Portable CD Player with Digital out

Buckingham,

Seems like a lot for traveling. I live on the road as a medical contractor and have had several combinations and permutations. I've found either an NAD L-40 or Linn Classik paired with NHT SuperZeros or Rogers LS3/5As on VERY light (non-metal base and top plate) Lovan 24" stands works well.

Buckingham, for those portable questions, you should visit www.head-fi.org. To answer your questions based on my limited experiences, SONY's DE7xx or better do have digital out. Most of Pana don't, in US market. But again, I would recommend simpler config, namely SONY D-25S, which is 12 years old model but/therefore VERY good sounding DAC inside with all metal chassis. Not suitable for actual portable purposes. You can find it on eBay from Silicon Salvage without headphone or AC/DC adapter or battery at $45. Real bargain. I am using it in my den through ASL's MG Head, but not much difference sound quality from its headphone jack. Ken

I have lookd and looked for a portable CD player w/a digital out, but the only one I ever knew of, and once owned, was the original Radio Shack Optimus 3400, or whatever the model no. was, that Sam Tellig and everyone raved about back in the early 90's. I used to use that CD player w/a DAC-Man from Audio Alchemy in a little system in my kitchen. The Optimus eventually stopped running and the new models at Radio Shack didn't have the digital out anymore. Everytime i check portables at Circuit City, Best Buy, or the Shack, I find none w/a digital out. Maybe this thread will turn up something.

Try minidisco.com. They specialize in MiniDisc equipment and often carry portable CD players with optical outs to carry a digital signal to the MiniDisc recorders.

I found some Sony Discmans that have optical outs. I will get one of those and a nice cheap DAC that supports optical digital input and a good headphone amp and some Senn 600's. This should do the trick. I do believe that the outboard DAC is necessary because the internal DACs in those portable units are CRAP. Thanks for the tips everybody.

Yep Sony DEJ721 has a digital out. Check out the posted Take-it-with-you system bellow and everything will clear up to you.

The only portable cd player with a coaxial digital out that I know of was the Radio Shack CD3400, which unfortunately, is no longer made or sold. You may find one used, but I do not believe service is available for them anymore. They do sound good, even as a cd player.
What you may want to explore, if you have a portable cd player with halfway decent sound from its analog output; you could get an Art DI/O dac and use it to convert the analog to digital and then back to analog, upsampling to 24/96k. This would also enable to you to use the "tube warmth" feature of the DI/O. This would be a great toy, however, I am not sure whether the DI/O dac is better than your EAD. Also, my limited experience with a stock DI/O indicates it would not be my first choice for headphone listening due to its soundstage limitations.

I think Marantz makes a hefty portable with digital out. Check out Full Compas catalog.

bump....

any updates/links to portables/compact CD players with digital out? Are portable units with SP/DIF outputs dead because of thw power ( ~ 10mW) draw of this interface versus the desire for 50 hour plus battery life from 2AA batteries ?

PeAK

I simply doubt there would be enough of a demand for such a component
today. Most likely there is more of a demand for iPod type players with digital
outs.

Well, I have a new, never-played Radio Shack CD-3400 (I just dropped out of audio for quite awhile due to family
issues). Can anyone advise: should I just start to play around with this thing, or are folks out there just dying to find one of these and willing to pay a nice (even silly)
price? I'm pretty interested in the whole portable high end
question now, but it's all a matter of figuring out priorities. Thanks!