Bluenote Reliability

Have to disagree about the Italian stuff, at least from my experience. I have owned three Lector CDP 7TL's and the Zoe, and all have operated flawlessly. I also owned the Stibbert and, regardless of what HP says, I like my CDP 7TL MkIII better, and to me it seemed the Lector was built better, but that's just my opinion and may partially be based on the top-loading transport of the Lector compared to the Stibbert's drawer.

I had a Lector CDP 7 Mk II. The Stibbert blew it away here. The Raysonic betters them both and is a top loader

The overwhelming majority of failures in high-end audio components across the board are related to the transports/laser heads in CD players.

Though the CD player manufacturer gets the blame, they really have little to do it, and are at the mercy of the luck of the draw. Basically, they're all pretty much in the same boat here, as with a few notable exceptions, everyone is using the same failure prone Sony transport/laser head assembly.

You make a good point Trelja. Wouldn't the Bluenote be better
in this regard. I'm pretty sure it uses a dvd transport.Is
it naive of me to think they are better.

Thank you, Blazen69.

If the Bluenote does have a DVD transport, I think it should be better.

My understanding of why so few audiophile players come with DVD transports for the simple fact that the costs involved in getting a player FDA certified (remember, it's a laser device) with a CD transport/laser head assembly are a fraction of what it would cost if it had a DVD transport. Obviously, a $5000 CD player would have no problem justifying using a DVD transport/laser head assembly from the standpoint of simply the cost of the part.

I'm surprised that more audiophiles don't complain about the fact that the sub $100 DVD players purchased at supermarkets and electronic stores are night and day more reliable than the high-end audio CD players of today. It's a real shame...