Best Sub $500 used CD Player

the phillip 963 is pretty darn good. i would also check out the new marantz (warranty is mas importanate with the new units)

mike

btw, the reason i suggested new units is there has been a quantam leep with the lastest generation of cd players.

you used to have to buy a $2500 dac to get at the sound quality level of the newer units.

hope that helps,

mike

I would seriously look at Toshiba 3950 & 4900 DVD players, they have 24/192 audio Dac and sound great for $60-80 price new at Best Buy etc, I think they are at least equal to a used older $500 CDP you can buy here. I bought one of each to play around with.

If you are into DIY there are many mods also posted at AA forum.

The MMF CD25 ( Shanling CD-S100 ) is a really great player for the money, as you know, and you ought to be able to get it for a lot less than $500 used. I don't know of an older player selling for $500 which would beat it, as far as my ears were concerned, but a killer deal could come up, I suppose. The Shanling CD-S100 Mk II is a lot better than the first version. I sold my CD-S100 Mk II for under US$500. Unfortunately it is only available in Canada. Maybe another Canadian would sell you a used one.

I've had experience with five under $500 players in the last month or so and been able to A/B them pretty thoroughly in various combinations, the Music Hall CD-25, a Cambridge Audio 300se with upgraded opamps, an AMC CD8b, a Philips 963 DVD/CD player and a Toshiba 3950 DVD/CD player. With that many options and a fairly small price range, it's impossible to say just one was clearly best but here are my observations.

If you've got $500 that you don't need for anything else and are interested only in the best two-channel audio, get the Music Hall. If you want to spend that same money and are willing to give up just a little audio quality for high quality video and the potential for multi-channel audio, get the Philips.

If you want to spend $100 on sound and $400 on something else, and you can live with a little less quality, buy the Toshiba (or a JVC 600 series DVD player.) The two players in between, the Cambridge and AMC, are also very nice for the money, both between $100 and $200 used, sound somewhat better than the inexpensive DVD players and the ergonomics are better.

They all do a good job for what they cost but the Music Hall is the only one that makes me stop when I'm walking through the room and just sit down and listen.