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If you had to buy a CD palyer now on the cheap what would you get?


Dylanl

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I piced up a 981 for 125 shipped to my door from audiogon and that's the best $125 I've speant on a piece of equipment ever. Audio and Video. And that is all there is to say on that one.Yes

I now know what you mean. I purchased my 981 from Woot for $105 shipped and if I knew then what I know now about it I would have at least purchased 3 or 4 more.

James

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s

What exact model are you all referring to and is this used or new? Oppo

Oppo is only currently selling the BR players but you can find the other models on the bay. Here are the specs from the Oppo site, you have to look under "Customer Service" then "Support" to find the models.

Oppo DV-981HD

Oppo DV-980H

Oppo DV-780HD

Oppo OPDV971H

James

Anyone better than the other? Seems the 981HD is the best huh?

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I had an oppo 981,not good for cd's in my and oppo's opinion,they told me get the 970,which I did,it's just ok.I don't know if 'cheap ' had a number but the Emotiva cd player looks and reviews to be really top notch@ $319,that's pretty cheap compared to 1k?

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I too would recommend the oppo - I have three of them. But IMHO they do match either the Cambridge 640C or the Rega Apollo. Both are siginficantly better players. Not sure why but I have owned all three and the oppo would be the third on my list. I have seen the 640C for under 300 bucks used. I have seen it new for under 350.00 the Rega is a little more but is the best of those three at leat to my ears. I also have a couple of ES222 Sony SACD / Cd Changers and they too out perform the oppo in a big way.

Josh

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Cambridge Audio 640C is a great bargain...

Yep. Have one. Difficult to beat its response speed. Hit the power button. Hit the eject button. Slap disc in tray. Hit play and it auto loads and begins playing. 7 seconds from power on to noise, with an empty tray as your start point.

Don't like the CD currently on? Hit eject. Stops and ejects in just over 1 second.

Cheap. Fast. Simple.

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Hello,

I have both the Oppo 970HD and a Rotel CD855. The Rotel is several years older, but it unquestionably provides better sound on all kinds of music from solo piano to large orchestra. (For $20, I use the Herbie's Grungebuster CD mat - which is the best bang for the buck tweak I've ever tried.)

So, given your price range, I would venture to say that, unless you are willing to pay the cost of the new Oppo models, you will be much happier with a dedicated CD player than you will be with a "universal" player.

From what I can tell, the market for dedicated CD players is changing to upscale - only, as the mass market looks for one player for everything. (Note that Sony pushes the fact that a Playstation is a good Blu-Ray player).

To me, this means that the used market in CD players in the next couple of years will be a good source for bargains - so, by all means, read reviews and check Audiogon.

For what it's worth, much as I like my Emotiva UPA-2 amp and am wait-listed for the UMC-1 pre/pro, I was disappointed with their new CD player and used the return clause of their 30 day trial deal to send it back.

jon

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  • 4 weeks later...

Cambridge Audio 640C is a great bargain...

Yep. Have one. Difficult to beat its response speed. Hit the power button. Hit the eject button. Slap disc in tray. Hit play and it auto loads and begins playing. 7 seconds from power on to noise, with an empty tray as your start point.

Don't like the CD currently on? Hit eject. Stops and ejects in just over 1 second.

Cheap. Fast. Simple.

Hell, my 1988 Pioneer PD-7100 can do that. I think quick response/read time should be standard with dedicated CD players.

I tend to favor these older dedicated CD players, as long as they aren't bottom of the line and completely wore out. You are taking a chance on possibly a wore out laser. But if the unit has had low use and can be checked over prior to buying, you can get into a decent vintage unit rather cheap.

I paid 30 bucks for the PD-7100 a couple years back. The guy took good care of it, and claimed he didn't use it much. It looks like new. It doesn't sound as refined as my Rega Planet, but the Rega's laser light is toast......tik..tik..tik..tik...

I remember when the Toshiba 3970 or 3960 or whatever DVD player was touted around here, as a DVD player that played CD's with a analog sound quality. I bought one for 60 bucks. It had a rolled-off sound on the top-end that would tame the digititus of some hard sounding CD's. It wasn't a bad sounding player for CD's, really.

But you get what you get for 60 bucks. Around 2 years of use, and the thing started to sound even more rolled-off and eventually started this glitchy digi-noise on one side. It still worked and played DVD's, however. I gave it to the ex-girlfriend because she needed a DVD player at the time. And then it promptly died about 2-3 weeks after that.

The Rega Planet is a 1997 model. It made it to 1998 before the laser light became too objectionable to listen to.

I like the older players, because they were built to last. And the higher lines were built like tanks.

Granted, if one spends the extra money, you can get into new dedicated CD players that are built like tanks, and made to last. And better sound quality as well.

The Cambrige and Emotiva CDP's appear to be fine examples of well built players that might last ten years. I wish I could afford either one........maybe later this year.......

That Toshiba DVD player lasted two years.....I guess that's worth 60 bucks.....

The Rega lasted over ten, and still works basically.

Those Oppo players might be the bee's knees. But will they still be around in 5-10 years?

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