What's the best 5 disc cd player for under 1,000?

Adcom GCD-700
One in AudiogoN in mint shape for <$400 (retail $700)

I vote for using a $79 Aiwa XC-37M CD Changer (see ebay) as a transport, and spending the remaining money on a DAC that has a toslink input.

If you don't mind waiting, see old threads on what Stan Warren will do to the Aiwa and a MSB Link DAC.

I agree with Sugarbrie. Another option is a Stan Warren modified Pioneer CD V503 (number is right, but letters may be off). The player is available from Costco for $179 and the mod is $250. Good luck.

Sony SCD 333ES, available for under $500 used. SOunds great, plus it plays SACDs. And when you get ready to move up, you can get it modded to sound spectacular for another $500 to $700.

I agree with Anth0456. I owned the Sony SCD 333ES and was very impressed by the red book play. It also has various roll-off point selection that increases it's versatility. As mentioned above, the SACD play is bonus. At A'gon prices this player is a steal and will be very satisfying musically. I've not heard it modded out, but suspect superb price to performance ratio. I upgraded to a Cary 306. Good luck to you! Dave

CAL Audio has (had?) a 5 disc changer that probably sells for under $1K used. Craig

Cal Audio is very nice if you like smooth as opposed to hi-rez, very analog sounding and can be found for around $1000 on demo. But I believe they went out of business?

California Audio labs CL-10(discontinued) DOM is on rear, look for a 99 or2000 as many small changes were made since 95 when this unit received good reviews. I had a 95 and now a 2000 and their is quite an improvement in sound over the older models.

CAL CL-10 sells used for about $7-800. Stereophile Class B and has a full range of digital outs if you want to upgrade to an outboard DAC at a later date. Its quite a nice unit.

do'nt laugh but for under 500 a radio shack modified by paul weitzel will beat anything stan warren has to offer. help me out guys who have these. they will play 6 disc as well.

Sorry I am laughing. That Stan Warren Aiwa/MSB combo is what the Chicago Audio Society uses as their reference CD player. It is compared against all other players they demo. (see www.chicagoaudio.org) Show as where your Rad Shack player has beat it out. I am sure the folks in Chicago would be glad to test it at their next meeting. Stan's stand alone Pioneer DVD player mods are close behind. He will modify a Pioneer 5 Disc DVD player as a stand alone player.

In our experience, we have not found any other multi-disc CD player at $1,000 or less (retail) that can match the musical performance of the Arcam Alpha MCD.

We are not a dealer for Arcam, but we have auditioned this model extensively. Happy listening!

Sincerely,

W ENTERPRISES NORTHWEST -Portland, OR USA
High End Audio That Is Music To Your Ears
www.wenterprisesnw.com ||| wenw@qwest.net

Kirk930, What DAC chip does your Radio Shack giant-killer use?

Kirk,

How can you say such a qualified statement such as "radio shack modified by Paul Weitsel will beat ANYTHING Stan Warren has to offer"? How are you so sure of this?

I and others have compared Stan's best digital work to top of the line Theta, Krell, Sonic Frontiers, Audio Research and Wadia. Guess what? Stan's digital was the best sounding! What you are saying in this thread then is that Paul's modified Radio Shack player will beat any Theta, Krell, SF, AR or Wadia. This is VERY hard to believe! Perhaps you are not really aware of what Stan Warren is capable of building. Please Let us all know how you are qualifying your "ANYTHING" statement.

Something else that everybody reading this thread should be aware of: The Aiwa player has been used as a transport by some extremely competent high end audio speaker companies, really! (Most don't want anyone to know they are using it though, for fear of backlash from the audio community)... Think about it; "We design our ultra expensive speakers using a $129 5 disc digital transport, from a mid-fi company called Aiwa". This would bury a speaker company's high end reputation with any name dropping audiophile! They would be saying something like; "What!, You don't use something like an Wadia, Theta or Levinson to design your speakers, but an Aiwa instead? Your reference system is obviously flawed, and now I'm wondering about your speaker building abilities."

I will say that I was very impressed to see a system at the CES 2001 show that had an Aiwa 5-disc transport with an un-named over the top D/A converter and Merlin speakers. I think this room was in the top five best sounding rooms at the show, if I'm not mistaken.

Cal Labs CLD-10 transport

Check out the Anthem CD-1. Used should be under 1K. It has a tube output.

Sweet Player