Just put a want up for an 80s CD player to go with the Harman Kardon PM650 amp I recently aquired.
I have been looking on line and the choice and opinions are bewildering tbh...I have gleaned though that anything with a philips transport in is likely to be good, at least from the very early ones.
Then I got confused with talk of bits, oversampling, bitstreams etc...
Ideally I want a silver faced one, and I am thinking if I went later should I look for one with a digital out.
Your knowledge, as alway, would be greatly appreciated.
Should say budget is not huge....£200 ( ish )
K
Why the 80's? chances are the laser will be low on power and start skipping (if it's had a lot of use), plus the possible additional problems of loading belts aging etc. From my experiences, look for a 1 or 2 year old Rotel...which was maybe a couple of models up in the range. These were solid, very reliable models and never sounded bad at all. They did silver or black finish.
Rod
Nostalgia Rod...nothing more...chances are it won't even get used.Originally Posted by Rod
K
Fair play Kieth...good enough reason.
Rod
The "golden age" for CD layers was probably early to mid 90s with Marantz, Sony, Denon, etc., all doing excellent players. Most would be available for sub £200 (e.g. Marantz Cd63 KI), most would be black (or gold - Denon).
Sound quality wise they will be pretty poor compared to a modern player (even a Blu Ray or DVD player) going through a modern DAC or an amp with an onboard DAC.
Just my 2 cents worth.
Cheers,
MarkC
The Yamaha cd1 or cd2 were amongst the best sounding reasonably priced players of that era,
Philips or marantz will be solidly built with the best laser assembly (by a long way).
The laser will be a bit tired, so a Philips/marantz would be a good choice.
Most will be black. Silver was more of a 70s finish returning in the late 90s.
80s vintage players were typically all black, brushed, anodised with black ash trim.
I remember having to pay extra for an a&r Cambridge a60a in black ash.
Should still have a low miles marantz cd53 (I think) kicking around somewhere, if you're stuck drop me a pm,
used to work at Philips in their CD A/V group, in my youff!
If you can, get a demo, laser replacement (if possible, many types are no longer available) will be an uneconomical repair.
A non-smoking owner is a big plus, it is an optical system and nicotine stained optics don't work very well.
Best,
Jg
Philips CD100
There is a Meridian on eBay :-
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Meridian-M...item19eb312a61
If you're looking for a vintage silver player, I'd say you ought to grab yourself a CD16. It's great. It's substantial. They don't make em like that anymore.
The very understated Technics SL-P777, check those buttons out! .........I'd love one!
Sorry you said silver....the 770
If you can find one - Rotel RCD-965BX Discrete,
Make sure it is the LE Discrete version though, (UK modded output) not just LE, and not sure they did silver
True audiophile classic
Last edited by genesos; 12th December 2014 at 22:33.
Up until a couple months ago I had the matching amp for this, that was awesome (and nearly as many buttons!)The very understated Technics SL-P777, check those buttons out! .........I'd love one!
A beauty!If you're looking for a vintage silver player, I'd say you ought to grab yourself a CD16. It's great. It's substantial. They don't make em like that anymore.
Jg
I have a Cambridge Audio CD2 which still spins a mean CD although some of the LED display is a little problematical they all were back in the day.
I had the original Arcam Alpha - worth hunting down...
I have one of the original cd walkmans... still works as far as I know. Cutting edge stuff for the time :)
If you like a project and are handy, buy a cheap broken player off of ebay and gut it out replacing the drive with a CD-ROM and put a raspberry pi in it. You could have 2014 quality with old school looks...
Get the B&O CDX Keith, or even a CD50 as a standalone and you can delight in the arcane architecture inside and the upside down CD loading facility.
Appreciate all the ideas gents....i am watching the Meridian and also have the Rotel mentioned in my watch list, same for the Technics which i was reading up on yesterday.
Appears, as has been said, the silver ones are harder to find, could have bought at least 20 suitable models if i wanted black or grey.
Would love to John, but i don't think i have the space, that said i should have bought the CDX thats just gone through ebay for £52.
Though i did buy another BM6000 project as it came with the remote, will be taking them and the BC8004 down to Tim next week.
Great stuff - Tim will sort them for you :)
California Audio Labs if you can find one. A bit like hens teeth these days (at sensible money anyways).
I have that Meridian, and in much better condition (only one paint chip I can spot) - my dad gave it to me when he got a front-loader. They do sound quite nice... I'll probably hang on to mine for a while tho'
-- Tim
You tease....
There's a Marantz CD-95 Limited ( quite rare these ) for sale locally, having been overhauled. New belts, lens cleaned, motor and power supply serviced, biasing checked. A bit outside your stated budget @£600 ish plus whatever shipping to the UK would be. Features the Philips TDA1541A S2 DAC as used in legendary CD-7.
Amazing how complex and heavy a CD player could be made in the 1980s. This one is from 1988 and weighs 13.8Kg !
Quite tempted myself, but I have a decent TDA1543 based DAC around somewhere already.
Paul
I had a CD-95 absolutely superb sounding player, to name a few I've owned how about as said a Meridian or Micromega?
God this threads bringing back memories, good and bad(far too much money spent)
The worst CD player I ever owned was the very first mission player always bl@@dy jumping!
Couldn't resist! Mind you I might sell it if I can find a decent and cheap 206 with which to replace it...You tease....
... and a better looking MCD has just popped up on eB*y!
-- Tim
Pioneer stable platter anyone?
Had a little tunrtable and cd went on upside down?
God I had one of those; was gutted when it died. Lasted well though to be fair.The very understated Technics SL-P777, check those buttons out! .........I'd love one!
I've got a Philips one I took from one of the music rooms at work when I got made redundant.
Marantz amp though. I'd go Marantz if I was you, great mid priced gear and handsome
- - - Updated - - -
Whatever you end up with be sure to check reviews here first http://knobfeel.tumblr.com :)
YIKES! That takes me back! Until I saw that picture I'd forgotten that I used to have one of those. Absolutely lovely machine, my second CD player and the best one I owned. When it died I couldn't find anything I liked to replace it with so I resorted to using my DVD player to listen to CDs. It was never the same........The very understated Technics SL-P777, check those buttons out! .........I'd love one!
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
