Hi Friends,
I thought my impressions on this CD player may be useful to people who still have a large CD collection . Please note I am just a regular listener & not an audiophile who will look into the very minute intricacies of sound, though I am particular of good rich sound. Although it doesn't look like but will try to keep this as short as possible.
After my Pioneer PDS 802 cd player gave up after 22 years, I have been listening to CD's on a Pioneer DVD player & then the Pioneer Bluray player BDP 180 for some years.
Somehow I missed the warm sound of my old CD player which was a fuss free player where CD's were concerned. My choices for a CD player were Teac, Marantz, Cambridge audio & Pioneer in the midrange price segment. I had also enquired with Mr. Anil of Hifi Mart about the SA 8005(Sacd player) . He was very gracious to give me a good discount yet it was way beyond my budget at approx Rs. 70,000/-
I was contemplating on purchasing the already well reviewed CD 6006. But then the CD 6006 UK SE edition came out after sometime which got superb reviews. On researching between the differences between the standard CD 6006 & the UK edition found out that in the UK edition the improvements were made to the power supply of the digital-to-analogue circuitry and upgrades to the analogue output stage. Apparently some capacitors were also replaced which made the UK edition give out more details than the standard 6006. On the carton & on the rear panel only CD 6006 is mentioned & "UK" is not mentioned anywhere. Lookswise both look same except for the round Union jack logo on the front panel on the UK edition.
Hence I thought this CD player would be the one for me .
In July this year first tried with Amazon UK since this model is available only there & nowhere else but delivery to India was not possible. Then I tried to procure it through UBuy , a site I was not confident with . But later came to know on enquiring with them that their cost was excluding duty & logistics & was working out very expensive. MZ dealers for Marantz also couldn't get this one whereas the standard 6006 was available with them. So I let the issue rest for a while since I had no contact in UK.
Towards the end of October I tried ordering again from the Amazon UK site & surprisingly my order was accepted & got delivered from UK in flat 3 days via DHL. I had to upload my KYC documents to DHL for customs clearance.
The dealer was TVA tech who did a great job in quick delivery & packaging. Credit to Amazon UK too. Voltage of India & UK are same at 230V except the power plug is a flat pin. A multisocket extension board like the Targus (which I am using) or Belkin etc can be used. The plug quality is great so its better not to change it.
First Impressions were very good. A solid good looking player with great build quality & finish which felt heavy. The rest of the audio rig is Marantz SR 7011, Pioneer BDP 180 Bluray player, Dali Oberon 1 front & surrounds With the Oberon Vokal as the center & the SVS PC 2000 subwoofer.
Tried different genres of vocals & music from Rahul Sharma( Mountainscapes), Kishore Kumar, Jubin Nautiyal, Arijit, Nancy Sinatra, Perry Como, Jim Reeves, Rodrigo & Gabriela, 2 cellos etc. They all sounded great .
First Tried the RCA cables to the receiver to use the CD players dac. It sounded more analog, lushful & full bodied sound with a lot of punch. I had to reduce the bass from the subwoofer from -4 to -6. My subwoofer gain setting is slighter less than the 12 o clock position.
Then connected an optical cable from CD player to the receiver to use the receiver's dac. It sounded a little brighter with less bass & sounded slightly digital.
Then played the same tracks on the Pioneer BDP 180 using the BDP's Dac. This also was warm sounding but the details were fuzzy & less clear than the cd 6006.
My conclusion after hearing the cd 6006 UK SE was that I couldn't go back to playing cd's on the Bluray player. I have not heard the standard cd 6006 so cannot state the differences of it vis-vis the UK edition.
Pros of the CD 6006 UK edition
1) Excellent midrange price player with fullbodied sound. Great with Vocals & makes you feel the sound is more analog than digital. Infact it reminded me of my cassette hearing days except the hiss of tapes is not heard.
2) Its a warm punchy player & the bass sounds more rhythmic & cohesive with the tracks.
3) The player has a USB port with playback support of mp3, aac & wav files.
4) Excellent inbuilt dac.
5) Great build quality & finish.
6) So far has been playing CD's with scratches.
7) Forgiving with bad recordings but cannot magically transform a bad track to a good one.
8)Displays the name of the song on the display along with the track no.
9) The CD remote will also work with a Marantz receiver functions since it was meant to be partnered with the PM 6006 UK edition.
10) Has a headphone volume control for headphone lovers though I don't use headphones.
Cons of the CD 6006 UK edition
1) I miss using the display of the folder/file structure on the TV for track selection. With the small display on the CD player, one cannot see the track name being played from the MLP To navigate between folders on the USB you have to go to the CD player & do that.
2) While the tracks on a cd can be selected or programmed to play through the remote. The tracks on a pendrive cannot be selected or programmed to play in a particular order. You have to press skip button to reach a particular track.
3) The player cannot play Flac files or Sacd disks.
4) No open/close button on the remote. You have to use the open/close button on the front panel of the player. Also felt for ergonomics the open/close button should have been on left side of the tray rather than the right.
5) The the forward & back skip buttons double up for forwarding & rewinding the track which is a minor issue
6) A lot of unnecessary buttons on the CD remote which you wont use.
I still have to understand more about the player. For me this purchase was well worth it despite the cons since the sound is enticing . This player has the capability to make you close your eyes & enjoy the music rather than staring at your equipment & listening to music. My taste for sound is more on the warmer side without losing on details which may differ from someone else's taste who prefers a neutral sound.
I am sure there are better players than this one but may be available at more than approximately twice or thrice the cost of this one.
I thought my impressions on this CD player may be useful to people who still have a large CD collection . Please note I am just a regular listener & not an audiophile who will look into the very minute intricacies of sound, though I am particular of good rich sound. Although it doesn't look like but will try to keep this as short as possible.
After my Pioneer PDS 802 cd player gave up after 22 years, I have been listening to CD's on a Pioneer DVD player & then the Pioneer Bluray player BDP 180 for some years.
Somehow I missed the warm sound of my old CD player which was a fuss free player where CD's were concerned. My choices for a CD player were Teac, Marantz, Cambridge audio & Pioneer in the midrange price segment. I had also enquired with Mr. Anil of Hifi Mart about the SA 8005(Sacd player) . He was very gracious to give me a good discount yet it was way beyond my budget at approx Rs. 70,000/-
I was contemplating on purchasing the already well reviewed CD 6006. But then the CD 6006 UK SE edition came out after sometime which got superb reviews. On researching between the differences between the standard CD 6006 & the UK edition found out that in the UK edition the improvements were made to the power supply of the digital-to-analogue circuitry and upgrades to the analogue output stage. Apparently some capacitors were also replaced which made the UK edition give out more details than the standard 6006. On the carton & on the rear panel only CD 6006 is mentioned & "UK" is not mentioned anywhere. Lookswise both look same except for the round Union jack logo on the front panel on the UK edition.
Hence I thought this CD player would be the one for me .
In July this year first tried with Amazon UK since this model is available only there & nowhere else but delivery to India was not possible. Then I tried to procure it through UBuy , a site I was not confident with . But later came to know on enquiring with them that their cost was excluding duty & logistics & was working out very expensive. MZ dealers for Marantz also couldn't get this one whereas the standard 6006 was available with them. So I let the issue rest for a while since I had no contact in UK.
Towards the end of October I tried ordering again from the Amazon UK site & surprisingly my order was accepted & got delivered from UK in flat 3 days via DHL. I had to upload my KYC documents to DHL for customs clearance.
The dealer was TVA tech who did a great job in quick delivery & packaging. Credit to Amazon UK too. Voltage of India & UK are same at 230V except the power plug is a flat pin. A multisocket extension board like the Targus (which I am using) or Belkin etc can be used. The plug quality is great so its better not to change it.
First Impressions were very good. A solid good looking player with great build quality & finish which felt heavy. The rest of the audio rig is Marantz SR 7011, Pioneer BDP 180 Bluray player, Dali Oberon 1 front & surrounds With the Oberon Vokal as the center & the SVS PC 2000 subwoofer.
Tried different genres of vocals & music from Rahul Sharma( Mountainscapes), Kishore Kumar, Jubin Nautiyal, Arijit, Nancy Sinatra, Perry Como, Jim Reeves, Rodrigo & Gabriela, 2 cellos etc. They all sounded great .
First Tried the RCA cables to the receiver to use the CD players dac. It sounded more analog, lushful & full bodied sound with a lot of punch. I had to reduce the bass from the subwoofer from -4 to -6. My subwoofer gain setting is slighter less than the 12 o clock position.
Then connected an optical cable from CD player to the receiver to use the receiver's dac. It sounded a little brighter with less bass & sounded slightly digital.
Then played the same tracks on the Pioneer BDP 180 using the BDP's Dac. This also was warm sounding but the details were fuzzy & less clear than the cd 6006.
My conclusion after hearing the cd 6006 UK SE was that I couldn't go back to playing cd's on the Bluray player. I have not heard the standard cd 6006 so cannot state the differences of it vis-vis the UK edition.
Pros of the CD 6006 UK edition
1) Excellent midrange price player with fullbodied sound. Great with Vocals & makes you feel the sound is more analog than digital. Infact it reminded me of my cassette hearing days except the hiss of tapes is not heard.
2) Its a warm punchy player & the bass sounds more rhythmic & cohesive with the tracks.
3) The player has a USB port with playback support of mp3, aac & wav files.
4) Excellent inbuilt dac.
5) Great build quality & finish.
6) So far has been playing CD's with scratches.
7) Forgiving with bad recordings but cannot magically transform a bad track to a good one.
8)Displays the name of the song on the display along with the track no.
9) The CD remote will also work with a Marantz receiver functions since it was meant to be partnered with the PM 6006 UK edition.
10) Has a headphone volume control for headphone lovers though I don't use headphones.
Cons of the CD 6006 UK edition
1) I miss using the display of the folder/file structure on the TV for track selection. With the small display on the CD player, one cannot see the track name being played from the MLP To navigate between folders on the USB you have to go to the CD player & do that.
2) While the tracks on a cd can be selected or programmed to play through the remote. The tracks on a pendrive cannot be selected or programmed to play in a particular order. You have to press skip button to reach a particular track.
3) The player cannot play Flac files or Sacd disks.
4) No open/close button on the remote. You have to use the open/close button on the front panel of the player. Also felt for ergonomics the open/close button should have been on left side of the tray rather than the right.
5) The the forward & back skip buttons double up for forwarding & rewinding the track which is a minor issue
6) A lot of unnecessary buttons on the CD remote which you wont use.
I still have to understand more about the player. For me this purchase was well worth it despite the cons since the sound is enticing . This player has the capability to make you close your eyes & enjoy the music rather than staring at your equipment & listening to music. My taste for sound is more on the warmer side without losing on details which may differ from someone else's taste who prefers a neutral sound.
I am sure there are better players than this one but may be available at more than approximately twice or thrice the cost of this one.
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