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Vinyl guy seeking recommendation for a top level cd player

I know cds are dead.  Best time to buy a cd player, the way it looks.  I want an all in one box.  I don't stream so a separate DAC is not required.  Most of my cd collection have been ripped to a PC as Flac files and then down loaded to a Sony HAP-Z1ES.  Currently about 3000 Redbook and perhaps 100 SACDs.  The way cds are being dumped I figure on becoming a buyer again so these numbers will go up.  I have looked at Marantz SA10, Esoteric K1 (lightly used), and Luxman D-10X, so far.  It would be good if the sound could approach vinyl.  The Z1 does up to a point.  Listening this morning to the same recordings, the Z1 compares to a high end MM cartridge, but not to a SoundSmith Experion.  Maybe I am asking too much, but in any event a new cd player is being sought.  Thanks in advance for any advice.
Bill
billstevenson
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riaa_award_collectors_on_facebook
979 posts
 
Pretty Sad Twoleft...the TOTL Bryston isn't as good as the lowest Luxman.
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arize84
56 posts
 
I’m a McIntosh fan, smooth sounding, less clinical.

My understanding is that McIntosh SACDs players are basically Bryston DACs coupled with a Marantz transport. I was told this by a dealer, so apply some grains of salt to the info.

russ69's avatar
russ69
3,360 posts
 
"...Lasers do not stop working due to age or usage..."

Lasers as a group do wear out with usage. I know I’ve bought a couple of 60000 buck lasers because the laser was timed out. I guess the lasers in CD players are long life LED lasers? Not sure but they do not last forever either. My old hi-end dealer would not buy or sell used CD players because of the laser issues.
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riaa_award_collectors_on_facebook
979 posts
 
You misinterpreted my post.  A Laser can go out AT ANY TIME....like a week after you buy it...not because of its age/usage. Thats what I meant.
pengun
79 posts
 
All CD players are kinda crap at digital. The best possible source for a digital file is a RAM Disk. Its not hard to see why, as its absolutely effortless from your RAM.
I have actually tested this extensively, and an NVMe drive is pretty close to a RAM Disk, with SSDs just behind and HDs behind them. I don't have good CD players to test but regular ones are not as good as any HD that I have heard. CD players just throw the bits, as they read them, at their DAC, or out to your DAC, while digital files have header, so the system knows what's happening.

 Come on kids, I'm nearly 75 and have been tweaking my systems since the 80s of the last century. Computer noise can be pretty well eliminated by using a Pi bridge of some kind, and the Pi2AES hat is so good at this, the signal my DAC sees is very clean indeed, with almost imperceptible levels of both noise and jitter.
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