Early CD Player Recommendations?

[Beechwoods]

Best 41 quid plus postage ever?

[symon]

I'm still grinning with amazement!!!
Talk about money well spent. It puts my current record player to shame.

[symon]

I don't want to go to work tomorrow. I want to stay at home and play CDs all day!!

[leo]

I had to add a reply The PDS-703 was the first cdp I ever tinkered with, infact it was the first thing that got me into diy!
Good memories

No, thats not my cdp for sale BTW, I got rid of mine years ago
I remember one mod I did was to do with the filtering before the op-amp stage, then the standard op-amp could not cope with it so I upgraded that next.
I then did some tinkering with the psu, I then fitted a Trichord clock.
It was a good learning experience, a mate I gave it to later was well chuffed with it, he actually liked it better than his Arcam Alpha9

[symon]

To me it sounds astonishing! It will take me a while to get used to it.

It has already had some mods done to it, which I'll list here when I get the chance - and remember what they are. Off the top of my head, the top of the case has been strengthened and lined with foil, it has foculpods for feet, the mains cable haas been replaced and some other stuff. I'll get the full list up over the next few days.

All I know is that it is better than anything I have ever owned and currently outplays vinyl. Which just means I need to get my tt sorted out.

[twelvebears]

The two players that I've owned and now wish I'd held onto were a Marantz CD85 (which I gave to a mate with a Meridian DAC and he's still using) and a Sony SCD-777ES.

I'd love to have the latter back again.

I probably wouldn't use it much now my whole collection is now losslessly stored on my iMac, but there was just endless fun to be had with the CD puck and the missile-silo top-loading door. :-)

[Spectral Morn]

The two players that I've owned and now wish I'd held onto were a Marantz CD85 (which I gave to a mate with a Meridian DAC and he's still using) and a Sony SCD-777ES.

I'd love to have the latter back again.

I probably wouldn't use it much now my whole collection is now losslessly stored on my iMac, but there was just endless fun to be had with the CD puck and the missile-silo top-loading door. :-)

Hi Twelvebears....

I still have an 85 which I got for the laser as my Marantz CD94mk2 uses the same a Philips CM1. I too had a Sony SCD-777es...best and most silent SACD mechanism ever IMHO....totally silent. You could put your ear to the lid.............. .......................... SILENCE, as it should be. I am working on getting it back. CD playback was okay but SACD playback was quite good.


Regards D S D L

[Tom472]

People might shout at me for this suggestion, but maybe a B&O Beogram, the earlier ones were top loading I believe - and they all look pretty retro cool to me.

Also use the same Philips CDM mech and DAC as others suggested - you do have to put up with no remote control, and only two buttons though (I've never felt the need for anything more)...

[Theadmans]

To me it sounds astonishing! It will take me a while to get used to it.

It has already had some mods done to it, which I'll list here when I get the chance - and remember what they are. Off the top of my head, the top of the case has been strengthened and lined with foil, it has foculpods for feet, the mains cable haas been replaced and some other stuff. I'll get the full list up over the next few days.

All I know is that it is better than anything I have ever owned and currently outplays vinyl. Which just means I need to get my tt sorted out.

Glad you are enjoying your pd-s703 - I looked at that one myself on eBay - looks like you got a bargain. I bought a mint pd-s705 myself a couple of months ago for £39 - to use with the old model Dacmagic 2 - sounds superb to me. The Stable Platter mech seems very slick to me compared with my previous cd player (Marantz CD63 Ki Sig). Does anyone know the difference between the pd-s703 and pd-s705 as Pioneer's model numbering system confuses the c**p out of me!

This may also interest you:-

http://www.lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/...ioneer703.html

[symon]

I was looking at a picture of a 705 earlier and, if I remember right, it doesn't have a spdif output, which the the 703 does have.

That link looks good. I don't understand most of it! But, I suspect a lot of the mods that were done to mine were to answer some of the complaints he raises before doing his own mods.

And is that really two valves he put in there? Weird!