Sub £300 CD player

[colint]

My Arcam CD73 appears to have died (either says no disk, or will shows number of tracks and then won't play if anyone as any ideas). Replacement is going to have to be sub £300, I've listened to the Nad C542 today which was quite good. Any other suggestions ? Amp is Roksan Kandy mk 3, speakers epos M5.

 

[Anonymous]

The C542 is your best bet, it sounds nearest the Arcam and is also the best value sub-£300 IMO.

 

[John Duncan]

And I think the best value is the Marantz, at £200 in Richer Sounds (retail is now £299).

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="JohnDuncan"]And I think the best value is the Marantz, at £200 in Richer Sounds (retail is now £299).[/quote]

I think the Marantz sells for what it is worth in all fairness, you wouldn't find a C542 discounted to £200. It doesn't have a toroidal transformer, it doesn't have a 24bit DAC (Marantz themselves quote 'multibit' and several dealers incorrectly quote 24bit) and it doesn't play HDCDs. Oh and the treble is a bit bright. However, there is nothing at £200 or thereabouts to beat it, so long as you have a warm amp or warm speakers to combat the treble. IMO of course 🙂
*I really rate the Marantz, it's just that the C542 is better. There isn't much to rival the C542 without spending £600+

 

[Andy Clough]

If you could stretch your budget to £350, the Pioneer PD-D6-J is an extraordinarily talented CD player. Transparency and stereo-imaging are first-rate. Shouldn't be encouraging you to spend more money, I know.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Wild Willy"][quote user="JohnDuncan"]And I think the best value is the Marantz, at £200 in Richer Sounds (retail is now £299).[/quote]

I think the Marantz sells for what it is worth in all fairness, you wouldn't find a C542 discounted to £200. It doesn't have a toroidal transformer, it doesn't have a 24bit DAC (Marantz themselves quote 'multibit' and several dealers incorrectly quote 24bit) and it doesn't play HDCDs. Oh and the treble is a bit bright. However, there is nothing at £200 or thereabouts to beat it, so long as you have a warm amp or warm speakers to combat the treble. IMO of course 🙂
*I really rate the Marantz, it's just that the C542 is better. There isn't much to rival the C542 without spending £600+[/quote]I have to second this, i've not heard that many other players about the same price range, but as i said in another thread, i was surprised how the Naim cd5i wasn't as much better than the nad than i expected and thats an £850 player (or maybe its my dodgy ears!)

 

[Anonymous]

Get a used Marantz CD17, preferably MKII or MKIII (KI version are an option too, but usually are priced way too high)

 

[Andrew Everard]

[quote user="colint"]My Arcam CD73 appears to have died (either says no disk, or will shows number of tracks and then won't play if anyone as any ideas). [/quote]

Sounds like it could be something as simple as a dirty pick-up lens. It might well respond to a quick clean.

 

[John Duncan]

[quote user="Andrew Everard"]
[quote user="colint"]My Arcam CD73 appears to have died (either says no disk, or will shows number of tracks and then won't play if anyone as any ideas). [/quote]

Sounds like it could be something as simple as a dirty pick-up lens. It might well respond to a quick clean.

[/quote]

True. I was sceptical about how a cd lens cleaner might work, but they're very effective.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Just to throw another machine in the mix and following up on Andy's recommendation. I had the Pioneer PD-D6-J for a very short while (until I realised it was grey and not black!). It is indeed a nice sounding player that also offers SACD playback. However, I replaced it with my Denon DCD700AE (£200ish) and I can say that in my opinion there is virtually no difference in the quality.

 

[colint]

Thanks Andrew, the lens cleaner seems to have worked, £3 from HMV.

Now what to spend the remaining £297 on 🙂