What cd player should I buy?


I have the parasound halo c2 pre amp and I am using the parasound a 23 (two of them) to drive my Paradigm studio 40's. I have the myryad Z110 cd player and I am lookin to upgrade to some thing that has richer warmer sound. I was considering the Shanling t100 . Tube or solid cd player? Any suggestions out there please help. Thanks Joe
Ag insider logo xs@2xjhjf123456
You are going to get a million different suggestions (if any at all ;-) which may not be all that helpful in the long run. They are just other peoples' subjective, and usually biased, opinions.
You have to do it the hard way - the best way - get out and listen to some players.
Find a good dealer and you may even get to bring a player(s) home to try. If you DO get a good dealer who is helpful, don't waste his time then turn around and buy something used on Audiogon just to save a few bucks.
I did what Golden Ears says. It was a very enlightening experience. I am now the owner of a Jolida JD100 and it is awesome. I am also proud of the fact that I bought it at a locally-owned hifi shop where I got great service and a good price. Arthur
My suggestion is to determine a price range, and then start reading everything you can about players in that range. You will eventually find a small handful of players that appeal to you (based on what you've read). If you're lucky, you'll be able to audition some of them. Or, it may come down to deciding between features, or maybe just a gut feeling about which one you should buy.

My approach is to buy used players that can be re-sold for the same price. If there's a little room on your credit card, you may want to buy more than one, so you can compare them in your home (and then sell the ones you don't want).

I've done this recently with transports. I now have 4 transports in my home; and will re-sell 3 of them as soon as I decide which one to keep. It takes a little bit of money up front, but I will re-coup nearly all my costs, and will know that I made a good decision.