Budget CDP: Cambridge 640c, Marantz CD5003, what?

Thanks for your thoughts. My friend will go with my recommendation and used is okay, but I want to be sure that it's going to last. The Denon 3910 gives *me* a bad feeling in that regard and, besides, I'd prefer to get a plain old CDP.

I offered him an Arcam FMJ23T that I recently picked up. $700. But he balked at the price, which is why I am exploring other options. I figure new is just easier, but I'm not bound to it. My frustration is that I have no idea how all of these players sound and if they'd be a good fit. I should have mentioned that he listens exclusively to jazz, mostly be-bop. So PRAT and energy are key. I think a "laid-back" sound, whatever that means, might not be ideal.

Drubin,

Just found a review of the Marantz CD5003 on the Postive Feedback website. It was mostly a postive review but it did say the following:

"Where the Marantz falls slightly short of competing with NAD and especially Cambridge Audio players is in terms of pace and high frequency extension. It just didn't get my toes tapping as convincingly, nor did it have as much sparkle."

Since you just stated that your friend like listening to be-bop jazz, and that PRAT and energy are important qualities to him. I would think the Cambridge player would more than likely suit his needs a bit better better than the Marantz.

Great catch, Cleaneduphippy! I hadn't seen that PFO review and I agree with your reasoning. Thanks!

NAD also has two sub-$500 models that are well-reviewed. Anyone have experience with them?

Drubin,

I used to own the NAD C542 and it was to my ears, a warm, musical type of player. And it also did good in the PRAT dept. The only thing I didn't care about the player is occasionally I would put a disc in the drawer and it wouldn't play and wouldn't eject the disc. Which meant I had to take the player out of my system, and take the top off the unit to retrive the disc, and then tinker around with drawer mechanism till it started operating properly again. Now granted this only happen a couple or three times in the year that the player was in my system, but still.... (note: the unit was a refurbished unit). NAD are good sounding players especially for the price, but they do have a reputation of having occasional mechanical problems.