Marantz CD6004 playback issues

[plasmoid]

Not

Yes. All the old and cheaper CD players still work fine. I find the more expensive and sophisticated ones (in terms of marketing jargon ) to be more unreliable.

This is not restricted to CD players. Premium priced flat screen TV panels nowadays die after 2 years. The old CRTs at a mere fraction of the price lasted for 15-20 years.

 

[greenhorn]

I don't think older cd players are better! Their transports were well built because the electronics at that time were pretty limited.
Apart from the original TDA 1541, the DAC's in most modern players (even the delta sigma ones) are far better.

The best combo would be an older CD player as a transport + a newer SPDIF DAC