Why buy older digital gear?

I got my first CDP in 1985. I haven't found these units to be very reliable and I am now on CDP #4--an inexpensive model recommended by many on this forum, now in a second system. All were in the $300-$500 range. Each generation brought a marked improvement in sound quality that made me listen to my CD collection with new interest. However, I recently purchased a used Anodyne ATAS DAC through Audiogon for about 1/4 its new price. The Audiogon blue book says this began production in 1992. Though my experience is somewhat limited because I don't audition a lot of gear, in my main system, this blew away the new CDP as well as my Sony DVP-S7700 and the stock ART DI/O I later hooked up to it. This purchase has given me a lot of listening enjoyment at modest cost.. If SACD and DVD-A don't catch on, I expect I will upgrade to today's state of the art in a few years at comparable discounts. If you are looking for good digital equipment at very reasonable prices, you should try to give some of this gear a listen.

The sound from all those older generation CDP/dac sound more natural, LP like and far more musical than the more modern machines. Most of the current machines are just too bright, too aggressive, uninvolving and produce very mechanical sound.... Live music(unampilifed) don't sound mechanical at all......... and they flow like liquid......

I still have a Meridian 263 bitstream dac and it sounds "less digital" than alot of newer technology I've heard.

I still find my circa 1985 dbx DX3 cdp to be better than the bulk of current big-name players. Looking at the boards in my dbx, its easy to note that it relies on built-up circuits with quality components and parts. These have been largely replaced with generic IC's on contemporary units.

Designers of the older gear had more opportunity to actually design the audio circuits, rather than assemble parts from what has become a largely commodity based electronics industry. I'm sure the DAC chips are better now, but I also think this does little good when combined with minimal analog circuits consisting of lowest-cost parts.

I would, however, be very careful about buying a used cdp because of the mechanical wear and alignment issues. Many, like my dbx, are now orphans with no parts available for the drive or laser head sections. Every time I hear a skip, I realize the unavoidable end grows nearer.

as a backup player. It is surprisingly good. It performs as well as a lot of today's big buck players. I hide it so people think it is the Wadia playing.