most analog sounding CDP


What CDP would have the smoothest,most fatigue-free analog sound?
rusvit
I haven't listened to many other players, but having had a Linn CD12 I'd have to say it's easily one of the best money can buy. Extremely smooth & rich & alive - I could easily listen to it forever.

It can also work magic with some lesser quality Redbook recordings.
If you can go seperate:

1. Kondo KSL DAC + CEC 0 II transport
2. Zanden DAC IV + Zanden 2000 signature transport
IMHO this question is not for a simple this or that answer because the sound you get from your system is a teamwork effort of ALL your system's components and sure there is no such thing as an "analoge sound" - there's only the sound of music. I tried many of so called analog sounding CDP's and in my system (McIntosh tubes into Revel Ultima System) they all were outperformed by the Wadia 270/27ix combo big time.
The above mentioned Linn did sound very nice, the French Capitole didn't do anything for me. The dCS combo came closest to the Wadias. It really matters what other components are in your chain once you are in that league of CD gear.
Meridian G08. Fatigue-free without losing dynamics or detail, which is tough to do. Great 3D soundstage. A very musical player. I've had mine about 6 months. It took about 3 months to break in (300 hours est.). More people should hear this thing - it's quite good.

Also it's a completely non-finicky player. It's tracked everything I've tried, doesn't clip off the first second or two of some tracks like some players do, no power-on or off noises, has a very quiet transport, and is built extremely solidly. The remote is a bit over-the-top but it is well made. In any case, you could replace it with a learning remote if you wanted to.

I searched for a long time for a CD player and heard most of the top contenders. The G08 holds its own with the best out there and is reasonably priced for the sound and build quality you get.