Ruminations On CD Players


After multiple factory rebuilds, I'm ready to replace my twenty year old Arcam CD-73 CD player.  I've looked through lists of recommended CD players in the $2000 range, and have noticed that some are all-inclusive while others have separate transports and DACs.  Other than ease of replacement, what are the benefits of having the transport and DAC separate?  Any recommendations on CD players in this price range?  I only have music CDs so don't need anything that can do more than that.

 

Thanks,

John Cotner

New Ulm, MN

jrcotner

Meanwhile lots of enthusiasts still own many CD's, so CD players and transports are experiencing a similar type of resurgence to Vinyl and turntables.

@jimmyblues1959 Yeah, while you make some good points I have to disagree with this one.  There are relatively few CD players left on the market and even fewer dedicated transports, and the numbers will continue to shrink as more people just stream or rip their CD collections to a server or external drive.  Conversely, the demand — and therefore and options — for analog rigs, DACs, and streamers are experiencing huge growth.  CD players and transports still have their place for now, but the handwriting is on the wall and they are the audio buggy whips of the future, and this will only accelerate as streamers/servers continue to improve and higher and higher performance can be had at an increasingly lower and lower cost.  CDs are going the way of the cassette and VCR and for many of the same reasons.  

Naim cd5 si.

Open drawer, drop 💿, press play.

Benefit from Naim analogue stage.

Enjoy! 

@cat345  The beauty of simplicity.  I like my Naim CDi for the same reason.

Soix,  you may well be right.  Time will tell. 

Regardless of the format the key is to enjoy the music. 😊

 

 

 

 

Jayctoy has it right...no used unless covered.A used oppo is a cheap refurfish but my sim $ to replace drive.It does sound better than it ever has.

still love sim quality build.

If you purchase an MHDT Orchid and you're handy with a soldering iron, you can do much more to upgrade this DAC to a more analog sound by not only tube rolling but replacing the large 2 uF caps with much higher quality caps and investing in an 'S' grade chip(but these can be expensive....takes some hunting to find one for less than $200). I'm using an Audiolab CD transport. This combo comes very close to sounding like my very expensive analog system fed through high quality speakers.