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Best CDP w/ headphone jack for under $1,000

I just blew out the power supply on my CD player thanks to my wonderous attempts at tweaking. So now I need a new player that meets these qualifications:

1) Must have headphone jack with volume control.
2) Must play CD-R discs.
3) Must sound "musical" and not bright, dry, or shallow.
4) Must cost less than $1,000.

The only 2 players that I know of with a headphone jack are the Jolida JD 100 and Marantz SA 8260. The addition of SACD playback on the Marantz would be nice, but for all of the 2 SACD discs I own, is it worth it considering I heard someone say this player has trouble reading some discs? Since I am a headphone listener, can anyone tell me how each of these players sounds through the headphone jack? Or is there another player I have overlooked that is worth considering?
piano632
711smilin
513 posts
 
Eastern Electric minimax is just a great little player, with musicality out daass. Soundstage is wide and deep, high grade tubes definatly make improvements. Plus, Bill, the importer is a great guy to deal with.IMHO.
listener57
730 posts
 
Seeing the Sony XA7ES posts for the first time makes me admit I had forgotten it qualified for your budget when bought used, and is a beautiful sounding unit exuding class and solidity, sort of the Mercedes category among CD players. In this case you pay more and get more.
chams_uk
159 posts
 
I third the Minimax. Used to own it, only sold it because I got two VERY nice separates (Eastsound CD-E5 player, and DIY Kevin Gilmore design Dynai headphone amp) to replace it; at over twice the price!

A tube swap to put NOS in there, and this player SINGS! And it drives almost any phone - I played Sennheiser 650's as well as Sony CD-3000's, two vastly different loads. Both sounded very musical.
peter_s
1,312 posts
 
Dred is correct about the Jolida. The headphones are run through an op amp, not through the tube circuit. It's still a really great CDP, but for the best quality sound you'd need to buy an external headphone amp.
piano632 OP
19 posts
 
Decisions, decisions...

Seems a bit unnecessary to buy a tube player (Jolida) if the tubes aren't used in the headphone output.

The Eastern Electric seems to be a little over $1,000 unless I'm looking in the wrong place.

Has anyone here used one of the pro CD recorders made by Marantz, HHB, Denon, etc.? They all seem to have headphone jacks. But I would imagine the emphasis on these machines would be in the recording, and not necessarily in the playback. Anyway, just another possibility to consider.
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