The Best CD players thread

That matches my mate’s findings. He loved the higher price stuff but found the cheaper kit a bit ordinary. My only experience of the brand is the 170i IPod dock. It was a decent product but not really proper Wadia.

Did a back to back last night, Technics SLP1200 vs Sony X505ES

The Technics is so much better it isn't funny. I would take the pepsi challenge with the Technics against any other digital source, player, streamer, whatever, anytime.

Think I might sell some of my turntables and see if I can't get hold of another one, just for back up purposes.

I had a similar experience in the past whereby I had a Sony CDP-X339ES that cost around 400 quid and it used to beat some much higher priced players... I finally replaced it with a Naim CDI which bettered it, but then it was around 4x the price at the time.

I don’t have a huge amount of experience with Sony ES. From what I have heard though, I think they are overrated.

The X505ES was a superb player.

The X**9ES models were massively better than the X**7 models and I can't remember which ones came out first.

Love that Technics. I would bet the build of it is a big part of its sound. Cheap vibrating casework is bad enough with amps, but it's an even bigger issue with CD players. NVA and Roksan re-cased pretty ordinary players, beefed up their power supplies and built them into solid chassis'. They didn't just to that for looks. It really matters.

I have fond memories of a wee Akai CDP I had in the 80s.
A lovely sounding machine, sorry I sold it.

4 x Upsampling.....is that an old school thing.

I have looked for a pic of it on the web, but no luck so far.

for me it was teac..cant remember the model numbers...the teacs i home demoed wiped the floor with those marantz player tweaked by that chink fella ken isowitchatalllinesman

I would like a go of a CD12 but they are still very pricey even second hand.

seems to be taking a long time for CD to be perceived as dead. People still asking silly money for very average players.

Having owned an Esoteric XO1, an Ayre thingy, TEAC VRDS 25, a Cello transport and a good many others besides, the player I lust after most is a Lector 707 with a PSU-7T power supply. "Sublime" is too small a word for what this player sounds like and saying that it is analogue-like is an insult. A mere four grand means I will have to polish up my busking skills to afford one.

At the moment I am running a Vincent player with a class A FET output and that has the right blend of fine detail and bass weight and punch that I adore.

Rega players by all accounts are very good and have a loyal fan base, but I've never heard the top of the line ones....
only valve CDP I've heard was a shanling thought it was very smooth.

You sir are very modest in your choice of a user name. The Lector 707 and psu 7 are a superb and produce a fantastic sound. Good luck with your busking skills.

I've used CD players only as transports for over twenty years. I owned many DAC's and wasn't entirely convinced until I started using Theta models, they were 'the real deal'. It took me a while to find something I liked better. I now have a Monarchy Audio M22B and an M22C, both exceed the sound quality I've heard from Theta models and I feel no need to move on.

My CD players are a Meridian 507, two Pioneer PD-S505 Precisions and a Trichord Research Digital Turntable. They each sound different (apart from the identical Pioneers obviously), even used as transports. The Meridian just edges the others, but there's very little in it.

By the way, for the price they can be bought for, the PD-S505 Precision is an absolute bargain soundwise. It sounds great used as a stand-alone player and works brilliantly as a transport. It has what many might describe as an 'analogue sound'.