
Old digital that still kicks butt
Not being a believer that time necessarily = progress, I would like to offer the following example of a sonic gem that has transcended time and can totally kick butt in a modern milieu:
1. Marantz CD5000 al la CD48, Philips Cd753, CDS751: what do these players all have in common:? the miraculous TDA1549 chip. As Lucas Ficas alias ’Lampizator‘ has described this chip is a killer and probably the best Philips has produced. If you take the output straight from the chip via high quality output caps the sound quality is still right up there. Add a cathode follower if you you wish for greater solidity and slam at the expense of ultimate clarity.
Add some chassis damping and you have something that plays real music.
1. Marantz CD5000 al la CD48, Philips Cd753, CDS751: what do these players all have in common:? the miraculous TDA1549 chip. As Lucas Ficas alias ’Lampizator‘ has described this chip is a killer and probably the best Philips has produced. If you take the output straight from the chip via high quality output caps the sound quality is still right up there. Add a cathode follower if you you wish for greater solidity and slam at the expense of ultimate clarity.
Add some chassis damping and you have something that plays real music.