Seeking Budget CD Player Suggestions


I also posted this question in another forum. A friend of mine has an early 90s era Mac CD player which is on its last legs. Great player in its day, but he is on a budget (around $500) and needs to replace it, preferably new, dealer demo, open box, etc. Rotel CD-11 and Marantz CD-6007 have been suggested as top picks in that price range. Any other suggestions, ideas, reasoning for a particular model? If Rotel, would the Tribute or Mk. II edition be preferable? 

chrken

I’ve been using an Audiolab 6000CDT that I bought open box.  It’s going to a Denafrips Pontus ll DAC, but the Aries ll is an excellent DAC the money.

All the best.

The best budget CDP we had was the Nano.  I am not sure if they are even made anymore.  It was the size of a CD jewel case approximately.  It was just plain awesome.  Then we thought the Rotel's were pretty good plus we got to pop the top and upgrade some parts, etc.  Other than that, the old Marantz CD-94 was excellent.  Most everything else mentioned here is IMO ho hum.

Happy Listening.

Ive read a fee times I believe Paul at PS Audio suggests that using a transport with an off the shelf DAC will most likely have issues with the clocks syncing .Might want to do a bit of research before moving in this direction. If playing of SACD is required, look for a used Denon 2910, 3910 or 5910 CD player with fantastic built in DAC that will also play SACD through the analog outputs. HDMI not needed.

Several years back I had a slightly modified (new chips) Pioneer PD 65 (inverted player) the only out was optical which wasn't very good

Integra 3.4, open box, $300.

 

Download 'one sheet' for Full Specs Found Here

 

My conclusion: the sound is a combo, like a salad, of the dual wolfson dacs combined with: over-clocking, error correction, filters, brand specific gizmos like Onkyo’s VLSC.

This model sounded better than the 8 others I tried. IF no SACD is needed, it is a terrific sounding player, with the advantage of it’s 6 disc feature.