Are all CD players really equal?

[ToppingSMSL]

👍I get your point, although on the contrary the CD 60 infact nestles in-between the CD 52 MK2 being the lowest at a standardised 2 V-rms and the CD 6007 having the highest output voltage 2.4 all within 0.2v of each other in a kinda tasty Marantz sandwich with the two budget players both new and old being the tiger bread at either end of a personal favourite mid-range filling of CD 60 😬

The subtle differences heard only between the CD 60 up against the other two, in which I didn't hear any precivable difference between the CD 52 MK2 and 6007 despite (maybe to some) a shocking 33yrs age difference IMO is predominantly because of the small differences "quality" DAC's make (and the already aforementioned opinions on my prior posts).

Owning these CD players further removes any other personal bias towards preferring either one when making comparisons.

I always keep to the same precieveable volume irrespective of the output voltage of any given ancilieries when swapping from
A-to-B in the interest of fairness, after all it would only be my time wasted by the same unconscious volume biasing that started "The volume wars" although worth noting that the volume needed no adjustment using the same CD.

You can still imagine differences purely through expecting there to be differences. You tend to focus on the music slightly differently each time, and if you're not doing instantaneous switching then I'm afraid out memory for sound just isnt that good when it comes to small differences or lack of.