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Recommendations for CDP < $300

I'm new to hifi. Not really an audiophile yet. Inherited a nice older system but the Arcam CD92 player just died. 

I'm currently using an old low end Sony but it really belongs to a basic low end system down at my cabin. I have a couple of books on top of it and sorbothane pads under the feet and I'm okay with the SQ. But, it needs to go back down to my cabin.

Looking at used CD players on eBay, prices are all over the place and I'm a little leery of buying a used low end player which may have been mishandled etc. And even some with low prices have shipping rates that make even the cheap ones not worth the bother.

So now I'm looking at a new one. Prefer sub $300. There are three I'm looking at: Onkyo C-7030 for $200. NAD C538 for $300. It sounds like these two have the same Wolfson DAC. Not sure why the NAD is $100. I've pretty much ruled out a Cambridge CD-10 at $300 because it does not have gap-less play back. I don't listen to a ton of classical but I do some and pauses between classical arrangements would be a deal breaker.

I have noticed that some reviews are claiming newer CDPs sound much better than older CDPs due to improved technology. Not sure if this is true or not. Any reason to prefer new to historically good older models?

Anyway, besides the Onkyo and the NAD are there other sub $300 units I should look at? Anything else I need to consider?

Thanks,
George
n80
n80 OP
2,117 posts
 
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?
cscrutinizer
34 posts
 
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 $.
ericsch
753 posts
 
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.
djones51
4,947 posts
 
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. 
n80 OP
2,117 posts
 
Thanks for that info.
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