Sparkler Audio makes a very good sounding nos CD player for about $1700.00. Sparklers designer is from 47 Labs and knows what he is doing. I have had mine for about a year and really like the sound. http://sparkler-audio.com/portfolio/S503_en.html |
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Another thing to consider are dedicated Optical Drives, mainly used for ripping CDs, that will also play CDs when connected (usually by usb) to a DAC. I experimented with an Apple Optical drive outputting into an Oppo 105, and the results were pretty close to to those obtained from just using the Oppo. Currently I am using the Bryston Optical Drive as a dedicated CD transport. It has to be paired with a Bryston Streamer which then feeds into a separate DAC, so all of that would exceed the budget here, but for red book it does sound a bit better-mainly low level detail retrieval, particularly in the bass—than my Oppo as a transport into the same DAC. Melco makes an Optical player that can be played directly into a DAC for around $1500. The biggest issue with the Bryston is that mechanical grinding noise that rippers make, which occurs at the end of tracks. Not a big deal if I am listening a a Bruckner Symphony whereeach track might be 30 minutes, but if I’m listening to an album of Chopin Mazurkas that are each 90 seconds in duration it’s more noticeable. |
Denafrips makes excellent products that are very well built from their Ares 2 dac, pontus to terminator + very musically involving Non digital and have a very good transport if you need one Vinshine Audio $$ in Syngapore scroll down page yellow is in US$$ from Pontus on up very good huge linear power supplies and at least 200 filtering capacitors ,name brand parts in many areas and very good 3 yr warranty and soak tested for 100 hours and retested before it leaves excellent price performance value. |
