Tube CD Players other than Jolida

Conrad Johnson DV2B; an excellent player that well outperforms the Jolida. I know, I own both. Perhaps hard to find used but occasionally shows up here.

I've had a JD100 but my Audio Aero Prima Mk2 is much better - more resolution, better pace and timing, larger soundstage, and definitely better macrodynamics. Both make music but the Prima makes it in a much more interesting and enteraining way. I have seen them sell here for just over $1k. It is tough to tube roll though because the tubes are directly soldered to the board. But you needn't worry about it because those 6021 will last for years and sound great.

Otherwise, I have also had a Consonance Reference 2.2. The balanced connections use opamps but the unbalanced are straight from tubes. This player sounds great. Very similar style as the Jolida but with better resolution. But it doesn't have the impressive dynamics of the Prima.

Then I also had a Granite 657. I didn't care for this player. I thought it lacked transparency and dynamics. Everything sounded a little dull. I don't recommend it but your mileage may vary...

I also had a Cayin CD50T. This was a nice player. It did everything well with no real shortcomings other than the soundstage width being a bit narrow compared to the others. This one can be a great buy used.

Arthur

I've heard that Vincent Audio tubed CD players are quite good and well constructed. I'm thinking about picking one up personally as a trial to playback HDCD as their models have this capability.