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Best older universal for CD playback??

I am wondering if anyone has compared the universal players below for CD playback sound and what were your observations. I am trying to stick with one machine verses one for DVD and one for CD but that can be tough I cannot afford the newer units and to me many are hyper detailed and not what I am looking for. I have heard the DVD 7001 and DVD 3800 and thought the Denon was warmer. Probably the ALPHA processing. I had that on my Denon 1650AR I had for 9 years and it did make it more musical and analog. Thanks
Marantz DV 7001,DV 9500,DV 9600
Denon DVD 3800,DVD 3910,DVD 3800BD,DVD 2930ci
128x128geph0007
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,549 posts
 
Esoteric DV-50s. It plays CD, SACD, and DVD. It's built like a battleship and sounds great. Original retail was $5800, they sell for $1200-$1500.
grinnell
1,077 posts
 
oppo cpd?
68pete
993 posts
 
try a used oppo 95 it will work well for what you needed will not break the bank
wisnon
700 posts
 
You can get the Denon 3910 and mod it. Tap the spdif leg of the audio chip and solder a direct output wire to a newly drilled coax terminal for digital out. To further improve performance you can disconnect all the video boards.

By tapping the leg, you shorten the digital audio out path and no longer have to go via the long PCB traces that kill the delicate digital signal. To get really fancy, you could run the spdif through a tube buffer first, but there you would need to tap the transormer to get another power supply dedicated to the tube buffer.

The laser precision of this DVD player seems to be higgher than for typical CD lasers.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
A Sony 9000ES may work for you. They tend to sell for about $400. Maybe start with that, and if you want to upgrade at some point, have it modded.
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