Is our Marantz CD 65 II still good enough?

[Sago]

We've just bought a Cambridge Audio Azur 351A amp and are now womdering if our 25 year old Marantz CD65 II cd player can be bettered by modern kit. It sounds OK to us, and that may be a good enough reason for keeping it, but I wonder if current budget cd players - for example the Marantz CD6005 or the CA Azur 351C -would offer significant improvements in sound quality.

I'm conscious that our days of playing actual cds may be numbered. For example we now hold many of them on the hard drive of a mac we use as a music centre, and use smartphones and Spotify a fair bit too, but we still have a moderate cd collection and we do still play them in our main living room and most likely will carry on with them for a few years yet.

Thanks

 

[spiny norman]

For all the reasons you mention in your post, I'd hang on to the Marantz and enjoy it for as long as it keeps on working.

 

[BigH]

I don't think the 65 is 25 years old, I have the 63se which is about 21 years old I presume the 65 came a few years later. Anyway I would keep it, I heard a few cops costing £800-1,000 and to me they did not really sound better. Also cdps don't seem to last so long now, esp. Budget ones, so yes I would keep it as long as it works. The tray tends to be the first thing to go wrong but this canbe fixed fairly cheaply. Going forward I would rip and play.

 

[MeanandGreen]

Hang onto your CD player, the tech is exactly the same now as it was then. The CD format has been taken as far as it can and that happened years ago. If yours is in good health just stick with it.

 

[MajorFubar]

I wonder if current budget cd players - for example the Marantz CD6005 or the CA Azur 351C -would offer significant improvements

Depending on your definition of significant improvements, probably not.

I don't think the 65 is 25 years old, I have the 63se which is about 21 years old I presume the 65 came a few years later.

Just to confuse things, no. CD63 II was later. I think the CD65 MkII came out in 1989 iirc. I was young and had my finger on the pulse of all the happening technology back then (how times have changed) so I'd be surprised if I was wrong by more than a year.

 

[Vladimir]

Some trivia. McIntosh MCD7007, Marantz CD65 and Philips CD 650 are basically the same CDP.

I would hold on to that 65 and just replace the rubber bands for the tray mechanism.

 

[Leeps]

I owned a Marantz CD65 from around 1987 for about 13 years before it finally gave up the ghost. (Used pretty much daily for all that time). Jolly fine machine, although the case and tray was flimsier than some of Marantz's later models.

In its day it was the among the best of the budget/midrange machines for sound. Its main rival at the time was a Technics: how curiously current!

It cost me over £300 new those many years ago. I ran it with a Marantz PM45 amp and Monitor Audio R252 speakers at the time. Bearing in mind your amp, the biggest consideration would be system synergy. If you like the sound, I'd just continue to run it until it dies...which may not be too far away!

 

[Sago]

Thanks for the responses.

I'm pleased to know I've got a good bit of 'budget' kit, and I'll definitely keep it - bonus that the remote for the Cambridge Audio amp works for the CD player too.

Yes I gathered it's a Phillips and it also has a famous DAC chip inside it that can be tweaked to improve the sound, but I'll not bother.

All those years I took no notice of it and it turn out I had a real gem up the corner!!

Thanks again all.