2. digital
  3. 129323-10135

Looking for CD player recommendations that are a great match with Classe & Vandersteen

Looking for some recommendations for CD players that will mate well with the sound characteristics of a Classe CAP-101 integrated amp and Vandersteen 2C speakers? Cabling is DH Labs Q-10 and Air Matrix. I listen to all kinds of music... pop, rock, classical, ambient/electronic. But, mostly rock and prog rock. My budget is max $600, but I’d like to stay somewhat under that if at all possible. I don’t need a lot of features. In fact, the basics are fine--so long as it has a remote. CD is my primary source (and I love it :)

jsbach1685
xlinkaudio
4 posts
 
I can recommend the OPPO 203 which now has selectable filter slopes on the DAC and when set to the "super slow" setting the audio outperforms, by my opinion, the OPPO 105.  I sold my 105 after comparing it and buying the 203 ($549).
tomcarr
1,504 posts
 
@xlinkaudio,
Interesting! Would not have expected that. 

Tom
xlinkaudio
4 posts
 
Further discussion on the OPPO 203:  It has a new DAC chip, AK4458VN, from the Japanese company AKM  with built in 5 selectable filter rates.  If it wasn't for the 5th and slowest rate I would not have made the change from 105 to 203.  The feature to play with HDCD decoding was dropped, I only had a few such CDs which will still play as a standard CDs.
tomcarr
1,504 posts
 
@xlinkaudio,
Good point about the decoding.
I bought a gold MFSL SACD Bob Dylan for $35 and compared it back-to-back with my standard CD for over an hour and had to conclude I couldn't tell the difference.
I can tell major differences in recording quality among all the discs I own, even grading them A,B,C,D for sound quality...

Tom
abnerjack
204 posts
 
I have had what I think is a wonderful cd player, Simaudio Moon Supernova, for several years and enjoy it, but have been using it as a dac only to stream Tidal via a pc.  I have forgotten about cds.  Tidal offers 40 million tracks at redbook quality and are beginning to stream their "masters" which are at a higher resolution.  Like gdnrbob, I have not looked back.  I still pop in a cd occasionally just to confirm how good the streaming is.  Maybe a cdp with a digital input would offer you the best of both worlds.  Good luck.
More to discover