looking for a cd player £500 max -2nd hand maybe

[TALON1973]

Hi all,

Decided to get back into hi-fi abit and want to start at the cd player. speakers and proper amp can wait for now as i'll be used my hd600 with gramslee solo srg11.

back in the day i owned a arcam cd92....now i dont have that kind of money to throw away these days , but my budget is about £300 - £500 . i will consider 2nd hand if i have to , although i really don't like doing it with electrical goods

can someone throw me some options please ?

 

[nlanks]

Ex dem Audiolab 8200CD? Very highly rated by WHF

 

[TALON1973]

Ex dem Audiolab 8200CD? Very highly rated by WHF

i remember looking at that when it came out ....tempting

 

[amcluesent]

Rega DAC and a car-boot CD spinner connect by S/PDIF? Then you'll have a good DAC to add streaming etc.

 

[bigblue235]

If you liked your CD92, what about a second hand CD192? There's a few about in good condition, and they seem to be dropping a little bit in price on ebay. They were selling for £400 until recently, but they're usually under that now.

 

[matthewpiano]

The Arcam CD17 would be worth a try. Widely £499 now and a talented machine. Short of that, don't dismiss the Marantz CD6004 which is a great bargain.

 

[peterpan]

Marantz cd 6004

 

[Macspur]

Rega Apollo, or even better the Saturn, a few second hand ones around.

 

[Anonymous]

I would be inclined to use a cheapish low jitter cd player as a transport and feed a decent dac like the REGA DAC or MF M1..

 

[damonster]

Sevenoakes sound and vision have an exdemo audiolab 8200cd for 449 this has a built in dac .a great bit of kit .I couldn't see you getting much better for under 500 quid .I have not heard arcam but this is a very good player whether you use cds or computer based music both sound great.

 

[omnibeard]

Don't think you could go far wrong with a marantz cd63 ki mk2 - massively under your budget, and if it's your cup of tea then by all accounts it's quite cheaply moddable to turn it into something much more awesome than it already is.

 

[TALON1973]

thanks for the suggestions guys, much appreciated although it seems i was abit hopeful of getting it thins month ... real life bites my hand off again lol

 

[Inter_Voice]

Don't think you could go far wrong with a marantz cd63 ki mk2 - massively under your budget, and if it's your cup of tea then by all accounts it's quite cheaply moddable to turn it into something much more awesome than it already is.

+1

I had modded one CD63 and can confirm it can compete with my Leema Antila IIS CDP costing £3000 ! If you know some DIY the total cost is around £500 (depends on how much you want to modify) including the S/H CD63 MKII KI Signature from the Bay.

See my comment on another thread here:

http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/book-shelf-speakers-preferably-sealed-which-ones?page=2#comment-2742460

 

[the record spot]

Marantz CD52 MkII SE - great player. Had mine for a couple of weeks now and really like what it can do. Failing that, also check out Marantz SA7001-KI, but partner carefully. Harman Kardon's HD990 is an underrated star.

 

[DIB]

There's one going on AV Forums at moment that looks pretty mint to me ( nothing to do with me BTW)

.

 

[paradiziac]

Some excellent suggestions already.

I also got an old Marantz player recently, a CD48 in excellent condition for £35. Not much to lose if the mech goes and if suitably modded can compete with the best. More musical than the v-dac, only weakness is that it lacks a bit of slam in the bass so not the first choice for rock but vocals/acoustic and overall fluidity are excellent.

it will get you started without too much stress and as others have said it could be used later as a transport to a better DAC. If you went this way, you probably want to look at the Rega DAC upwards, some of these old players were excellent (and the latest model isn't too shabby either).