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Are There Any Really Good $500 CD Players?

Time to upgrade my years old Marantz cheapo CD player, which works fine but sounds horrid compared to my server/DAC and turntable front ends. Even feeding the player's output into my $3500 DAC it still doesn't sound great. Understood everything is relative and more money buys better sound, but is there anything around the $500 price point that sounds at least moderately "high end"? I’d consider used as well as new.
jaybe

Showing 3 responses by itzhak1969

itzhak1969
515 posts
 
+1 For Cambridge Audio CXC ,amazing cd transport beats every cd player I owned in the past.very low jitter, wide frequency range ,detailed and punchy.
You won't find better option to the CXC under $500.
itzhak1969
515 posts
 
From my experience regular cd player isn’t good as a transport to standalone dac,my suspicion is that the inner dac of the cdp and the analog inner cycle interfering the transmission of the pure digital data out and if so preventing your dac to fulfill is full potential .The best way to go is a dedicated cd transport such as the CA CXC and if you are willing to spend more the Cyrus CDt is excellent option too.
I bought the CXC to my Mcintosh amplification and the improvement was huge:more details,huge soundstage, powerful dynamics and better transparency.You should use a good coax cable too.
itzhak1969
515 posts
 
The CA CXC has very low jitter I am using Telluriun Q black coax digital cabel that one of its qualities is rejecting jitter at all.
I don't think there is better dedicated cd transport  than the CXC under $500, but using a high end digital cable is a must.
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