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Looking for an affordable single CD player that will be the only audio source in an all-new (no used components) stereo system I'm building. Here are the CD players so far under consideration:
--NAD C 538
--Tascam CD-200BT
--Cambridge Audio AXC35
--Marantz CD5005
Please comment on any of the above CD players, or recommend any others in a comparable price range of $150 -$400. THANKS!!
NOTE: The CD player will feed into this system:
Preamp: Nobsound NS-01P tube preamp
Amp: Niles SI-2100 solid-state amp
Speakers: Pair of Infinity R162 speakers
Follow Ups:
To answer your question, I can confirm that the Tascam CD200 is a fine sounding player and exceptional value.
I bought one to use as a transport; it was good for that, but I was pleasantly surprised by the sound of its analogue output; so much so that I bought one as a present for a friend! It is thoroughly musical and enjoyable - and I'm into high end vinyl, SET amps and high quality CD players.
Now this is all a personal view, and opinion rather than fact. But I have heard many good CD players (and still own quite a few), and I'd say that to get a significant improvement over the Tascam requires quite a leap, to the likes of decent valve output players such as Cayin CD100i, or to a good multi bit player; either of which will cost many times the price of the Tascam.
I have only found the CD sound I like from both multibit and valve output together! I love the sound of the Lector CDP707 and the MHDT Atlantis DAC.
Good luck.
Others have said that you should rip your CD collection to hard drives and stream them. Also that you can subscribe to CD-quality or better from Qobuz or Tidal and stream many millions of tracks.I can understand that you want to be able to simply play your CDs, even if you go the streaming route as well.
There's one product (and I'd like to hear of any other) that can play CDs, rip CDs, store music files on 2 internal hard drives and offer streaming from Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon, etc and tens of thousands of radio stations.
Trouble is, it's way out of your budget. However, if you decide to go the streaming route and rip your collection and want to simply play your CDs, it may be cost effective, particularly as it requires no cables, apart from a digital link to your DAC.
It's the NAD M50.2. It's good - very good, in fact a Stereophile A+ recommendation. See their review here - https://www.stereophile.com/content/nad-masters-series-m502-digital-music-player
PS Don't bother bluetoothing music from your phone - it will be in very inferior MP3 quality. OK in the car, but not at home unless the rest of your system is so poor that MP3 sounds as good as CD quality. Your system deserves better!
Edits: 10/09/19 10/10/19
NT
Des
If you stream you are hand cuffed to that, and any time your service or internet is down you are screwed. It nice holding the things in your hand and keep your coordination up to snuff while you gently load them into a Rotel or Naim. Check the AA trader to see what's available for sale. Once you have a nice player you can still use all 6000 of those prepaid CD's.
I when you have to find out who played what it's easy to just pick up the CD case next to your listening chair and pull out all that info and pictures and maybe even a small poster.
Better yet - go analogue and get a turntable and big BIG posters to put up on your wall (just kidding)
I'm just offering up a reasonable alternative.
*What's Up Doc?
My Mac Mini is connected to my 65" TV, so, assuming the resolution of the graphics file will support it, the booklet covers can be blown up to that size. In addition, the size of the type in the CD booklets can also be blown up sufficiently so that my geezer eyes don't have to strain to read the words like they do when I try to read that tiny type in the those actual CD booklets!
Of course, like you, I'm just kidding too - but, I kid you not, there have been occasions when I've actually made use of the large screen, either to read the booklet more easily or to get a better view of the babe on the cover.
*What's Up Doc?
"If you stream you are hand cuffed to that, and any time your service or internet is down you are screwed."My internet goes down briefly maybe 2 times a year. And if it does I 'stream' my own CD rips instead of music from the streaming service.
"...when you have to find out who played what it's easy to just pick up the CD case next to your listening chair and pull out all that info and pictures..."
Who has 6000 CDs within easy reach of their listening chair?
I stream Tidal AND my own music library of CD rips from a "single pane of glass" which is my portable iPad running Roon remote control.
Album art is present and with a tap on the screen I can get the artist / band photo, artist bio, album review, track credits, and song lyrics that are in sync with the music playing.
No need to reach for a CD jewel case ;-)
Edits: 10/11/19
The pre-amp you list only has 1 input. --- Why not forgo the CD player and get a Music Streamer that will be able to stream any music from the internet, as well as any radio station in the World.
I only use 1 input on my Pre-Amp as well, but I would not want to be stuck with a CD player, when there are much better choices for the same Cost.
Thanks for the reply, Cut-Throat. The short answer is I have probably 6000 CDs collected since mid 1980's, including many bootlegs not available commercially. But you make a good point, especially as I just started a subscription to the Naxos Music Library (NML) for their superb catalog of early music and classical generally. The app for NML is so bad I consider cancelling, but the catalog is so good and the music played by coworkers so awful that I'll probably keep it.
Anyway, the Tascam CD-200BT stands out from my list of CD players because it also has bluetooth capability, meaning I can bluetooth-connect it to my phone and use it as route to get streamed music to my single-input preamp. But if the Marantz (or any other affordable CD player) has better CD sound, that will be my priority.
Well, I have over 6,000 CDs, that I ripped to disk... I hardly play them anymore as I use Streaming Services mostly now.... You marvel at the NML Catalog which has a little over 2 Million Tracks... Tidal has over 40 Million and most of your CDs are probably there. And if you find some that are not just save them to a Hard Drive...
There is not a real good reason to use a CD player any more, unless you are against change (And a lot of people are)... And that is the only reason to get a CD Player today.
Very interesting, you give me a lot to think about. How do you get high fidelity sound from streamed music?
I'm a recent convert to streaming, using Qobuz. I really enjoy having so much new (both new releases and new-to-me) music to explore. It's a treat to tap the screen a couple of times and immediately start hearing something I've never heard before.
Of course, some of those songs last mere seconds before I move on to something else. That said, with streaming, I've found a number of artists and albums that are keepers. Streaming is a fantastic way to explore music.
Now, I had ripped my CD (and LP) collection to my music computer starting over 10 years ago. And, like the OP, I have some material that is out of print or was never publicly released. My music computer is not going anywhere, and it will continue to serve as an important music source for me. One of the problems with streaming is that material can come & go at a whim due to copyright and royalty issues. They can't take away what's already on my server. And, fortunately, switching between the two sources is seamless. I use a tablet to select and play music, so don't even need to use the input selection knob on my amp to change from streaming to my local collection.
Hope these comments are useful for you.
One of the problems with streaming is that material can come & go at a whim due to copyright and royalty issues. They can't take away what's already on my server.
It appears that you and I differ from C-T's approach in that we use our own collection primarily using Qobuz/Tidal for introducing new content and occasional other stuff. I buy what I really like.
I could never depend on a subscription service for regular use since neither Tidal nor Qobuz have lots of my music.
What do you listen to that Tidal and Qobuz don't have? I'm always curious about that since EVERYTHING I've ever looked for has been there, even my next door neighbor's CD that sold 10 copies, all to relatives of course.
Edits: 10/11/19 10/11/19
Entire labels are missing from streaming catalogs.
It drove me nuts that ECM was unavailable until that wonderful day a couple years ago when their whole catalog appeared.
Hyperion is still not available. I miss my hundreds of Hyperion albums.
Also, you need to watch out for watermarking. On most services (including Tidal lossless), some albums are watermarked which degrades the sound to an unacceptable level especially for sustained tones like piano decay, held woodwind notes, etc. I'm surprised people don't talk about this more. Thankfully, I have not heard watermarking on Qobuz yet, maybe because they also sell the content as downloads?
With Qobuz, here are some examples of material I have in my collection that is not in theirs:
- A number of artists I like have some of their albums in Qobuz's collection, but not all. Examples include Scott Miller, Jorma Kaukonen, Great American Main Street Band, Eliza Gilkyson. Sophie Millman, and so on. I found those with just a few minutes of searching.
- Some artists are not present at all, like Ronnie Magri which is one of the best ever jazz albums of burlesque music from the 40s & 50s. Other missing artists include Janice Hagan, The St. Louis Rivermen, Randle Chowning, and many other somewhat obscure artists I've come across over the years who have commericially available albums.
- I also have a healthy inventory of obscure stuff that was never released, much of it dating back to the 70s when I was a concert sound engineer. Lots of material there that never has been available and never will be.
- I also have many albums I converted from LP that were never released on CD. For example, I have the transfer from a 78 the 1930s album of Rachmaninov playing Rachmininov. Not the highest quality, but certainly interesting.
Other examples include unreleased albums that were in a local radio exec's estate. I was asked to review the collection. There were albums from CBS Radio Sales (a one act audio "play" demonstrating how radio advertising could be more effective than TV), a collection of Olympia Beer commercials, an LP of German drinking songs, Caribbean marimba music and so on. Not daily listeners, but fun to have in the collection.
It all depends on what I'm in the mood for and I don't want to lose any of it.
Lots of different things: the Telarc catalog, the Windham Hill catalog along with a range of individual selections.
Just a clarification -- When I mention 'Streaming', I am not just talking about Streaming Services like Qobuz or Tidal. I am also 'Streaming' my Personal Music Library of over 6,000 CDs... I use the same Streaming Software for my Personal Library and Tidal, Qobuz, Spotify or Tunein Radio and can actually mix them in the same playlist in that software. I don't have to switch anything.
I also use the same Hardware for all the Music -- As most Music Players do. And I personally dislike Windows or Apple O/S for Music Streaming.
It's all seamless, and I always have music unless there is a Power Failure - Which happened a couple years ago.
Hey, I've appreciated your effort to stream your work on the traditional method. Now the world moves towards the digital platform to overcome the old method & increased in technology and internet facilities to the users. Tru to launch your individual platform to stream your work from famous services providers from the list Ref:
Cut-throat, just a comment to clear something up -- my post was directed to Will Wilkin, the original poster, not you. No question in my mind that you've already got your system set up to your liking.
Sorry for any confusion.
Very easy to get CD quality sound from Streamed Music. And if you are interested, I and many others on this forum can help you. Basically you need a Music Streamer. Some have a built in DAC like a CD player. Or you can get a separate streamer and DAC..As an example here is a Sonus Connect.. All in one DAC and Streamer.... (I don't use this, but tried it) It works.
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_616ZP90/Sonos-Connect.html
There are other players that are a little more complex to set up (More DIY)- But offer greater Fidelity and Flexibility.
Edits: 10/09/19 10/09/19 10/09/19 10/09/19
What do you think of using a NUC or this purpose?
I would use a NAS instead of a NUC... In fact I do. I use a NAS for my Music Storage as well as running my Music Service Software (LMS via PiCorePlayer). The NUC is limited in storage for large music Libraries, whereas a NAS is almost unlimited.With that said I have a 'NUC Like' Computer that I use daily. Just not for Music. I can control my Music with it however, as well as with my Laptop, and Phone. My small Desktop is a i7 Very Powerful Tiny Lenovo running Windows 10. Too Much going on with the Windows Machine. I used to run the music server with Windows, but it 'got in the way' too often.
Edits: 10/10/19
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