Seeking Budget CD Player Suggestions


I also posted this question in another forum. A friend of mine has an early 90s era Mac CD player which is on its last legs. Great player in its day, but he is on a budget (around $500) and needs to replace it, preferably new, dealer demo, open box, etc. Rotel CD-11 and Marantz CD-6007 have been suggested as top picks in that price range. Any other suggestions, ideas, reasoning for a particular model? If Rotel, would the Tribute or Mk. II edition be preferable? 

chrken

Ive read a fee times I believe Paul at PS Audio suggests that using a transport with an off the shelf DAC will most likely have issues with the clocks syncing .Might want to do a bit of research before moving in this direction. If playing of SACD is required, look for a used Denon 2910, 3910 or 5910 CD player with fantastic built in DAC that will also play SACD through the analog outputs. HDMI not needed.

Several years back I had a slightly modified (new chips) Pioneer PD 65 (inverted player) the only out was optical which wasn't very good

Integra 3.4, open box, $300.

 

Download 'one sheet' for Full Specs Found Here

 

My conclusion: the sound is a combo, like a salad, of the dual wolfson dacs combined with: over-clocking, error correction, filters, brand specific gizmos like Onkyo’s VLSC.

This model sounded better than the 8 others I tried. IF no SACD is needed, it is a terrific sounding player, with the advantage of it’s 6 disc feature.

Another vote for Rotel cd11. I was really surprised how good it sounded using the internal DAC. 

I own a Marantz CD6007 and it’s excellent and reasonably affordable new. I’m planning to upgrade shortly so it could be listed on Audiogon soon 🙂