CD Player: Vintage or modern ones?


I’ve been given a collection of classical and jazz CD’s, last time I had or played one was like 20 years ago with a humble Denon I bought saving for few months.

Now that I have a pretty good system, wondering if worth to get a good CD Player or find some “old glory”, but I’m totally lost.

The one that appeals to me is the Audis Flight FL Three S in black (must be black to match rest of my Italian system, ideally from that beautiful country), or the Goldnote CD-10, even some TEAC. Regarding more older units, I’m totally lost.

Any suggestion? Rest of the system is made by Diesis Audio (Speakers, Ampnand cables).

Thanks in Advance.

superelmar

Transports and DACs have improved a lot over the last couple decades. So, newer much better. But the technology has also advanced. Streaming will offer the same sound quality (carefully chosen, compatible like everything else in high end audio), but you get access to over 10 million albums and over half a million of high resolution (higher than CD quality) with a service like Qobuz… $14.99 / month… the price of a single CD. I have 4,000 albums and have not listened to them in years. To do this you need a DAC and streamer… separated are best.

How do older cd players age, even when they are not put in use, for long periods of time?  I asked ChatGPT and got some surprising answers.

Yeah, I do have Aqua La Scala MKII, superb one, (don’t kill me USB from my MacBook Pro, will add LinQ in future) but all the hassle bout CD sounds superior… maybe I should save and get Aqua La Diva or start with a  CD6007 from Marantz and see what happens…

Some capacitors start degrading from the moment they roll off the assembly line. They have a built in lifespan, which might be a decade or two, but eventually they will all fail. So even if a CD player has never been used it could still be at end of life. There are a lot of players from the 90s and 2000s that still sound great but I'd be worried about them no matter how little use they have had.