Early CD Player Recommendations?

[Theadmans]

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!

Actually the UK model of the 705 has both coaxial and optical outputs (other countries only get optical). Given this there seems very little difference between the 703 and 705 (although the chart on the Lampizator site shows a different code for the lens and stable platter mech).

I haven't done any internal mods to mine yet, however, I have stood it on a Tesco Finest Granite Chopping board plus 4 x Yellow Dot Squash balls. Plus added a Tesco Finest Granite Cheese board on top for extra damping.

I kind of understand the addition of valves to the output stage (many high end cd players have this). I am not a DIY expert so I added a Musical Fidelity Tube Buffer between my Dacmagic and Amp - this gives a warmer sound with perceived extended bass. See pic of my rig here :-

http://theadmans.fileave.com/129_2999.JPG

[DSJR]

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)...

The CDX was the one!!!!!

I deliberately forgot to mention this one, as B&O gets a very hard time on other "HiFi" forums - not totally undeserved - but the CDX and the Mission DAD7000R (both CDM1 equipped) showed me that CD had some future. Both of these players need to warm up though for an hour or two, but neither would do "air and space" like a modern budget priced player I think.

[pulsestudio]

Hi Nick

I have used and still have the following CDP's

Marantz CD80: built like a tank and very, very capable of superb depth and detail retrival, but considered by some to be a bit punchy, thick, ballsy, yes it packs a punch but it has detail in droves, S/H price around £200-270

Rega Planet 2000: a good player but a little too analogue IMHO, personally I feel that the mid band is a little recessed and the bass a little soft, so needs carefull system matching, but a good performer for around £200 S/H, the earlier Planet is tweakable but have not seen any mods for the Planet 2000

Arcam Alpha 5: ( Avondaled by Les ) around £60 for the basic unit S/H and then about £450 for the Avondale up-grade, you can find them with the AAA5 up-grade for around £350-380 and well worth the money IMHO, this machine is probably the best performer of the 3 suggested and I own them all, but my CD80 has had no tweaks and it fights for first place, there is also a very desirable Revox CDP the B225/226, these are supposedly very capable machines and have an almost cult following with legendary status, can't comment on the performance as I have never owned one, sadly

all of the above feature the now universally recognised and highly regarded Philips TDA1541 DAC and SAA7200, which, when the oversampling function is disabled and fitted with a Tentlabs clock will perform to a very high spec, and will trounce most CDP's up to and above £1000, and this simple and cheap mod can be performed on all the above mentioned, Planet 2000 being the only exception.
PM me for more info if you decide to go this route Nick.
Paul

[Beechwoods]

I've just bought one of these...



It's Hitachi's 1st CD Player, and the basis for a whole load of 1st Gen CDP clones at the time. The pic is from http://www.hifi-wiki.de/index.php/Hitachi_DA-1000 and there are bunch of other pics on that site, including one showing how the door works... the early designers were obviously thinking CD would be used like a tape deck

Other info...

http://www.thevintageknob.org/DAD/DA1000/DA1000.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeGVfnZw4L4

It's got a 14 bit Burr Brown PCM53P DAC. If anyone knows what happens to the other 2 bits, let me know.

[symon]

Nice! That will fit in with the rest of your kit nicely.

[Spectral Morn]

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

Thanks for posting the link Theadmans. Very interesting the Lampizator is a very talented guy IMHO.


Regards D S D L

[baron]

Nice player Nick, looks great. My first CD player was a
JVC XL-V1 cost somthing like £525.00 when it came out.
http://www.thevintageknob.org/DAD/XLV1/XLV1.html

[The Grand Wazoo]

I love the groovy triangular power switch!!!!!

Well, done Nick, I hope you're very happy together!

[Spectral Morn]

My first two cd players were all faulty from the get go or after a month or so. First was an Audio Technica (same as the cart-re-badged but of what I don't know)and a Philips which was faulty fixed and then faulty again...the repair guy forced the drawer open forgetting to take the transit bolts out. I got a nice Marantz Cd 273se as compensation, very tasty. Next up a Marantz 65se then a Marantz Cd85 then the Marantz94 mk2.

[Beechwoods]

Nice player Nick, looks great. My first CD player was a JVC XL-V1 cost somthing like £525.00 when it came out.
http://www.thevintageknob.org/DAD/XLV1/XLV1.html

Well it could just of easily have been a JVC that I ended up getting. I shortlisted about 8 of the vertical loading players featured on TVK and the Hitachi was the first to come up. The JVC is a nice looking machine. As TVK points out, it's a clone of the the DA-1000. Suffice to say mine cost only slightly more than a tenth your JVC did new!

Looks-wise, the Technics, Pioneer, Kenwood, Dual and Toshiba vertical loaders are most attractive. The Hitachi looks very 80's though. Perhaps that is a good thing! If I can find any of the other CDPs I may well get them in for a look and work out which one I want to keep. I have been bitten by a bit of a bug I think!

I love the groovy triangular power switch!!!!!

That switch has magical properties Chris. It's colour has a unique correlation to the DAC within. The one I've got is Silver. Silver is gooood. Silver = Burr Brown... the earlier Blue switch was partnered with the earlier Hitachi HA16633P D/A... nowadays they would just relaunch the product with a 'Mk II' badge and a complete fascia restyle!

Cheers chaps!