2. amps-preamps
  3. 181856-137606

Best Basic CD Player (no SACD, USB, etc.)

Hey guys! Old dude here! My Panasonic SL-PJ316 CD player took a dump after years of faithful service. I started looking around for a replacement only to discover CD players with price tags into the thousands of dollars!! WTH??  Ok, I know there is SACD, USB, bluetooth, etc. BUT, I am not going to try and re-purchase my entire CD collection of almost 40 years to buy a SACD player. And, from what I've read, the USB, streaming lot seems to cause problems in certain players. ALL I need is a high quality, basic CD player that won't cost thousands of dollars. Any suggestions? Yamaha? NAD? Marantz? I'm "all ears". Thanks, for the advice. Best regards, Rob

shutupuface
shutupuface OP
33 posts
 

Many thanks Moonwatcher!

audio-union's avatar
audio-union
179 posts
 

google "high performance CD player" or "high performance CD transport". You will find a list of reputable manufactures on the shopping tab. Pick a manufacturer you like and you will find a list of retailers where you can buy on line.

mofojo
2,169 posts
 

Where you at? I’ll give you my NAD 502 that works great. Prob comparable to the 3-500 players on the market I’m guessing. 

pmm
218 posts
 

NAD has been known to bring out some good sounding players, but their reliability has been known to be spotty, as well.

routlaw
46 posts
 

I concur with the idea of a transport + DAC vs a stand alone CDP. The DAC inside of a CDP will eventually become outdated IMO. As long as a transport is working then it can be matted with an unlimited amount of DAC's through the years, so why pay for something you may outgrow, or not use with a CDP with built in DAC. Just doesn't make sense to me. The downside of this course of action is obsessing for ever and a day on which DAC to use. This method does provide far more flexibility in the future too, should you need it.

But to respond to cd players only, as requested, you might consider used Arcams which hasn't been mentioned, used Oppo's, and Emotiva makes a great CDP the ERC-4 but you could probably find some used ERC-3's too, Audio Lab makes great products as well for sensible prices.

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