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CD player recommendations

Hello all,

Just looking for a few recommendations here. After being almost exclusively vinyl over the last few years, I've decided to break out the cd collection again. I have two CD players from the dark ages. A CAL icon mkii power boss and a CAL CL-20. Just wondering what current or newer used CD players would be up for consideration and sound significantly better. I do not have any hdcd's, sacd's, or burned cd's. Strictly red book. Amp is a plinius hautonga driving B&W 804s speakers. Balanced outputs would be a plus since the plinius accepts balanced CD player inputs. Budget is around $1,500

thanks in advance

skipper

skipper320
loomisjohnson
1,962 posts
 

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.

jbuhl's avatar
jbuhl
1,000 posts
 

There is a Wadia 122 over on UsAudiomart for ~800.  Pair that with a $500 Cambridge Audio transport and you be in fat city.   Although I agree with the streaming suggestion.  Properly invested and configurized it gonna oh so close to red book sound especially at $1.5K

elliottbnewcombjr
5,637 posts
 

CD's ONLY:

I got solid confirmation regarding 'look no further' after listening for 4 hours last night with my friend/neighbor/music producer. If not streaming higher resolution content, just playing CDs, the DAC(s)/Additives of some CD Players do a great job.

he brought music he just mixed, music he won a grammy for, and we played lots of my music, LP's and CD versions via the Integra CDC-3.4.

He likes Peter Gabriel, Steamroller as a quick revealing test. I have favorites I find revealing. 1st round darn good, but ....then we tweaked the tweeters a bit higher with their L-Pads, then he pronounced the system sound, imaging, depth excellent. You can imagine how happy I was to hear that.

I had been over-cautious with the tweeters, I got +/- 1.5db up to10k, then let the highs drop slowly from there. He heard that, I twirled the controls a speck at a time L & R, he listened and thinks we got it just right. He's interested to know what the meter says we did. Of course I will get L/R equal if they are not.

I'm lucky to know him, a great guy, brought some good beer, told me some funny stories ....

It's a shame it doesn't play SACDs.

skipper320 OP
89 posts
 

Thanks for all the input. As you can tell, I'm rather ignorant when it comes to the DAC/digital world. So the next question is this. The icon mk2 has only a coaxial rca digital output. The cl-20 has numerous outputs, including some labeled pcm/96k. Looks like an optical and a 3 pin jack as well. Which is the best output to send the info to the outboard dac?

thanks again all,

skipper

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