Cayin CD50-T Anybody audition or own this?

I have not, but the January edition of "The absoulte sound" has a small review on it along with the 88-T tube amp.

I own a cd-50T and heres what I think.

For acoustic music its pretty much unbeatable at the price. For rock music such as Rolling Stones etc - it probably lacks the speed / dynamic punch I like down low (think NAIM).

However, when you hear something like Joni Mitchell or Diana Krall through this player all will be forgiven beleive me.

So for the hard rock fans - I'd probably go elsewhere, and for anyone else I cant think of anything better at the price.

In comparison my opinion is that IT EATS AN aRCAM CD73t, Cambridge 640c, and nad C542 for anything but hard rock which it does at a similar standard.

Conclusion: at the price it has no competition - mind you its not as good as a Mcintosh CD/SACD either (although the build quality is comparable.

cheers

Thrusty and Invincible, thanks for your input!

Vlad.

I auditioned one at the Vacuum Tube Valley show last May in NJ. The Cayin distributer A/B'd it with the Cayin SACD (2CH) player, and I thought the CD-50T was noticeably warmer. I was impressed, although I did not listen long enough to give you an informed opinion.

Update: I have tried some NOS 12au7 tubes with my CD-50T.

Phillips Miniwatt 12au7/12au7a 1950's /1960's sound way better than the standard valve - more detail yet not fatiguing - still dont have the solid state slam though.

AWV Super Radiotron 12au7a - OMG this tube absolutely rocks in the cd-50T. Huge soundstage, awesome dynamics, and the level of detail is astounding.

Playing the Stones SACD/Hybrids the cd-50T plays the cd layer better than my Denon 3910 plays the sacd layer - in comparison the Denon sounds "bloated" and confused in the midrange and the treble is veiled.

So if your willing to spend 5mins and $50 rolling tubes the Cayin cd-50t for me now has no competition at the price regardless of muscial tastes / genres.

I listened to a Cambridge C640c and Arcam cdt73 the other day which are around the same price as the Cayin cd-50t give or take $50.

The Cd-50T completely outclasses these two by a country mile. In fact to me the Arcam and Cambridge sounded boring - which is a bit tough too say because if the Cayin didnt exist I'd highly reccomend the Arcam or Cambridge in this price range.

Only my opinion though, I'd still reccomend auditioning any of these players. Although the ability to roll tubes in the Cayin is the icing on the cake for me.

cheers everyone

Got mine since yesterday - can only confirm Thrusty's enthusiasm re sound (Jazz, Classic) and ease of tube doctoring. AMV unfortunately not easy to get here (Germany), but will try EH. Anyway, a real positive surprise in this price class.

I can also confirm the superior sound of SACDs on the player. Since SACDs hardly come with HDCD but rather ordinary 16bit CD layers, what could be an explanation here?

Cheers,
Achim

I absolutely love this CDP, for the price its simply unbelievable. I'm embarrased to say that it outclasses my analog setup (Project 9.1, Slee Era Gold Mk V, Dyna 10X5). I'm using the stock tubes and can't imagine it improving by much, but look forward to some rolling. Build quality is also typical Cayin, tank like. Heavy and thick brushed aluminum faceplate and heavy gauge steel case painted with a very nice reflective (auto like) paint.

I had the SCD 50T and it was a very nice player.Built very well.

Now I'm really interested in rolling some tubes for this CDP. Does anyone know where I can get some AWV 12au7 tubes, they seem to be rare? Are the ECC82 compatible?

same question for me. Have been sesearching on line for a while, but still no clues for the AWV 12au7a tubes

Fdhfdy: I found the tube on Ebay from an Aussie seller. It was relatively cheap too. I posted my findings in this thread.... http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1207945057&openusid&zzMikeyc8&4&5#Mikeyc8

Bottom line - its now more dynamic, better soundstage, bass response, everything is better. Its an easy and cheap upgrade for this CDP.