Replacing a Mark Levinson CD player

[antonio]

Have you thought about streaming? I moved away from a decent CD player a few years ago and would never go back. A monthly subscription to a service like Qobus gives you access to a huge amount of music for the price of one CD purchase a month. I have loads of CD's that I bought on the strength of one track only to find out the rest of the album was pretty weak. Auralic is one quality maker of DAC/streamers, there are others, and has a great interface for accessing music, making a list of favourites and playlists, reading artist biographies etc etc. Oh, and if you have CDs that are not listed on streaming services you can always rip them and stick them on a stick or hard disc.
With your budget I would say it is well worth considering.

I am 100% behind that consideration, I sold my tt, vinyl collection and cdp, no regrets and now have a Lumin U2 Mini and Eversolo DMP-A6. All our cd's were ripped and now reside in an SSD which can be played through both machines, the rest of the music we listen to comes from Qobuz. Ok, there might be an odd album we can't get, but I'm sure if I looked hard enough I'd be able to download it or get someone to rip it for me.

[antonio]

It's possible to screw up digital data transmission but even then you've got the question as to whether its screwed up badly enough to be audible with music.

I hear a very small difference between my Oppo acting as a transport and my Audiolab transport but I think the most likely explanation is that it's in my mind.

Since I'm not going to go to the effort of a controlled (blind) comparison, or have them tested, I don't worry about it. It's not enough of a difference to matter to me in any case.

There was never night and day differences, we chose the Project (the cheapest and possibly the worse sounding of the three) simply because it was to be used as a 2nd source and back-up. If it was to be our main source I'm sure we would have gone with the CEC, which was the middle ground price wise, but at a not inconsiderable £1500 more and this is going back at least 10yrs.

[Gazjam]

New Hegel CD player would be my choice.

[Macca]

New Hegel CD player would be my choice.

The Viking? Slot loading and IMO it's ugly-looking. https://www.hegel.com/en/products/cd/viking

£4.5K!

[Stranraer]

I hear a very small difference between my Oppo acting as a transport and my Audiolab transport

Coincidentally I have the Oppo 103, direct into the Croft Pre, and Audiolab 6000 through the Soncoz into the Croft Pre and find the Oppo's separation and soundstage genuinely massive compared to the 'Lab, with imaging way outside of the width of the speakers.

[Stranraer]

Many thanks for all the suggestions so far. It's a bit frustrating not knowing how the Levinson will work out as yet as I saw an end of line Hegel player at the perfect price last week and it looks a lovely piece of kit.
I guess at some point we'll all end up just streaming, so the heads up on downloading a free option was much appreciated but with the number of discs owned, plus a love of browsing record shops, I can see myself using a player for a good few years to come.

[Macca]

Coincidentally I have the Oppo 103, direct into the Croft Pre, and Audiolab 6000 through the Soncoz into the Croft Pre and find the Oppo's separation and soundstage genuinely massive compared to the 'Lab, with imaging way outside of the width of the speakers.

I noticed some years back that my perception of soundstage on a particular album (Sinatra At The Sands) varied quite noticeably from session to session.

Concluded that the variable was me. So I don't fret that soundstage stuff anymore. As long as it doesn't seem like the sound is coming directly from the speakers then I'm happy.

[Stranraer]

Just as long as you give a full report on the Teac. I honestly think I'm more excited than you are about this.

[Macca]

Just as long as you give a full report on the Teac. I honestly think I'm more excited than you are about this.

not heard anything more about it so I guess they haven't even come into stock yet.

They said they would let me know when it was shipping. I'm sort of resigned to a long wait.

[Stranraer]

I made enquiries earlier in the week and fairly sure Audio Affair told me they could ship one overnight, 30 day return if not satisfied.