"Good" CD players last a LONG time. 7 years to 15 years would be the norm in my guess. From my experience, stock Philips players don't last as long as many other brands. Sony's seem to last a long, long time.
Other than that, digital technology is changing more than any other form of audio reproduction. As such, buying a machine and hoping it lasts forever may be good for the "thrifty" side of you, but thinking that an "antique" player is going to sound as good as a current player built to the same standards today is another story. THAT is why you see people rolling yesterday's darlings out the door today. Sean
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Speaking of Sony CD players, I have a old Sony 707ES CD player that is still working perfectly, after about 15 years. And yes, it does indeed sound a bit long in the tooth compared to more modern players, (such as my Sony 9000ES DVD/CD/SACD Player, which is probably only a decent sounding CD player). The old 707ES sounds a bit dark compared to the 9000ES, ,but still, has a good balance of sound, but the HF seems a bit rolled off in comparison.
Neither CD player holds a candle to my analog source however. Long live Vinyl! |
The mechanical aspects of playing a CD, including dynamic adjustment of LED focus are quite remarkable, and I find it hard to understand how they can make it work so well when brand new. It is a characteristic of mechanical devices that they wear out. The electronic part probably won't wear out, but becomes obsolete.
My first player was a Mission, and the disc player mechanism was stock Phillips. It "only" lasted 15 years. I have not had any other player fail.
When I had occasion to repair an auto radio cassette player I discovered that the entire mechanical tape transport mechanism was an easy plug-in job, and that in spite of there being hundreds of brands of car radios, there were only two types of tape transports used. I think it cost $19. I wonder how many different disc spinners exist. I don't know for sure, but replacement of the mechanical part of a CD player might be simple and inexpensive. |
Sean, it's funny you should say Sony products last a long time. I've owned two multi-disc changers, a 27" TV, a VCR, an S-VHS VCR, a receiver, and a multi-function remote and everything but the remote has been repaired. About half has been under warranty. The other half went kaput exactly the year after the warranty expired. I'm just waiting for the remote to die. Am I rough on my equipment? I don't think so. Literally nothing else I've owned has ever seen a repair shop including a 15 year old Onkyo Receiver and a 20 year old Samsung tuner. Needless to say, the remote was and is my last Sony purchase, ever. leo. |
Every piece of Sony gear that I, or my friends, have owned has died early on. |
Leo: I've had Magnavox cdp's, modified Magnavox cdp's, Philips cdp's, etc... For that matter, my Brother has had some of the same. All of them went down in a relatively short period of time. Even my latest Philips, the SACD 1000 took a dive about a week ago. Out of the blue, the unit started acting quirky. It wouldn't respond to input from either the remote or the buttons on the faceplate. One would have to shut the unit down and then power it back up in order to get a response out of it. After doing this for a few days, i turned the unit off and it wouldn't come back up. Since the unit is not even a year old, i sent it back to Philips for repair a few days ago. Needless to say, my track record with Philips is like yours with Sony. Having spoken to a few people that work in the repair industry about this, it seems that Philips has a reputation for lack of longevity with digital products.
For sake of comparison, i have two individual friends that are still running Sony units that i had originally purchased about 15 years ago. I passed them onto them because they were both reliable units that never gave me any problems. One of them was a changer, which is mechanically far more complex and flimsy, but it is still working. As such, i'll probably end up buying a Sony SACD / DVD if my SACD 1000 can't be repaired or takes another dive after this repair.
Maybe we should swap "Sony / Philips Kharma" : ) Sean
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It's funny, but consumer surveys that ask the questions:
What hi fi company is your favorite?
and
What hi fi company is your LEAST favorite?
Sony tends to be the most popular answer to BOTH questions.
Personally, I have never had a Sony product break on me aside from portable Sony CD players.
KF |
The only CD player I have ever bought that didn't die pretty darn quick is a Rotel that Im still using. My Sony SACD (CE775) died in three years. Other cheap but decent brand cd players I have owned and buried include Philips, Yamaha, Marantz. My Theta PROCESSOR, with no moving parts, is going strong after 15 years or so. It may be a self-fulfilling thing, but I don't buy expensive cd players because my experience says that cd players don't last--the idea that expensive cd players DO last is not one that I want to test. |
My wife still uses my original Magnavox CD player that has to be over 15 years old. |
Thanks for the posts so far. I guess the reason I enquired is because I do listen to music a lot. I mean a lot a lot! My rotel had to be sent in for repairs the first year I had it, and then it took some time to rectify the problem. I think it is interesting that many of the cd players I have looked at -mid priced, expensive, or budget like mine, have the same sort of warrenties. To me it does not say much for the manufacturers confidence in their products reliability when the warrenty is only good for a couple of years. Of course, I am not claiming to have looked at every product out there, or that I am not suceptible to some kind of bias. After all, it does appear from the posts here that there are a few very reliable cd players. |
I still use an old 1st generation Denon cdp on a secondary system. It will be eligible to vote and join the Army in a couple months. It has never failed over the years, but the sound is clearly darker (pun?) with associated HF harshness, in comparison to newer technology.
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Most high-end high-volume gear does last a long time. The top of line Sony's that were sold 6-8 years ago are still going strong. I have three DVP-S7700's that show no signs of wearout and they have been obsolete for 3 or more years. Lots of customers send me DVP-S7000's which was the very first Sony DVD player, top of line. These are really old. You get what you pay for, but stick to the high-volume manufacturers on CDP's. |
I also have a 1st generation Magnavox player...it was assembled in Belgium...and is built like a tank...granted...sounds a little "mushy" compared to modern players...but the transport is pretty decent....too bad it doesnt have connections for a DAC... |
Wouldn't you know it. My Sony DVP, which was their top of the line model when i bought it a few years ago, just went belly up. The audio portion works fine but the something is very wrong with the video portion. From what i can tell, it looks like a poor connection, so i'm going to try re-flowing all of the solder joints with some decent solder. As if i didn't already have enough "projects" to work on... Sean
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PS... Either "someone" is trying to tell me to get rid of digital gear ( or maybe "video" gear ??? ) or this is one helluva coincidence. This makes two top of the line DVD players that went down in a matter of two weeks !!! |
