whats a good older hdcd cd player?


i had a chance to listen back in the mid 90s a system that blew my mind. didnt have the money for it but remember the cd player was a nad player and the speakers were psb stratus golds. i now own stratus silver i speakers and a old school pioneer elite 39tx pre amp. the cd player now is a old elite dv37 which is dvd also. i would like my own cd player but dont wanna spend a ton since my equip is pretty low fi stuff. do non hdcd players equal out at all to a non hdcd. i would like a nad c541 but cant find one. thanks for any info. newbie kevin
flyin2jz
There is a NAD C541 now on sale here on the 'Gon for $260. Personally, I like NAD units but find my old Classe CDP.3 more refined. Good luck.
For a low budget system, you might be better off with a brand new Oppo DVD player (yes it decodes HDCD) as opposed to an inexpensive used CD player, for about the same money.
The Linn Ikemi is a great sounding redbook and HDCD player and I see them fairly frequently here on AG
COPLAND CDA 289.Built like a tank,sound like an angel.I've had it for 5 years now and nothing less than 10k Cdp can beat it .Problem is you might have to search all corners of the world to find one.Best product COPLAND has ever made IMO
FMJ-23 used RINGDACs same Dacs used in expensive Elgar. (ARCAM got license for them). Because of production problems (low yield) they switched to regular DACs in next generation. Get one if you still can. Ringdac has 4 current sources built-in that randomly add noise (16 levels)to increase resolution in filtering. As for HDCD - it is 16-bit compressed format where least significant bit 16 switches dynamic range od remaining 15 bits. Some studio engineers say that it sounds weird and was introduced to promote media with very strong copy protection. I would stay away - it's dead format.