Repair or Replace - Marantz CD63se

Back when your CD player was current, it was an excellent value for the money. CD players have progressed since then. If it was my choice, I would go for a new unit. The transport in your player is still probably competitive but the dac section isn't.

My first choice, if you can find a good used one, is a Rotel RCD 1072. I had one and thought it was great. I wish I never sold mine. Some other excellent choices would be Cambridge, NAD and Marantz. All 3 make something in your price range. For me, I like the Cambridge. Not only for sound quality, but build quality, as well.

I'm sure there are some other brands out there that are excellent too. Other posters will probably recommend some of them. I can only recommend what I have heard myself. You should have no problem getting a CD player that will make you happy.

"Johnny ... And then what do you do when the hard drive crashes and dies? I am in the process of attempting to recover my data from an iMac hard drive that died after 6 years of use. The data had been backed up a little while ago to an Iomega hard drive that has died, as well. It is easier to purchase a new CD player, than recover. "

Don't take this the wrong way but it sounds like you're not being careful enough with your back ups. Assuming that both HD's didn't die at exactly the same time, you should have immediately copied your back up to a new HD. Also, HD's are very cheap. Get a 3rd one if you have to.

Rar1,

I didn't mean to come off in a negative way. The only point I was trying to make was that, done right, backing up your music files can drop your risk to almost 0. I have to admit, though, you did have some bad luck.

Johnnyb,

"The other part of this conversation is that single-play CD players strike me as a rather primitive solution. For $50 I installed Audirvana Plus on my MacBook, enabling me to buffer music files in RAM, adjust upsampling multiples, and turn off processes that might detract from sound quality. Then there's the convenience of having the whole music library at your fingertips and the ability to organize and set up ad hoc playlists at will.

Sonically my MacBook with Audirvana beats my CD players, and I can now play 24/06 and 24/88.2 files through iTunes, whjch totally beats the pants off redbook files."

I don't know if I would say primitive. With regards to convenience, then yes, I agree. For sound quality, though, there are quite a few things to consider. The one thing that I think people overlook when getting into computer audio is the analog section of the source. If you look at the design and marketing of most high end CD players, there is usually a very clear focus on the digital section (Transport and DAC), as well as the design of the analog section. I think that's very important. If you look at the inside of any, well thought out CD player, it looks more like a piece of audio equipment than a computer.

In no way am I suggesting that you are not getting good sound or challenging you, in any way. I only ask, what happens to the signal when it gets converted to analog that allows you to get the good sound? Are you using a DAC or the analog output on a sound card? Possibly something else? Not everyone is getting the good results that you are with computer based audio. Any input that you can give can possibly save me, or someone else from making a mistake.