Arcam CD-73

in my experience, the Arcam is THE player to beat under $1k. It really does do everything well. You have to spend alot more to jump noticeably ahead in terms of refinment and texture.

Personally, I think it's the best CD player that costs $800 or less new. You'd have to spend 50% more to get a little improvement, and twice as much to find noticeable improvements.

I really like my classe cdp.3 and used to have the Arcam cd73t and sold it.

once you get rid of the crappy op amps that are in the stock unit and put in better quality ones, it will compete with anything out there. i upgraded to the bb opa627's on mine. it's the only unit so far to keep up with my modified denon 1560ar, which has trounced every sub-$1000 unit i've put up against it.

A very nice CDP – don’t go the upgrade route, though. This is too pricy. Also, if you are willing to buy used, you can get an Arcam FMJ CD-23 for approximately the same price. This is significantly better than the CD 73 even if you maxed it out with all the available upgrades (to CD 92 specs) at a cost of over $1200 in addition to the original $800. An FMJ CD-33 is sometimes sold for less than $1150 used, and this is really an entirely different class of player than the CD 73.

If you are setting up your two-channel audio any where near a TV in your house, I would suggest you go for a DVD 78. The audio on these is very close to as good as the CD73, and the video playback is unmatched in the price range ($999 list, less used). I was absolutely floored by what it did for me DVDs, as was my wife.

Thanks for the responses so far,

I am useing this in a 2-ch only system, no SACD, DVD-A, or any other format. Only CD's.

Is the CD-23 an older model?

Yes, the CD-23 is a slightly older model. It was replaced by the CD-33 2-3 years ago, which has now been replaced by the CD-36. The 23 is still 1 of the best CD players you can find for under $2500. And it's selling for around $1000 used, give or take. Newmanoc is right, it will kill the CD-73. As it should, since it was originally 3 times the 73's price.

If you can find 1, try to get the 23T version. Which stands for Text. It has a different transport than the 23 version, and on certain encoded CDs the front LCD will display the name of the artist, CD and each individual song. A neat extra feature.

As for the Arcam i had a cd92 sold it and bought a cd92 again this time cd92T,differences from what i can find out are original had a philips transport and hdcd was pmd 100 with the T version it went to a Sony transport and a pmd 200,but im not 100 percent sure.