By popular request! (well, Leporello expressed a vague interest ... )
Here's some pics of some CD spinners I have owned over the years .....
Pioneer PD-S505. OK as a CDP, but very nice indeed as CD transports into a good DAC.
Eastern Electric Minimax. I liked this CDP a lot - lovely valve output stage put a real 'zing' into the music.
I bought this Benchmark DAC before they started getting trendy .... nice, but imho a bit tame.
A vintage JVC I got on eBay for £30 - lots of hype in some of the forums about these - largely unjustified, I reckon! OK, if a bit stolid as a CDT, but frankly 3rd rate by todays standards as a CDP.
A pair of Musical Fidelity DACs - very musical indeed imo.
I replaced Mark Levinson No. 39 CDP with a trio of Perpetual Technoliogies P1-A, P-3A and Monolithic PS (no pics, for some reason ) - the Levinson got thoroughly stomped by the PT kit
But, where was I ... ah yes .... an excellent little cheap DAC - Flying Calf - strongly recommended to those on a budget!
I used the Flying Calf with this rather tasty Micromega transport - nice!
Of course, those that know me from other forums will be expecting the next DAC ... a Beresford TC-7510 Mk3. I still think it's wonderful - especially for the money. Yes, you can get better sound - but you've gotta pay for it!
A Teac VRDS10SE graced my system for a while - only really used it as a transport though!
Bringing my self more up to date - here's a really tasty item! - a Burmester CD006. Real audiophile porn with that chrome fascia! I've only recently moved on from using this - so it'll be up for sale soon.
And here's my current CD system .... a Teac T1 with Trichord Clock 4 mod CD transport
and an Audio Synthesis DAX Decade DAC/Pre-amp.
Just to complete the story (no pics though) ... other interesting CD kit I've owned includes Musical Fidelity FCD, Quad 99 CDP (I was surprised by how good this was!), AudioNote DAC3 Sig, ... and I'm sure lots of other stuff that slips my mind at the mo
I've also had home dems of Naim CDS2, Audio Research CD2 but didn't think much of them. Both quite bland imho. (YMMV )