CD player reliability.... good and bad.
When I bought the Luxman DZ 122, circa early 1990s, the shop told me that Sony or Philips made just about all the mechanisms, lasers, and chips for CD players on the market at that time, including a lot of the pricier esoteric players. I believe my Denon and Luxman both had Sony internals, or at least a lot of the internals were Sony. |
the shop told me that Sony or Philips made just about all the mechanisms, lasers,Correct there were a couple of Panasonic as well. Later on Sanyo started doing them too, all reliable as well. Here is a major list of just about all cd player and cd transports and dacs. showing dac chips and laser mechs and lasers http://vasiltech.narod.ru/CD-Player-DAC-Transport.htm Cheers George |
Maybe a year ago or a little more, I popped for a McCormack UDP PLAYER. INTErnals are of Pioneer. I know, when I use remote to power on, the pioneer elite dv-48av turns on also. :( She is a long in the tooth player, she does sound pretty good, display still nice and bright, but from the couch, hard to read. I let most all CDs play through anyway,as with my albums, nice the needle drops, the entire LP yes’s through both sides. Plus, I’m too lazy to get off the couch to swap CDs. The past 2 years.... Bought a tascam CD player with the iPod dock, sounded um...... no bass, guitar was not crunchy as It should have been, treble was. Ok returned it, had some skips only after a month. Then a Denon professional unit, features galore, thought being a Denon, it would be awesome.sounded great, but the tray arrived and it must have been off track on the inside, I could hear rubbing and it woooullld not Close completely. ReTurned her. Then a Integra cd 5 carousel, mechhanically great, nice unit, skipping on 2 out of the 5 CDs loaded. Liked this player, as ha a a vvi5 CDs at once was great. - side note, still have my Sherwood 5 cd carousel as a present from my old friend(RIP MY BROHER) only play once in a while. But the close button must stick, as when I gently press “close” it does close, then immediately opens up again, must repeat this process 2-3 times to keep tray closed. :( Then the Yamaha cd s300- the best of the bunch, and best CD player I’ve heard in a long time. A very nice open airy sound, loved this uni, and the looks were cool too. The strange “only opening about 3/4 of the way” and having to slowly load the CDs by tilting it towards the cd tray and ,.....pain in the butt, sfter a few weeks of warming up, loved this player. But the strange way it went through tracks, it would interrupt the music and go to next track, like an 8 track switching from 1, 2, 3, & 4. Then some skipping started. Honestly, I’m not sure if it’s just the luck of the Irish, as John Lennon has said. Then onto the McCormack UDP player........as mentioned, she is an old unit, but plays flawlessly. Must be my luck! Will keep using this one til it starts to skip. Hopefully get a couple years out of her!, two best I had was Onkyo dx-7500 and the Acurus ACD-11. Both failed also after a couple years. Acurus lasted maybe 3-4 years. Onkyo was demo unit. |
My experience with cd players varies. Some have lasted some have not and some sound excellent some sound terrible. I currently have Onkyo that cost $700 with a metal loading tray and twin Wolfsen Dacs and a Naim cd player that my ears enjoy it very much. Since I haven't heard the super high end players I'll reserve judgment. I've spent a ton of money components and sometimes the lower end stuff sounds better that the higher end stuff. At least to my ears. |
