Looking for a cd player with analog or digital vol

better to buy a placette passive and use a regular cd player through the fixed outputs!!! This will be better than any volume control thats inside any cd player. This is comming from a die hard active person and so I am not biased on the passive side if you know what I mean.

I agree with Mahandave. Compared to variable outs in sub $1000 players you would be hard pressed to beat a passive as the volume control. Passives tend to be very transparent but compared to an active line stage seem to lack in dynamics (based on my expereince with a couple of passive units). Even so, I far preferred the slight dynamic restriction of the passive compared to the flattening of the sound field of the variable output cd players I've tried. The only cd players I can think of that perform rather well with variable outs are the big guns from Wadia which control volume in the digital domain and the Theta Miles which controls in the analog domain.

A good passive like an older McCormack Micro Line drive can be had for around $300. A Creek even less. There are plenty of $700 or less fixed output cd players out there that sound great. Total of $1,000. That approach would allow you to have greater flexibility in finding a player with sonics closer to what you prefer.

Oh, if you go passive keep your cable lengths short.

A Linn Genki with two variable outputs can be had below $1000. Not as good as a separate good Preamplifier (e.g. Wakonda, but actually better than Kolektor, see other posts on Audiogon about this topic). The Genki is a very good reliable player for the money, i. e. if you don't mind Linn.

Rene

The suggestions offered so far from Mahandave and Arch2 are good ones. Another choice you have to to buy a set of attenuators from www.tweakaudio.com. These mount on the rear of your amp via the rca jacks. Essentially, your ICs running from your cdp out to the amp input connect to directly to these. I've had mine for quite some time now, super quality and performance. Benefits: low cost, high performance, no need for more ICs. Draw backs: They are somewhat inconvenient. Cost is $350 new, Ric Schultz at EVS is a super guy to deal with too.