JACQUES HIFI PAGES
CD PLAYERS COLLECTION
This page is about the nicest CD players I own, the ones I won't burn with my soldering iron, or maybe just lightly. Let's start with these wonderful Philips CD104 , one in its usual CD104 attire of a beautiful metallic black, and the other from SCHNEIDER , named CD1104 ---not much inventive--- in an alluring ssilver robe. The history landmark of CD Players.
Then this gorgeous MARANTZ CD73 , which more or less the same machine but with an incredible display of luxury that can justify its price at the time. There is even a plastic window on top to see the disc rotate under its golden clamp of glory. And a green led to enlighten all this turning puzzle of digital era.
Here again the super model marantz CD73 with a beautiful TOSHIBA XR-270 , which is not an OEM but a 100% toshiba product. After all they are the TOS in TOSLINK aren't they ? Here is a look inside :
Nothing Philips here, but all
proprietary mechanics and electronics from TOSHIBA. I would love to try it as
a transport ,
but really fear to spoil that technical beauty.
My homemade cd player
Based on the Asus dvd rom described in my oscilloscope page, a cheap empty computer box from Asus too , the gigawork DAC and my Mykonos buffer, it's for me the best high-end cd player money can buy. At first it was fitted with the lampucera DAC :
But the supremacy on the gigawork made me rework the inside to get the full advantages of 24bit upsampling :
I can't imagine a better sounding cd player and it's really quite simple and cheap to build . No big difficulties here if you except fitting the controls and the LCD display on the front plate of this computer box. It even has a quiet psu for the drive and hundred of ground wires. Cool .
Here is my bedroom wonder, the MARANTZ CD5000 , which has a great, great tone stock with no mods thanks to its tda1549 DAC and good buffer. See Lampizator for more details. Only problem with this player is that he sometimes consider CD-Rs unfinalized even when they are. Mostly with NERO. In this case, no sweat, burn a CD-RW instead and it will accept it right away. This is weird considering all old CD players read CD-R like a breeze.
Here is a wonderful player, not really for the looks, but for its conception at the best Philips could do. Just look at its inside :
I love this display of cool maestria in CD player making. Note the the tda1541A R1 which is only 3 ranks from heaven. Their dac chips were selected in this order : tda1541, tda1541A, tda1541A R1, tda1541A R2 ( I am not sure about that one) , tda1541A S1 and cream of crop, the tda1541A S2 adorned with 2 dutch monarchy crowns. I just cut the output buffer and take music from the opamps that do I/V conversion. And have a top class player.
Here is a RADIOLA CD1006 , a strictly Philips OEM . Radiola , a now extincted very old French brand , had a way to promote its products quite original for the '20s : they create their own radio broadcast . Anyway , they were Philips' since 1947...so here we have a pure Philips I love because of ...:
...the total absence of output buffer -see red circle where you usually find it- . In other words, it's stock-modded. So here we have a great 1541 non-A with only the necessary opamps for I/V conversion and basta . I am aware they did that to cut the price but they should have listen to it instead of despise for a poor french cousin. Perfect stock tda1541 tone .
Here is my CDV or LDV player from Philips CDV486 that was planned to be used as a transport. Huge mechanism and laser from Sony was a good start but these players are prone to reading problems and it did not beat my Siemens. I spent countless hours tweaking its servo pots and only came to a 99,99% reading. Anyway, an incredible tone as a cd player thanks to ...
...tda1541A R1 , what else, but also a rare seen tda1542 which performs filtering and buffer too...even has a dedicated heaphone output on its pin16...Maybe the 1542 is the reason why this player sounds awesome stock...
MY PREAMP/BUFFER : MYKONOS AMPLIFIERS SPEAKERS CD PLAYERS DAC DRIVES / TRANSPORTS OSCILLOSCOPE TEST DRIVE TURNTABLES DCC PLAYERS