What CD with £350?

I've been watching various CD players on ebay like cyrus cd6's and the MF x-ray and they seem to sell around £360 ish but I've heard mixed reviews.....
If you had £350-£400 to spend on a used cd player, what would you be on the look out for?

I listen to all music types but mainly indie bands but I also listen to big band and jazz, along with pop so very wide ranging.
At the moment due to space restraints, I am listening on headphones, MF x-can V2 or Heed canamp and AKG 701 or HD650's.

I also have, in the loft an Audiolab 8000a which i'm rather fond of but am looking to upgrade......when I have room for speakers!
I'm quite interested in Meridian players as well.

I'm looking for a natural sound, I know it comes down to personal taste but I was wondering if I was missing a really good player for that sort of budget, a step above cyrus or MF?

Cheers

 

Hi Scarer,

May I take this sopportunity to welcome you to the forum.

I have just been listening to my brothers MF x ray v/MF x150/ Spender S5 combo over xmas........yep, it does very nicely.

Meridian also has a very good reputation

I'm sure there are others here who have experience of alternatives here who can suggest some further options.



regs


David

 

£350 is a bit between two stools ....in that a bit more will get you a very good cdp and a bit less will get you a very good budget cdp.

I like the marantz 5000series and they mod well or a second hand arcam a5 a truely superb deck lurks inside with a couple of tweaks..

At higher prices the quad 99cdp2 is hard to beat with its built in preamp and dac .....

oh and welcome too..................

 

.....I should add I can comfirm this....

my 5004 does very nicely in tweaked form.

 

i dont think you'd be dissapointed with meridian or the money

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Meridian-506-...oryZ3272QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

Thanks bottleneck, i'd got my eye on that one but there's also a 506.24 coming up as well but I don't know if there would be much noteable difference between the two?

I also liked the quad 99cdp as well and I see what you're saying Zanash about falling inbetween the two camps. I would rather lean towards the more hi end gear if it means say £50-£100 extra.

I'm also thinking that maybe my current cdp Arcam 7se might do but using an outboard DAC, I don't know?

Thanks for the welcome by the way!

 

With the budget you have, I don't think it makes sense buying another one-box CD player when you already have a perfectly good transport in the 7SE. So, maybe.....

Alpha 7 SE as a transport (think the SE has the added optical digital output which wasn't on the basic 7).

Cheap <£5 optical interconnect off ebay.

Meridian 203 DAC ~ £100 off ebay.

£250 to save towards your speakers

Having owned both an Alpha 7 and a Meridian 203, I'd say the latter is a significant improvement.

And the bonus is, if you do't like it, you can sell the Meridian on for what you paid for it.

 

Hi,

The Behringer DEQ2496 makes a pretty fine DAC (with other tricks), and you have a pm about modding it too.

 

I'd use your current CDP as a transport and try a Beresford TC-7510 DAC. You can get these on a trial basis (i.e. money back if you don't want to keep it) on eBay direct from Beresford. I'd rate it up with DACs costing several hundreds at least, in fact I preferred it to my £1000 Benchmark DAC1 - and it actually costs less than £100.

Have a look here http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Beresford-TC-...oryZ3272QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

I can recommend Arcam CD23, but I don't know if you can get it for 400...

 

Quad99 real bang for the buck,this unit gave my Lector CDP7tl a good challenge which costs 3 times more.The older gear like the Meridian is asolid but its old.The newer tech. of the quad betters the old.
rollo

 

Buy an arcam a5 or 5+ and send it to Avondale for mods. A little above your budget but imo it is as good as you will get for less than a grand.

Rod

 

rod,

can you pls elaborate on AAA5 sound? strengths, weaknesses, etc.

cheers ag

 

the a5 [modded] is one of the best cdp I've heard.....unmodded its grim I even sold one a couple of years back ....

I've recently picked one up after hearing a part modded unit ..to which I did a load more mods. The final sound was very beguiling ..most undigital. Its a testomny to the tda 1541 chip and the cdp design its shame that arcam bungled it sort of snatched defeat from the jaws of victory......otherwise it would have been a world beater......my part modded unit is on a par with the quad99, and when the mods are complete should out perform it by quite a margin...imo

 

It's always worth looking at some of the more popular Chinese players which are around. I've spent a bit of time listening to a few as I often change my CD source - I recently sold an Eastsound E5 ( @ £300) to the owner of an Avondale A5 / high end Naim Amplification etc, he surprised me by saying "I wish Les could hear this!!". It was an astonishingly detailed player. I'm currently about to sell a Shanling CDS100 Mk 2 (see www.harmonia-audio.com/products/cd/shanlingcds100.html for info) which would be well under budget for you and - IMO of course!! - streets ahead of many £300 to £500 players.

 

Would £350 get you a secondhand Meridian 588 or 508.24 they are superb players, inmo.

 

588? no way!

It would get you a Meridian 500 transport and a NOS Dac.

 

i guess you are talking about your mods? is this valid for AAA5 too?

 

ag

For me the aaa5 has good tight bass, an almost analogue midrange and a clear but not sharp treble. Detail is excellent as is timing. Mine replaced a Linn Genki which although not to everyones taste is imo as good as the opposition at the £1000 price range. The aaa5 beats it in every area. I also have a cd3 which again in stock form is bettered in every area.given they use many of the same components. The cost of conversion is £375 (i think) plus the cost of the donor deck. You get a 4 year warranty.

When funds allow, I will send the cd3 off for avondale mods which I am told lifts the cd3 into high end territory albeit its costs £1200 odd.

Rod

 

does aaa5 play CDRWs?