Serious CD Player

[selby]

Always on the look out for good old/used kit and at some point I'll need to invest in a decent CD player.

I've seen the Doc purchased a lovely Sony, also been recommended Accuphase DP players but know nothing about them.

Are there any other 'serious' players to look out for...

[southall-1998]

If you are on the cheap, this is a lovely player.....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ROTEL-RCD-965 ... 2c76fad9b7

S.

[Gromit]

Accuphase do come up every so often, I know very little about them unfortunately, but I do know they are very expensive.

I paid 90 quid for my Sony 303ES and it's great, and built like a tank. Basically it gets used as a transport into the Teac dac.

[Andrew]

Not exactly a player, but I've been very taken with DPAs PDM Two DAC, especially if you can sync lock it with a DPA transport. Sounds Rock solid and has a greater degree of clarity than I've had from CD. Best of all, it presents dynamics in a different way to other Players I've owned. Hard to put into words, but it's just far more believable. It avoids sounding loud and snouty, instead seeming to swell in scale, especially the bottom end.

It still doesn't beat vinyl, but it at least made me do a direct comparison to be sure. That's a first in itself for me.

[selby]

I have to say DACs scare me in terms of purchasing, just looking at this site http://www.alldacinfo.com/ shows the sheer number of options available.

There don't seem to be that many actual DAC Chips though, so I'm not entirely sure other than case/power supply what the difference between a £100 (epiphany e-dac) vs a £1000+ model. Probably loads on profit for greedy sellers/distributors etc.

I often look on DIYAudio but that just confuses me even more so. I've heard a couple of basic DACs and they do without doubt make massive improvements to the sound from my laptop. I'm just not sure what difference I'd hear between cheap and expensive. It might be a case of diminishing returns, or super-human hearing requirements...

Either way I'm left very confused about DACs.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

This is what most people are using http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/370851648043? ... 1438.l2649 or variations on it. The MCRU bullshit one made by lurcher is basically this plus a couple of valves on the output and a decent power supply, and how many grand is that, over 3 I think

[selby]

That's exactly my point! £30 Chinese special...

I found the following a while ago but never committed due to be wary I was buying a dud or that for the same or less money I could find something better, in the end I gave up!

http://www.audio-gd.com
http://www.lampizator.eu/NEWDAC/Lampiza ... r_DAC.html
and then the more scary looking page – http://lampizator.eu/newdac/L5/L5_dacstory.html

I looked at the Kit – http://www.lampizator.eu/NEWDAC/Lampiza ... t_PCB.html

[jammy395]

Had a Audionote Zero transport / Perpetual Technology P3A (3 box DAC) hooked up to my Monarchy Audio Pro70 Mono amps.....(Young Rich & Daft).
That was an interesting sound....Still makes me smile at the memory - As fine a sound as ive ever heard from CD.

Still bettered by Vinyl though.