My new CD player drive - TASCAM CD-200SB

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I'm not going to talk here about the combination of an amplifier with my CWIII, but what comes before: the CD player, it's also important to know if it goes well with our superb Klipsch.

So I just bought myself a small CD player, I have a collection of about 500 CDs (all styles: Rock, Jazz and Classical Music) and at the moment I am buying some "classics" of Rock music from the years 90/2000 second-hand CDs: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, ... as these albums were released in CDs and not vinyl at the time, I don't mind taking them in this format and then speculation on vinyl is important: a CD that I buy 2, 3 or 4 € costs between 15 and 30 € in vinyl on average.

So for the player I also had other criteria: I mainly need a drive, because I have an SMSL 6TH Sanskrit DAC and then I no longer have a drive in my laptop to rip to USB. Yes I like to listen to some of my records on my mobile hifi 👹

 

A good Queen Of the Stones Age, in there and WROOOOOOUUUUUAAAAAAAM !!!

 

So I'm looking for the holy grail: I like TEAC, I have memories of the 90's when they mastered the CD well with their superb VRDS and I'm not even talking about the pinnacle of Esoteric's VRDS-NEO 

The CD / Cassette / USB combo AD-850 is brilliant in terms of possibilities, you can rip to USB CD and Vinyl from the analog input, but unfortunately this device does not have a digital output and like TEAC is not known for its DACs in this price range, I didn't tempt the devil: mnrv: so I didn't even look at what the CD mechanics were

 

After I looked at TASCAM, a professional division of TEAC that I like, I have had a TASCAM 34 tape recorder since the early 80's. So I'm looking in their catalog, they have the SS-CDR250N: very good computer type mechanics but deemed very good for CD playback, enormous possibilities: we can rip in digital and analog, the connections are pro and there is even 'AES / EBU XLR in IN / OUT in addition to SPDIF, great for future upgrades. But there is a but, I only have a budget of 3/400 max and this superb SS-CDR250N costs almost 1000 € + options, like a splendid desktop remote control at 990 €, which can raise the note between 2 to 3000 €. So I fell back on the CD-200SB which has less possibilities, it cannot rip vinyls for example. On the other hand it has excellent mechanics specifically studied by TEAC for reading CDs, The CD5020A which is widely used in audiophile hifi for integrated players and HDG drives costing several thousand €.

 

In short, here is the beast, it has a little "studio" look, so to break this pro look a bit I removed the angles for the rack mounts: just 2 screws on each side to remove, the player then has the dimensions of 'a standard hi-fi device is approximately 43.5 cm wide by 9.5 cm high. Compared to my Sony SCD-XE800 which is quite slow, I like the speed of loading CDs, accessing tracks and starting playback and fast. The player is very quiet compared to the Sony which has this noise defect when loading and playing CDs. I also appreciate the function of direct access to the beaches by the numeric keypad on the front: brilliant in use. Regarding the sound with my SMSL DAC, I find the TASCAM more open than the Sony, the big difference is a more beautiful and more defined treble, I find that it has a very good sound with the SMSL DAC and it is goes very well with the Klipsch Cornawall III.

 

A internet photo of the machine with the "Rack" angles

 

 

I hope that this subject will have interested you and that you tell me who your reader is and what are his qualities 🙂