OP I think audiotroy just offered you a great CD player at your stated budget price???
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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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) |
You don’t need a SACD player or DAC. Instead, consider something currently in production with a strong dealer network. Personally, I recommend the Marantz 50n CD player, priced at $1,800 (the SACD version is $3,000). It’s built like a tank, sounds smooth, and offers many useful features. Do not buy a used CD player. |
@hasmarto How arrogant and typical of this site that you feel able to dictate to the OP what they need. SACDs have been around for 25 years, it is just a pity that the US was not ready for them. |
Now you’re trying to draw me into an SACD vs. CD argument. It’s not my fault that SACDs aren’t very popular here, especially with streaming readily available. I’m a senior and do own an SACD player (you can look up my system here), but I haven’t used it in the past seven years. This site is for sharing opinions and suggestions, not dictating to others. Please don’t reply to me; we’re clearly speaking different languages. |
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