@millercarbon Thank you for asking a good reasonable question. It never ceases to amaze me how people have to preach their biases instead of actually addressing the question asked.
I have several thousand CDs including HDCDs and SACDs. I like the experience of playing them as discs. I realize that makes me a troglodyte but so be it.
I currently own a PS Audio PerfectWave Mk II transport and DAC that I got for about 40% of retail after the DirectStream came out. It's worth 80% of what I paid for it. I also have a Krell CD 250/2 player that's worth 90+% of what I paid for it. My third player is a Marantz SA 8005 that I got used. I see them selling for around 90% of what I paid for mine several years ago.
Here are some other recommendations:
Vintage Krell or vintage Mark Levinson: If you buy a good condition model with original packaging for a fair price it will hold its value. Examples are ML 360s DAC with a 37 transport, and Krell KPS 20i. These units decode HDCDs (I have a couple hundred) which is not available in new players. You can still get transports for both players but it would be wise to acquire an extra when you get the player.
Emotiva ERC-3: I bought one new and sold it for slightly more than I paid for it. This was a classic piece of gear that decodes HDCDs (Emotiva's new players don't do that). A pristine player with original packaging should hold near 100% of its value indefinitely.
Any vintage player that received a Class A rating in Stereophile that you can buy on the used market - especially if the player broke new ground in some way and if it is from a major manufacturer still in business. I own several pieces of high end vintage gear from the mid 90's through the mid 2000's and the depreciation curve seems to have flattened out for all of my pieces. Besides holding its value this kind of gear has a special pride of ownership because it was so well made and because it was absolutely state of the art when it was new. I love this stuff and playing a file from my tablet just doesn't give me same satisfaction.
I have several thousand CDs including HDCDs and SACDs. I like the experience of playing them as discs. I realize that makes me a troglodyte but so be it.
I currently own a PS Audio PerfectWave Mk II transport and DAC that I got for about 40% of retail after the DirectStream came out. It's worth 80% of what I paid for it. I also have a Krell CD 250/2 player that's worth 90+% of what I paid for it. My third player is a Marantz SA 8005 that I got used. I see them selling for around 90% of what I paid for mine several years ago.
Here are some other recommendations:
Vintage Krell or vintage Mark Levinson: If you buy a good condition model with original packaging for a fair price it will hold its value. Examples are ML 360s DAC with a 37 transport, and Krell KPS 20i. These units decode HDCDs (I have a couple hundred) which is not available in new players. You can still get transports for both players but it would be wise to acquire an extra when you get the player.
Emotiva ERC-3: I bought one new and sold it for slightly more than I paid for it. This was a classic piece of gear that decodes HDCDs (Emotiva's new players don't do that). A pristine player with original packaging should hold near 100% of its value indefinitely.
Any vintage player that received a Class A rating in Stereophile that you can buy on the used market - especially if the player broke new ground in some way and if it is from a major manufacturer still in business. I own several pieces of high end vintage gear from the mid 90's through the mid 2000's and the depreciation curve seems to have flattened out for all of my pieces. Besides holding its value this kind of gear has a special pride of ownership because it was so well made and because it was absolutely state of the art when it was new. I love this stuff and playing a file from my tablet just doesn't give me same satisfaction.
