Rotel and Marantz, and others, make nice mid priced (under $3K) players that are more than adequate for daily listening. A CD PLAYER has the DAC built in. The CD TRANSPORT requires an external DAC. Internal or external DAC you interface with the player or transport. SACD, HD and others are enhanced digital CD "formats". A normal, everyday CD can be referred to as a "Red Book CD". Many manufacturers source the Laser and Transport assemblies from suppliers, as do many DAC manufacturers with chips. Which Transport and which Laser is kind of getting into the weeds at the 3K level, it becomes a marketing issue. a $1500 player is hard to tell from more expensive units unless you have done a ton of critical listening and have sound quality parameters (AKA Golden Ears). If so, you will be auditioning individual units.
Looking for a CD Player
I am in the process of replacing my Moon CD 5 CD Player --- or might be no reason to replace my present CD Player. The next CD player if purchased is probably going to be my last as I am a senior in age. My wife and I are tired of getting up and down and up and down did I mention up and down to listen to the other side of an album. So, we have a number of CDs and frankly like the ease of listening to them. Not wanting to purchase streaming music. Therefore, we / I need an education on two subjects - Do we need to have a DAC incorporated in the CD player and secondly do we need to have SACD capability?? Not wanting to spend more than 3000.00. All the help would be appreciated.
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76 yo: I have owned many hi-end CD transports and players over the decades. Several years ago I got a great deal on an Audio Alchemy DDP-1 + PS 5 for $1000. Recently I replaced a Audiolab 6000CDT transport with a Shanling ET3 transport MSRP $729. It is an absolute bargain, but if you want to keep it simple go to Shanling.com where you can buy direct a SCD 1.3 to play both CD and SACDs MSRP $1279 No waiting HTH |
If all you want is to play CDs, this new CDP from Exposure might work for you.
It uses old, 1990s tech with a CD only Sony transport and Burr-Brown PCM1704 multibit DACs and is a top loader, at just $3000. Here's a review of it and here's a video review of it:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewozXatHERA (it's a very British take on it). I haven't heard it myself but noticed the sliding door sounded a bit tinny on the video but that was on YouTube and through my computer system set up. There'll be more reviews coming soon as it's the new kid on the block. All the best, |
If you are into classical music, I would highly recommend SACDs. They are about the same price as CDs, and almost always include a Redbook CD layer so they can play (at CD quality) on any CD player or transport. I play them in native SACD mode where they normally contain 5 channels of Direct Stream Digital (DSD) sound, sometimes with an additional subwoofer channel. (They usually also have a 2-channel DSD version). I do not have a center speaker and the center channel is automatically added to front left and front right by my AV pre-processor. Over 6,000 SACD titles are available from Presto in the UK, and they also have a streaming service under A$20 a month which allows you to download, avoiding the issue of your streaming service removing the items you want. The latest CD players I purchased are universal players and play CD, SACD, DVD, BluRay and 4K Ultra BluRay. They output over HDMI, so function as transports, and the DACs are built-in to my AV pre-processor. All 8 DACs handle DSD natively, something to really check for! I have a very cheap Sony (about A$250) and a Reavon (about A$3,000) which is closer in execution to the famed but no longer available OPPO universal players. The Reavon has two Burr-Brown DACs, one for CD playback, and one for multi-channel SACD. Unbelievably, SACD is reduced to CD quality when using the internal DACs. I am older than you, but instantly picked the loss of sound quality, which I have not seen mentioned in any review. There is a cheaper Reavon which plays SACDs but skips the on-board DACs, but I have not used it so can’t comment on playback quality. I do understand that many on this site will be horrified by my suggestions! No streaming service that I am aware of provides the full resolution of either SACD or 4K. If a recording engineer has gone to the expense and trouble of recording 5 channels, why throw 3 away! And there are newer recordings coming out in more than 5 channels, such as 2L,no and their Atmos sound-only disks (Grammy award winners) |
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