Trouble free cd player these days

[vinothkumar]

Isnt the CDT from audiolab a transport only ? You would need a separate dac then.

Yes, i bought separates, have a dedicated dac.

 

[jai1611]

I've been using a denon 800 CD player for the past few months. Trouble free. Picked it over the Marantz because of feedback of higher frequency of issues in Marantz players. That seemed to be less of a problem for denon. Plus they have a full service setup in Bangalore

Sound is a tough bright(as compared to my r2r dacs) but otherwise good. They also have a 520 model which is cheaper

 

[square_wave]

The Denon dcd 600 may also be in budget. Does anyone use this model ? This model probably has the same mechanism as the 800 but with less features.

Side note : Since Marantz and Denon are owned by the same company, wont the OEM's for the mechanisms be the same Chinese guy ?

 

[himadri]

I had a denon dcd 700ae used as a CD player for about 7 years and now use a marantz CD 6004 as a transport sometimes , normally relying on my laptop playing with the battery power only as a source.The denon was surprisingly made in Japan and was very reliable. I don't know whether denon makes made in Japan entry level CD players anymore.The marantz is made in China.

 

[jai1611]

The Denon dcd 600 may also be in budget. Does anyone use this model ? This model probably has the same mechanism as the 800 but with less features.

Side note : Since Marantz and Denon are owned by the same company, wont the OEM's for the mechanisms be the same Chinese guy ?

Marantz, Denon and Cambridge use a Sanyo drive. Marantz issue seems to be specific about their implementation

 

[greenhorn]

Whatever you do, please Do NOT buy a used CD Player.

The Laser Diode has a typical life of 5 years... Why buy a product which has a shorter life span ? You will effectively not be saving money, and in fact you will be buying older technology too....

Thats bad advice. The important question to check is if the replacement lasers are available cheap, and stock up on them
http://vasiltech.narod.ru/CD-Player-DAC-Transport.htm will help you find what laser is there in a CD player model

Marantz, Denon and Cambridge use a Sanyo drive. Marantz issue seems to be specific about their implementation

I have an onkyo with the sanyo drive, and they are equally troublesome. dont think it has to do with the implementation

 

[jai1611]

I have an onkyo with the sanyo drive, and they are equally troublesome. dont think it has to do with the implementation

Would still call it an implementation issue if it has problems on some brands and not others

 

[coaltrain]

I’ve had a Cambridge player for the longest time (840C) and the issue isn’t with reading bad discs, it’s with the #$%*¥@& drawer mechanism!
At some point, every disc drive I’ve owned - CD, LD, DVD, CD ROM or BluRay - has exhibited some weird behavior wrt the disc tray. Which is why my next cdp will be a manual top loading device.

 

[RRR]

The manual top loading system is definitely better than the tray system but unfortunately i have noticed that it is implemented mostly in high end cd players...say 2L and above.

 

[IndianEars]

Manual Top Loading CD Players typically use the Philips CDM Pro mechanism.

This is a Very expensive mechanism and debatably one of the best available. The replacement lens assembly alone costs approx $ 125 ( compared to $ 15 for the 'regular ones). A complete replacement CDM Pro unit from the CD Player manufacturer will set youi back US$ 800 to US$ 1,000.

Its the Rolls Royce of CD Mechanisms, and plays Only CDs ... It is optimised for only CD playback. They do not read SACDs, DVD-A etc.

Any manufacturer that decides to use this mech, has to abandon the concept of a Universal CD player (ie a Player like the Oppo that will play any similar sized disc... CD, SACD, DVD etc

 

[himadri]

Manual Top Loading CD Players typically use the Philips CDM Pro mechanism.

This is a Very expensive mechanism and debatably one of the best available. The replacement lens assembly alone costs approx $ 125 ( compared to $ 15 for the 'regular ones). A complete replacement CDM Pro unit from the CD Player manufacturer will set youi back US$ 800 to US$ 1,000.

Its the Rolls Royce of CD Mechanisms, and plays Only CDs ... It is optimised for only CD playback. They do not read SACDs, DVD-A etc.

Any manufacturer that decides to use this mech, has to abandon the concept of a Universal CD player (ie a Player like the Oppo that will play any similar sized disc... CD, SACD, DVD etc

That's true , but even high end manual top loading systems develop problems with time as my friend with Ayon 2s is struggling with since last year or so.

 

[IndianEars]

That's true , but even high end manual top loading systems develop problems with time as my friend with Ayon 2s is struggling with since last year or so.

Ofcourse! All CD Mechanisms / Laser Assemblies employ a Laser Diode as its core component to read the CD.

As I have posted, the Laser Life is approx 5 years....

If you have a longer running CD Laser, its your Good Luck !

 

[Nitin K]

The Pioneer PD-S802 is one of the best players I have had, which lasted around 10 years & later got spoilt due to non-usage. The tray was unique, felt classy, very stable & felt like a vinyl player. It would play most of the cd's including the ones with scratches without any issue at all. Sound quality was also top notch & laid back. Now-a-days, the trays that come with most of the cd players look & feel so cheap & not that the players are very cheap.

 

[IndianEars]

The SONY ES Series players were also Superbly built, with full metal, chunky drawers.

Now aduio only CD players are few, n a couple of days ago when i went to buy a replacement laser lens assembly, i was flatly told that they no longer stoch CD lens assemblies...

 

[himadri]

Ofcourse! All CD Mechanisms / Laser Assemblies employ a Laser Diode as its core component to read the CD.

As I have posted, the Laser Life is approx 5 years....

If you have a longer running CD Laser, its your Good Luck !

Yup , his luck seems to have run out and Ayon had added proprietary circuits to these mechanisms and shipping to and fro to Austria for repair is a losing proposition.

 

[shuv]

How is the TEAC CD650? Was about to pick up a 5005 for my father. This thread (and a few others) has me sitting on the sidelines.

 

[IndianEars]

For Expensive CD players, I recommend buying CD players that accept an external Digital Input (Usually USB).

With such players, even after the CD Laser has died, the CD player can be used as an external DAC.

Even while the CD Transport section is working, using the DAC section via an external Digital input ensures the same overall sonic signature, when the CD or External digital signal is used.

 

[greenhorn]

Manual Top Loading CD Players typically use the Philips CDM Pro mechanism.

This is a Very expensive mechanism and debatably one of the best available.

Typically, yes, but the Sanyo we are talking about here also comes in a top loading flavor that's used in some jvc minicompos and some fancy stuff like the rega apollo.


The cdm12 is a nice mech, but it used to be available for a few hundred dollars until Phillips stopped manufacturing it, after such it's price has shot up mainly due to scarcity and the wealthy nature of it's typical user base which have also driven up prices.

Any CD player mech, including the Sanyo will support only CD, and won't support dvd, sacd etc which need different lasers

 

[RRR]

The Sanyo laser mechanism used in Cambridge cd players do not support even Mp3. They will only play original cds and recorded cds which have been correctly finalized in wav format.

 

[greenhorn]

The Sanyo laser mechanism used in Cambridge cd players do not support even Mp3. They will only play original cds and recorded cds which have been correctly finalized in wav format.

Again, no, this is because of the implementation. The mechanism used in most cambridges are the same as the one used in my Onkyo (SF P101N to be precise) , and it plays back CDR, WMA and MP3 just fine