Sony Playstation 1 for a CD player ???

Reviving this thread, as I've had a Playstation in my system for a week now and couldn't be happier. With no warm-up at all, I plugged it in and spun a disc, and my wife and I looked at each other and broke out laughing it sounded so good. I've kept it on since, and I don't know that the sound has improved, but it's stayed steadily, delightfully great. It resolves enormously well--there's a sense of palpability to vocals, a timbral rightness to acoustic instruments, and low-level detail emerges from a clear backdrop. I could go on, but the point is this: if you're shopping for a CD player, spending $25 bucks on one of these might save you a few hundred or more. Look on half.com, where the prices are low and firm. I have the 5501 with the A/V multi out, which doesn't let you use great interconnects but to my understanding bypasses an op-amp leading to the RCAs in the 1001 version (same DAC). Some prefer the A/V out and build cables for it; I haven't felt the urge yet.

Rhing: thanks for the rec. I'll look into the Monster--and the Walmart cable while I'm at it. I'm using 12G Tributaries wire now, and $8 is the kind of upgrade I can afford. Worth a shot.

Anybody having problems with the Playstation 1 playing burned discs? After the disc clamp broke I recently replaced my 5501 model with the original 1001 (and, yes, the original sounds worlds better--and the 5501 had been making me pretty happy, too). The only problem I have now is that the 1001 does not play SOME burned CDs.

It plays them, but the servo in the player makes noises like it's having trouble tracking and then the music starts glitching with static. I can't see any correlation with age of the burn or scratching or brand of blank CD. I'll buy another 1001 model if the problem is just with my unit, but I don't want to waste the dough if it'll be the same story. Thanks in advance.

Bad news in Playstation-land. Rhing, I appreciated the link you passed along above, but the process to tune the player was beyond my technical abilities. So I bought a second Playstation on eBay. And it turns out that not only would it not play burned CDs either as I described above, but after a few days it started skipping the same way (though not as badly) on perfectly good new CDs. So I put the old one back in the system, and after a day it started doing the same thing. So I'm thinking the inability to play burned discs may have been a symptom rather than the problem itself. I'm bummed.

In any case, though I love the sound of the Playstation I'm looking now at spending a few bucks more on something a little more reliable and less quirky in its operation (and with a remote! and a non-plastic case!). I'm thinking of an Onkyo DX-7555, though I'm going to take some time looking around. I'll post a comparison when I'm able.