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Attn Vinyl lovers - what CD Player do you use?

While reading through the many threads on Vinyl vs. CD, I thought it might be interesting to see what CD transports/players Vinyl fans use when not listening to their analog rig?
encyclopediabsh
alaric
34 posts
 
Marantz SA8260 SACD/CD player.
dopogue
1,773 posts
 
Updating my totally out-of-date post, I sold the Sony XA777ES (using a cheap Sony NS 500V for SACDs only). Just bought a tubed Raysonic CD128 and use an Ack dAck 2.0 with it for those CDs suffering from major "digititus." It's too early for a really informed recommendation, but so far this Raysonic is awesome. Dave
bondmanp
1,818 posts
 
Dopogue: Are you suggesting the Ack dAck 2.0 is more rolled-off in the upper-mids/lower treble (a.k.a. brightness) range? To my mind, that's where digititis makes itself heard. I was under the impression by other posters that the Raysonic was smooth enough to make edgy-sounding CDs at least listenable. I know it may be too soon for you to tell, but when you do have some thoughts on this, please post them here. Thanks!
dopogue
1,773 posts
 
The Raysonic definitely makes edgy CDs listenable, more so every day. I may reach a point where the Ack dAck becomes "unnecessary" and, yes, it does sound a bit rolled, relative to the Raysonic. One problem is that the DAC has substanially less output at the same gain setting, so A/B switching doesn't do it any favors. Both tubes and cables (especially power cords) have a major effect on the Raysonic's sound, So I don't have its full measure yet. But clearly it's a winner, IMHO. Dave
jc2000
92 posts
 
At the moment, I don't have a CD player hooked up. When I do listen to CD (which is rare--I'm guessing it's at least a month since I played one!) I use a portable CD player and Grado SR 60 headphones. My portables are mostly older--the best is probably a 1989 Sony (made before it became a priority to get five hundred hours of run time from a single AAA battery.) This doesn't give me the best sound I can get from CD. But, it works, and it's better in many ways than what I've heard in my system with the "real" CD players (all of which were, ah, modestly priced) I've had over the years.

I sometimes think of getting a better CD player. But, then, those players would take money from the analog budget. And we certainly can't have that. Can we?
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