Recommendations for CDP < $300

I searched the CD players available here and they are beyond my price point. I have never heard of usaudiomart.

Google Tascam CD200.  

It's well thought of/reviewed and the basic 200 model is <$250.

Note that it does have a "rack mount" faceplate, which may or may not be a problem in regard to placement/appearance.

DeKay 

               

US AudioMart is a popular buy/sell site that many of us use when we dont see what we want on Audiogon. Reverb is another website may be useful.

but you pose a tough question: 
A used CD player under $300 is one of the most difficult buys .... ever.

It is b/c one of the first things that go wrong with an economic CD player is the laser and disc drive. I had an Arcam cd player as well, bought it used, and the drive went belly up in a few months. 

In other words, most of us would never buy a used cd player under $300. We would buy a DEMO unit from a local AV dealer, or from a trusted friend. But that is it. 

I would then recommend a NeW or Demo unit under $300 or a unit priced at $500 but on sale for $300. 

my last suggestion: there are some great DVD players, high end, that make great CD Players. But they are old. That is not a problem in this case, b/c these players are built like tanks with reliable disc drives and lasers. Eg. I have a Toshiba DS 9200 that I got for $30 at Goodwill, but they sold for $2000 in 2002. it weighs 30 lbs- like I said- build like a tank. And  the CD reader is 24/96 DAC.

then I found another old Sony DVD player, DVD H1000 model, from the same time period, 2005 or so, for $40 at Goodwill. It was priced at $3000 in 2003! all the internals are high end, circuits, and transformer, the DAC is 24/96. 

These DVD players are considered obsolete b/c of the advances in Video technology, but the CD DAC section is NOT obsolete. 
Although I found these at Goodwill, they are available for $50-400 bucks on eBay. 

All that said, of the above choices you mentioned, the NADs have always been the most reliable in their price class.

Thanks for that explanation. Now I'm wondering if I should see how much it would take to repair the Arcam. I have found a high end audio repair shop in my area. It might be worth the $40 service charge to see what it would take to fix it. (Nothing comes out via the RCA outputs but it does have output through the optical port.).

If you can find a used Oppo 103 or 203 get it.

I think those old arcam 92's and alpha 9's used the ring dacs which would be an expensive fix if that went out. I hzvd seen the alpha 9 going for about $300 and it't about 18 - 19 years old ?

I have an onkyo c-s5vl, I  always enjoyed  wolfson dacs. The c-s5vl played sacd and I don't think onkyo makes a player anymore that will play those so if you don't need sacd I would think the 7030 would be a good player , never had a problem with mine, knock on wood. 

I noticed that the Onkyo weighs like 12 pounds....which sounds sturdy, for what that's worth.

Onkyo makes good products.  I think at the price point your talking about, I wouldn't agonize over it.  

usaudiomart has an Arcam CD92 listed at $595. This really makes me wonder about getting mine fixed. I've emailed the repair shop to see what they think.

I know nothing about electronics but would agree, if the Ring DAC is toast it will be too expensive to repair. If it is somehow just the RCA output side of things then maybe not too much. Not even sure that is possible.

yes, just need to see if it would be worth fixing or not.

I bought a used Arcam CDP in 2008 for about $350. the disc drive went out 3 months later. No one would buy an injured CDPlayer, so I sent it in for the drive to be replaced. About $250 to fix it. 
So $350  + $250 = 600 invested.
Sold for $325 after 4 months of trying to sell.

So I lost $275 on the whole deal.
Just FYI, buyer beware, just my personal experience.

Emotiva CD-100 @ $299 new, shipped free to the US? I don't own any Emotiva equipment, but it hits your pricepoint and my general opinion is that Emotiva make good value for money products.

I own an Arcam CD 73 that needs it’s laser assembly replaced for the second time, I’m guessing. Fwiw.

Yamaha cd-c600 is a 5 disc carousel has digital output and analog. I've got one in works great. Should be in your price range good luck.

I'm sure you will get plenty of good suggestions here for a new CD player. I can only relate my experience with NAD. The C358 (if you've auditioned it) would probably meet your performance expectations. I bought the C546 and have been satisfied with the purchase. NAD changed model number designations not long ago but, as far as I can tell, the new model numbers coincide with the older ones when it comes to features and performance.I have a local NAD dealer and was able to audition several CD players. The C358 you are interested in probably has close performance to the C546 I have which is maybe $200 more than the C358. However, the C546 has USB input for use from a flash drive or a computer. That's the main reason I went with that model. But, if just listening to CD's is all you need then the C358 would be a good choice. I have had no reliability issues with the NAD. Good luck with your search.

That brings up a question. For these newer CDPs with USB ports does that mean you can use it as a DAC and if so would the DAC on these lower end models be any worse than, say, a basic Schiit Modi 2?

On the Yamaha it says primarily for iPhone, iPads, iPods. Is there any reason a laptop wouldn't work?

I recently got the Onkyo 7030 from Newegg for $170.
It's a nice simple single player.
Sounds good enough for now, and especially for the $.

In years past, I had two NAD CD players in the $300 to $400 range new. Never had a problem and they sound great considering the relatively low cost.

In my search for streamers, cdp, music servers I ran across the yamaha cd-s700 which is a step up from the s300 model and that model will not play from a pc, usb hub, or external hdd at least according to the manual so  I would assume the s300 would'nt either. 

Thanks for that info.

cscrutinizer, Amazon has the Onkyo CD 7030 for $150. I'm tempted. Reviews say sound quality is good for a unit this cheap but there are scores of reviews indicating what seems like serious reliability issues with many units failing within a year and a good many lemons right out of the box to boot. The latter is not a big deal since it would be a Prime purchase.

Maybe a year's worth of reliability is all you can expect from a $150 CDP these days?

There is also a factory refurbished NAD C 516 bee with a 1 year warranty on A'gon for $225 including shipping.

If you have the time and patience, you can find a nice CD/SACD at estate sales. I got my APL Denon DVD-3910 with remote for $45 just a couple of miles from my house. That was 2 years ago and it still works fine as a daily driver. I don't know why the locals didn't grab it first. They took almost every other piece of gear the guy had. 

n80, There are some reports if reliability issues, but if you look you find that with many things. I had also considered the Marantz CD6006, but that's a $500. machine, and I'm not sure the SQ would be that different from the 7030. NADs are another possibility.

I just checked what I payed. I had been watching for the price to drop and bought the Onkyo at $160. Happy so far.

Since the factory is in China I wonder if NAD waits for a container full or just
sends each item Priority Mail ?

n80made in china = junk.  Happy Listening!

I would look for a used Rega Planet 2000 or Rega Saturn.  Made in England smooth, juicy sound.  I owned for years and years.  Loved it.  Only downside is that it is a top loader and needs some overhead clearance to get the CD in and out.  You could upgrade later and use it as a transport.  Rega also makes DACs.  Happy hunting.  

The Onkyo 7030 is an excellent player for the price (I have one that I use for testing when I do repairs to amps). Very reliable and well made. It is perhaps a touch bright in it's delivery, but when you are ready for better, you can always add an external DAC. It is likely your best option. Used players are a crap shoot wrt reliability with the possible exception of the Oppo 103, which I also have. For the extra dollars, the Oppo also supports streaming and SACD playback.

Thank you all for the excellent advice. I'm now starting to reconsider my need for another CD player. I'm fairly content with the Sony (two books on top as recommended here, sorbothane pads underneath).

Was originally going to take it back down to my cabin but since all CDs are now at home I will probably just use iTunes at the cabin on the low end system that is there for casual/background listening.

If the Sony fails (or I get the bug for better SQ) I'll look into the recommendations in this thread. The Sony is light and feels like junk but it has been very reliable so far. It is probably close to 20 years old!

I would consider RIPing your CDs (ALAC or FLAC).  There are any number of ways to stream to your hifi, wired and wireless (a Chromecast Audio can be had for $25).  Try Roon.

That is possibly a project for the future. I have peered into that rabbit hole a few times but the software and hardware complexity and requirements seem to add up pretty fast.

If you have a smart phone or laptop, a $5 patch cable will get you started.  If you have a home network, $25 will get you a Chromecast Audio.  CD quality and better.  The DACs in most modern computers or phones are pretty good.  There are a slew of external DACs available that will give you a noticeable upgrade for around $100 (Audioquest Dragonfly, Schiit Modi).

Of course, you can spend more and get as complicated as you want.  But you will be 90% there with just a $5 patch cable.  And if you can swing the monthly cost for TIDAL, you may not need to RIP very many CDs.

n80

Give me an update on your search for the next cd player.  Happy Listening!

I'm still using the old Sony at home.

The Arcam is still down at my cabin running into a Rotel home theater unit and separate amp driving some beat up B&W tower speakers. I don't like that system and it takes up too much room so I'm going to ditch it and go back to my old Toshiba receiver and old Bose bookshelf speakers. So the broken Arcam will be in limbo.

I have also taken the advice above to rip my CDs into a server and that meager system (Schiit Modi 2 Uber) is serving me well enough for now.

So bottom line is, for now I'm sticking with the old Sony. Now that I've gotten into this hi-fi business I will probably have a higher budget for a CDP if the Sony bites the dust.