Ruminations On CD Players

@soix 

+1

I went on quite a journey looking for a better sounding CD player. Then I remembered I do have a few SACDs, and now used SACDs are inexpensive, so I narrowed the choice to CD/SACD players.

I don't stream, so external DAC, versatile inputs are of no interest to me.

It became clear to me that is is the combo of transport, processor, filters, over-clocking, IOW, it is a salad of many parts that give the final sound.

I ended up buying and loving the sound of a used Sony XA-5400 ES. The lasers do get old/weak, so any used one, find out the approximate hours of use. Also, are parts available for that model, do a simple search on hifishark for units and parts.

My Quest, with help here, a long read, but much discovered along the way. It may be helpful to you when finalizing on a different unit.

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/sony-sacd-player-scd-xa5400es-yay-or-nay

As far as supporting artists, one can still stream and continue to buy physical media. To @soix point, even if one’s been collecting physical media; there is so much music to explore out there. Those opposed to streaming are simply not keeping an open mind or content with repeated playback their music collection.

@knock1 

I second the remark about why certain individuals here that enjoy streaming always feel compelled to tell people inquiring about CD players to junk them .  
  It reminds me of the digital vs. analog debate, with the fanatics lined up on both sides., but here we have digital vs digital.  The analog lovers aren’t immune from this either.  Check out the ferocity of the direct vs belt drive turntables. 
   I suppose there could be worse things than audio fanaticism.  We could be screaming at each other that there is only one true religion, and murdering those that don’t share our belief.   Perhaps Audio Fanaticism is an outlet for this kind of aggression, much the way that sports channels aggression into less dangerous areas.  Whatever.

  In truth we live in a time where there are many ways to achieve excellent sound.  Analog, CD replay, streaming.  Even Internet Radio and Bluetooth have improved to a point where they probably sound better than what most of us had back in the day.  There are differences between them, enough to want to have preferences between technologiies.  It’s interesting how small differences sometimes yield the loudest controversy