What CD Player Do You Use and How Happy Are You With It?

[George]

I have a Yamaha CD-S300 and I am pretty happy with it, although I have been thinking lately of upgrading it.

Models I have in mind:

Marantz SA8005 and Cambridge Audio Azur 851C

[Holden]

I have a Marantz SE 63 MKII KI. if you haven't heard of that model I'm not surprised as it's well over 10 years old. However, when I bought it brand new it got top ratings from a number of HiFi magazines and the way it has performed suggests that it deserved those ratings. The only issue with it now is that the draw is a bit slow to open if I use the console button. The remote does the job instead.

[Todd]

I have a Yamaha CD-S300 and I am pretty happy with it, although I have been thinking lately of upgrading it.

Models I have in mind:

Marantz SA8005 and Cambridge Audio Azur 851C

I've owned different units by both Marantz and Cambridge, and the former was bullet proof while the latter had problems with some discs after a couple years.  Of those two, I'd choose Marantz. 

I currently use Oppos (103, 105, and 203) for all disc spinning needs, though as transports only when it comes to music.  The DACs on Oppo units are extremely good as well, and the new units (203, 205) play just about every format out there.  Price to performance ratio is extremely high.

[George]

I've owned different units by both Marantz and Cambridge, and the former was bullet proof while the latter had problems with some discs after a couple years.  Of those two, I'd choose Marantz. 

I currently use Oppos (103, 105, and 203) for all disc spinning needs, though as transports only when it comes to music.  The DACs on Oppo units are extremely good as well, and the new units (203, 205) play just about every format out there.  Price to performance ratio is extremely high.

Thanks, Todd.

I have read that the Cambridge is picky about discs that have scratches or CD-Rs. Since I have many of each, I have pretty much ruled it out, assuming what I have read is true. Plus, the Marantz is $500 less than the Cambridge Audio unit.   

Are you saying you would rate Oppo above Marantz for two channel CD/SACD playback only? Or about the same?

[Todd]

Are you saying you would rate Oppo above Marantz for two channel CD/SACD playback only? Or about the same?

I've not heard that specific unit, but the first Oppo I owned (BDP93) sounded better than the Marantz I owned, though the Marantz was excellent.  Oppo is my go to disc spinner.  The only issue I've run across is that gapless FLAC playback with some high track count works - basically lengthy sets of variations - might glitch.  I've never experienced a problem with any discs.

[vandermolen]

I'm fairly 'Lo-Fi' and have a NAD 516BEE CD player. I think it is a highly-rated CD player in the budget range. My amplifier is NAD too (bought second-hand) and I have a pair of Wharfdale Diamond speakers. I'm perfectly happy with the system.
I work a lot in the study and I just listen on a Roberts portable CD player when I'm in there.

[71 dB]

NAD C565BEE

I had quite a lot of problems with this one and had to take it to repair twice. First a rectifier blew causing the unit go randomly OFF. Then the motor moving the disc stray broke. Now the player has been working well. The sound quality is simply awesome! I use the digital input for my TV, so I have the stunning sound quality for TV too.

[Parsifal]

I have a Marantz SA8004. Sounds like the predecessor of the unit you mentioned. Sound is sweet for CD and SACD, a solid machine that gives the impression of being a workhorse. I like it because it also accepts digital input (USB, coax or optical) so it can be used as a DAC. This way I can use one unit for spinning CDs or streaming FLAC files from my computer.

I have one peeve with it. The CD track programming does not work right. If you program sequential tracks (such as programming tracks 5, 6, 7, 8 to listen to a four movement work on a disc) there is a ever-so-brief pause when one track ends and the next starts. It doesn't have the sense to play sequential tracks continuously. This would make the feature useless when tracks are attacca. The workaround is that I don't use the programming feature in such cases.

I was a big fan of NAD in the day. The last two NAD products I got (an A/V receiver and a DAC) were disasters. I still have some vintage NAD stuff (a pair of pre-amps) but I wouldn't consider them anymore.

[George]

I have a Marantz SA8004. Sounds like the predecessor of the unit you mentioned. Sound is sweet for CD and SACD, a solid machine that gives the impression of being a workhorse. I like it because it also accepts digital input (USB, coax or optical) so it can be used as a DAC. This way I can use one unit for spinning CDs or streaming FLAC files from my computer.

I have one peeve with it. The CD track programming does not work right. If you program sequential tracks (such as programming tracks 5, 6, 7, 8 to listen to a four movement work on a disc) there is a ever-so-brief pause when one track ends and the next starts. It doesn't have the sense to play sequential tracks continuously. This would make the feature useless when attacca.

I was a big fan of NAD in the day. The last two NAD products I got (an A/V receiver and a DAC) were disasters. I still have some vintage NAD stuff (a pair of pre-amps) but I wouldn't consider them anymore.

Cool. I have heard good things about that unit as well. I took the plunge and ordered the SA8005 (again) today and will get it on Wednesday. Since there is no risk (I can return within 60 days for a full refund minus $10), I plan to leave my old one plugged in and compare it to the SA8005 extensively, after it has had some time (about 100 hours of playback) to settle in.

[Parsifal]

I also recall reading that at least one Cambridge audio CD player didn't recognize CDs encoded with pre-emphasis and failed to apply de-emphasis on playback. This would affect certain discs from the early days that used this feature. In my experience, mainly BIS discs.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I'm fairly 'Lo-Fi' and have a NAD 516BEE CD player. I think it is a highly-rated CD player in the budget range.

I was a big fan of NAD in the day. The last two NAD products I got (an A/V receiver and a DAC) were disasters. I still have some vintage NAD stuff (a pair of pre-amps) but I wouldn't consider them anymore.

I have the same CD player as Vandermolen, as well as a NAD integrated amp and pre-amp. Before I bought it (2013), I did some research and discovered that there had been a lot of complaints about NAD products a few years before. But I have never had any problems with this equipment at all, and when I mentioned these complaints to audio dealers, they told me it was not a problem anymore.

[Parsifal]

I have the same CD player as Vandermolen, as well as a NAD integrated amp and pre-amp. Before I bought it (2013), I did some research and discovered that there had been a lot of complaints about NAD products a few years before. But I have never had any problems with this equipment at all, and when I mentioned these complaints to audio dealers, they told me it was not a problem anymore.

I had the D1050, a DAC. Sound was fine, but it was perhaps the most poorly designed piece of audio equipment I have ever owned. It has extremely inefficient touch switches. It typically took me 30 seconds to get the thing to turn on. Then it would turn itself off. If I started streaming to it, it would take several seconds to identify the data format (to figure out that it was 16-bit, 44.1 kHz) and by then the first few seconds of the program had been missed. This would happen even if I started streaming something in the same format it was already receiving. It would click off, think about it for several second, then click back on when the music was already underway.

I threw it in the garbage. I didn't want to risk my seller rating by trying to pawn it of one someone else.