CD player recommendations

Marantz SA-10 Player. My dealer showed me a great streaming system. It was nice, hip, I took my Marantz in to see on my CD compared, sorry my CD sounded much better, more tone, weight and color, and dynamic, the dealer said to me well it is but and miss, but you got to look at the convinence, I told him why? I have 1,500 CD's, he said you have a point I have no answer for. I grew up on vinyl, had a huge collection, sold them all to a collector, never looked back. 

So I have finally added an external DAC to my system, a Topping E30 I picked up used for $80.

I am running 2 Pioneer units into it. An older DVD player via SPDIF and a 25 disc jukebox via optical.

At this point the CD players are transports only. I see that some folks have dedicated CD transports, but do they make much of a difference?

From my layman’s perspective, with the DAC out of play, the only thing that the CD player is doing is reading 1’ and 0’s from a disc and sending them to my DAC. Or am I a completely ignorant and I am missing something critical?

skipper320

Good suggestions as above. Seek out a Plinius cd player to match the Hautonga.

Otherwise, an AYRE, Balanced Audio Technology (B.A.T.), or Rotel works well with your gear. For now, become re-acclimated with your CAL spinners and CD collection. Have fun and Enjoy the music.

Happy Listening!

 OP sets price range of $1500. and someone recommends the Marantz SA 10 at $7500. Big help.....

i agree with mahler--you'd be better off to keep you cdps as transports and add an external dac--you can get a topping or smsl w/balanced outs for less than $500 which will likely outperform the inboard dacs on most $1500 cdps.