To give full credit to their designer, the AVI players sounded pretty good into a humble system, BUT got better and better as the system allowed, especially in perceived dynamic range and soundstage. Ergonomics on pre 'Lab' series was poor, but the remote is Philps language (as are the Naim and Arcam Alpha series) and is perfectly ok for album listening.
I used to like the Quad 66 (properly filtered and interconnected) and 67 machines, but neither can be serviced if the mech fails I believe, as I seem to remember Quad ran out of 67 mechs a decade or more ago.
Hey up, I'm not living up to my reputation here What about a good used REGA machine - any of 'em? All can be serviced by the manufacturer if necessary I understand and ALL of them perform and sound very good for the money. hell, £400 may buy you a NEW Apollo R if you're lucky, and with a proper guarantee too....... Some dislike the top loading, but the later 'lids' inspire confidence.
Tear down these walls; Cut the ties that held me
Crying out at the top of my voice; Tell me now if you can hear me
Naim CDI (you can get them for your budget), if not a CD3 which is a damn fine player.
Arcam are good (but a little too warm for my tastes)
Meridian can be good and easily within your budget. I personally preferred the sound of the 200 models as apposed to the 500.
As recommended above Exposure made quite a good CD player back in the mid 90's, not sure of the model.
Paul.
Streamer: NovaFidelity X40, Turntable: Rega RP3, Arm: Rega RB303, Cartridge: Audio Technica AT120E, Amp: Belles Aria, Loudspeakers: Quadral Aurum Montan VIII, Rack: Creaktiv Trend 1, Cables: Beresford, Chord, Coherent, MCRU, Rega, TCI.
Horses for courses I guess Geoff
Streamer: NovaFidelity X40, Turntable: Rega RP3, Arm: Rega RB303, Cartridge: Audio Technica AT120E, Amp: Belles Aria, Loudspeakers: Quadral Aurum Montan VIII, Rack: Creaktiv Trend 1, Cables: Beresford, Chord, Coherent, MCRU, Rega, TCI.
Some of the Musical Fidelity players were quite good X Ray, Nuvista 3D, 308, A3.5 any of those should be cheap enough these days. Avoid the SACD ones (poor laser mechs not replaceable) and that awful KW transport and DAC - terrible in my opinion.
Deltec Precision Audio made a few nice ones, transports and Dacs mostly but they also made an integrated CD player too at one time called the Renaissance
The Tube Technology Fulcrum was quite nice - now based in America but they were in Wales for quite awhile and before that the South.
Sonnoteer - Bronte not heard one but UK company.
Trichord made a few
Audiolab made a few as well.
John Shearne - Phase 7 was quite good
Sugdens CD players are very good a MasterClass would be nice.
LFD made a CD player at one time too
Pink Triangle made some - not heard any though.
However my fave UK player would be the Myriad M100 beautiful sounding cd player - you might be able to get one for your budget.
Regards Neil
Regards Neil
An LFD mistral CDP went for silly money a few weeks back on eBay, silly low, under £300!
Mana Acoustics Racks / Bright Star IsoNodes Decoupling >> Allo DigiOne Player >> Pedja Rogic's Audial Model S DAC + Pioneer PL-71 turntable / Vista Audio phono-1 mk II / Denon PCL-5 headshell / Reson Reca >> LFD DLS >> LFD PA2M (SE) >> Royd RR3s.
Cyrus CD players all made in this country.
Arcam players are made in China, avoid a lot were sent back to China!
Clive
SOURCE:OPPO UDP-205 BluRay, SkyQ, Technics SL1210M5G/HexMat Eclipse/MN Bearing/Origin Live Gravity One puck/Isonoes with Boots/Jelco TK-850S Tonearm/Hana Umami Blue, PS Audio Stellar Phonostage. I also have an AT-OC9XSH as a spare cartridge.
AMPLIFIER: Bryston BR-20 Pre/DAC/Streamer & Bryston 4B3 Power Amplifier
SPEAKERS: Spendor D7 on Iso-Acoustics Gaia III’s
HEADPHONES: OPPO PM-1 with Atlas Zeno cable, B&W Pi7 S2 and B&W C5 v2.
CABLES: Analogue: Speaker Atlas Mavros Grun. Interconnect - Atlas Mavros XLR x3, MCRU Silver Tonearm cable
Digital:Audioquest Carbon Ethernet x 4, Audioquest Carbon digital, English Electric 8Switch, Chord Optichord, Atlas Optical.
Mains: PS Audio Perfectwave AC-05 x 5, Isol-8 Powerline Extreme with Quantum Science yellow fuse on input cable, Sounds Fantastic 6way Mains Blocks.
STORAGE: Synology DS216J NAS with 2 x 3Tb WD Red hard-drives. Samsung 500Gb SSD.
TV LG55B7 OLED
hi dan for the money a rega Apollo all day long