Review: Philips CD-880 CD Player

Category: Digital

The Philips CD-880 cd player is *still* in my system after all these years. Considering this unit was released in late 1988 that is a huge statement for a digital product.

It has a warmth and presence that I really like - not the last word in fidelity and digital playback, but very "musical" in a way I have never found any of the single-bit players to be. Of course as technology has improved the world of digital has in bulk become somewhat more refined. A while back I took the CD880's main circuit board out of the unit for a tweak-up. Mods included judicious replacement of ceramic decoupling caps with Wima units and introduction of Burr-Brown OPA2132 op-amps in place of the original NE5532 units. There was nothing to change in the power supply section since all there was tremendously well-designed and well-executed by the factory in Belgium where my unit was made. The above simple changes refined this player's character and smoothed up some of that "early-digital" feel that still made itself apparent once in a while. The end result is a unit that is even better than before - I was originally very happy with it and am now quite thrilled.

Aside from the very impressive physical build quality of this unit (note the 34 lb. cast aluminum chassis and aluminum cd-transport) there is it's superb reliability to date (November, 2002) and the outstanding feature-set that comes standard with it. Direct-track access, various types of repeats, the superb Music Library system, etc. Talk about a fully-featured cd player!

Even if 16-bit 4x oversampling is not your idea of a good audio idea, this unit is so well built and has such a raft of convenient features, as well as such a superb chassis and transport that it makes a great digital transport for use with an outboard DAC. I've done this too and been very happy with the results when it was mated to a Micromega DAC.

The Philips CD-880 was not made in large quantities and aren't seen too often in the market. Nevertheless, when they are seen they tend to be reasonable in price. $US 300 should get one quite easily. A terrific audio bargain either just as it comes, modded up a little as I did to mine, or used as a digital transport.

The Philips CD-880... Highly recommended!

Associated gear
tweaked up Harmon-Kardon Citation V PP7581 tube power amp, DIY 12B4 tube preamp, tweaked up 3-way Canton loudspeakers (10" woofer, 4" midrange, 1" tweeter), Canare/Neutrik interconnects, XLO Pro speaker cable

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