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CD player recommendations

Hello all,

Just looking for a few recommendations here. After being almost exclusively vinyl over the last few years, I've decided to break out the cd collection again. I have two CD players from the dark ages. A CAL icon mkii power boss and a CAL CL-20. Just wondering what current or newer used CD players would be up for consideration and sound significantly better. I do not have any hdcd's, sacd's, or burned cd's. Strictly red book. Amp is a plinius hautonga driving B&W 804s speakers. Balanced outputs would be a plus since the plinius accepts balanced CD player inputs. Budget is around $1,500

thanks in advance

skipper

skipper320

Showing 2 responses by elliottbnewcombjr

elliottbnewcombjr
5,112 posts
 

I just finished my search, went with Integra CDC-3.4 Mark 2, couldn't be happier.

https://integraworldwide.com/Products/cd/cdc-3.4/

 

elliottbnewcombjr
5,112 posts
 

CD's ONLY:

I got solid confirmation regarding 'look no further' after listening for 4 hours last night with my friend/neighbor/music producer. If not streaming higher resolution content, just playing CDs, the DAC(s)/Additives of some CD Players do a great job.

he brought music he just mixed, music he won a grammy for, and we played lots of my music, LP's and CD versions via the Integra CDC-3.4.

He likes Peter Gabriel, Steamroller as a quick revealing test. I have favorites I find revealing. 1st round darn good, but ....then we tweaked the tweeters a bit higher with their L-Pads, then he pronounced the system sound, imaging, depth excellent. You can imagine how happy I was to hear that.

I had been over-cautious with the tweeters, I got +/- 1.5db up to10k, then let the highs drop slowly from there. He heard that, I twirled the controls a speck at a time L & R, he listened and thinks we got it just right. He's interested to know what the meter says we did. Of course I will get L/R equal if they are not.

I'm lucky to know him, a great guy, brought some good beer, told me some funny stories ....

It's a shame it doesn't play SACDs.

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