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Thinking about a new, lower end CD Player

My current CD player is a basic, older Sony, probably 10-12 years old. Works fine but I could use it in another location with a lower end system. It seems to sound about as good as my Arcam CD92 that lost its DAC a while back.

So now thinking about buying a new CDP and have a couple of questions.

I’d like to keep this in the $300-500 range for units with internal DAC. Not looking for SACD player. Other than a remote, not looking for special features or multi disk players.

I’m guessing that in this price range SQ is probably comparable to other units in that range.

First, is a CDP in this price range going to sound any better than the old Sony?
Second, if not, is there any reason not to just buy a comparable $200 unit?
Third, for units in this price range ($300-500) is there any reason to look for one with balanced output capability and if so, is there any way to know if it is truly balanced.

Thanks all,

George


n80
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
In the USA they still called the portable CD player a Walkman even though that was originally the cassette player. That is what mine says on it.
In England when they came out with the portable CD player they called it and stated on it Discman to avoid confusion.

And yes connection is via headphone aux to 2 RCA with a very common to obtain cable just for that purpose.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Looks like glubson got a bite. Be mildly interesting to see his next set of idle questions will be. 😜 Discman usually means for the car, at least that’s my impression since they usually come with adaptor. 
glupson
7,842 posts
 
geoffkait,

I do not blame you for being less-than-informed about SONY portable electronics nomenclature. It was a long time ago that they produced these things. Most of the Discmen were actually not made specifically for a car. Those for the car usually had red CAR letters on them, came with a car kit, and were somewhat bulkier. Not that you could not use any Discman in the car, but these were marketed that way.

uberwaltz,

Is there any way you could find out what model you have or when it was produced? If I remember correctly, they switched from Discman to CD Walkman later in the game, maybe late 1990s? Not that it changes anything but I am as curious about it now as I was when Discman was an almost-unattainable dream for me.
glupson
7,842 posts
 
uberwaltz,

Nevermind,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discman

Sorry geoffkait, my memory serves me well.
glupson
7,842 posts
 
geoffkait,


Here, a few pictures...

https://www.google.com/search?q=car+discman&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwik0...


As you can see, I have no questions for you. Only some pieces of information you could use next time you want to be an expert on things you are not that good with.
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