The best CD Player for the money


I AM IN THE PROCESS OF BUYING A CD PLAYER AND I DONT KNOW WHICH WAY TO GO.WITH SO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM I WANT TO PURCHASE SOMETHING GOOD BUT I DONT WANT TO SPEND 10,000 EITHER.
jazze22

Showing 5 responses by ritteri

Cant beat the Wadia 301 for $3000. Great bang for the buck! BUt I must add, what a useless thread this is!
Agreed, but a thread asking a question about "whats the best cd player" I just find kinda useless. Most of the threads are going to give very limited opinions(people are going to recommend what they have, and may do so without acutally having alot of experience with multiple components in the same class, under the same conditions with the same gear,same room condition etc etc, get the drift??).

The real question should have been "whats a good range of cd players for X amount of money, and can you honestly decribe their potential sonic characteristics"? Since there are MANY great players, all with their own positives and negatives. Ive had about 2 dozen great source units over the last few years and have found all to have benefits and downfalls to one extent or another. Ive found that some lower cost source units may not sound as good as more expenisve units out of the box, but with a few small tweaks and mods had performance that would be substantially improved where it rivals units costing more. All part of the hobby etc. But if you kind of agree with Im stating then you understand where Im coming from.

cheers
Rit.
I think there are alot of great CD players, and I mean dozens and dozens of them. Adcom,Arcam,CAL,Wadia,BAT,Meridian,Lynn etc etc. I have heard multiple units from alot of the listed companies and countless more. I personally love the Adcom GCD 750 for right around $1000. There are alot of small tweaks that can be done too to greatly improve this CD player. In fact I think the Adcom GCD and GFP 750 preamp makes a great front end combo, especially using the XLR input/outputs. You get true hi-fi products for minimal money invested.
Markone: If you want to see the true potential of the 301, spend an extra $1600 through GNSC. Its performance will surpass a standard Wadia 861se. They perform alot of critical damping, rip out alot of unecessary circuits which actually degrade performance and add some critical components to maximise the design which is alot better than its $3650 price tag shows.
Mural: Ill agree here. Ive got a computer drive that has a nice signal output, going into a great pair of headphones with a good quality headphone amp is an enjoyment to say the least.