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CD Player: "Love at First Listen" recommendation

Hi,

I was interested in opinions on (unmodified) CD players that you loved the very first time you heard it.

In other words, it was new to your ears (there was no "burn in" period).

Also, you knew you had to have it before you could feel pressure to like it just because of any of the following: 1) the high cost, 2) the perception of the particular brand, 3) peer pressure, or 4) connection to the manufacturer or store.

Any price (but under $4K)

Thanks!
darsue
unclejeff
1,313 posts
 
I generally seek out units highly praised on Audiogon. This is how I found out about my Audio Aero Capitole.
schipo
1,268 posts
 
My opinion why spend that much on a cd player when you can purchase a great universal player and have the best of all worlds. But if you must have a cd only player buy a used JVC 1050 player great built player and sound just as close to the best and for a song of $150 to $175 you can save the rest for better speaker's.
kehut's avatar
kehut
668 posts
 
CAL Icon player for me in 1989. Suddenly I realized that my CD's were actually pretty good!
darsue OP
1 posts
 
Just to further clarify my question, I'm looking for recommendations of those players that gave you a "wow!" response that was significantly greater than your initial expectation on your first "out-of-the-box" listen. (Not like: "I listened to this for 100 hours and the soundstage really started to open up...,etc.)
rmrobinson1957
57 posts
 
I'll second the CAL Icon; I bought mine in 1990. I was using an inexpensive Sony player and the Icon was a revelation in comparison. It took all of about 15 seconds to decide I wanted it. (The rest of the system - Adcom GFP-565, NAD 2600a and Maggie MG-1.4.)

More recently, a Meridian 588 (took about 30 seconds to decide on this one!) This is a great player and can be had for under $2k.

Bob R.
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