affordable tabletop CD player

[elysion]

Maybe hard to believe for some of the forum members, but I don't have a CD player.

I'm listening to music only with computers or iPods as source. That's the way it is. And very likely that also the way it will be in the future.

I have to admit that I could use a CD player sometimes though. I don't have very much CDs, but of course I have also a few.

Although computers will remain my main source, I miss a handy CD player. I'm searching for a tabletop CD player because I'd like to use it directly connected to a headphone amplifier, both placed on a desk in the direct proximity of me (the listener).

I'd like to have an affordable (speak: cheap) CD player that has a small footprint, is portable and still sounds good. It's absolutely clear that this means that it won't be a "reference" CD player.

Cyrus, Quad, Roksan, NAD, Marantz, Naim etc. – there are a lot of high-end CD players available. Unfortunately, I don't have that amount of money left for a CD player and as mentioned above, I won't use it as my main source.

It looks like my joice is mainly limited to a bunch of DJ CD players. I know that for example Cyrus makes also CD player with rather small footprint (like those here: www.cyrusaudio.com/products/cd-players), but that's still too big for me and I really don't afford such a CD player.

I'm no DJ and I don't have plans to be a DJ sometime in the future. My main goal would be simply listening to CDs (perhaps also MP3 CDs). Some of the DJ CD players are also too big and/or too costly for me and they also offer too much features. I don't need a scratch pad. A pitch control could be useful for me though.

The best thing I've found so far was that:
www.stantondj.com/stanton-cd-players/s300.html#

It's a no-frills tabletop CD player that has only a few DJ features (like pitch control). I can get it rather cheap (264CHF at the moment). It's also portable and has a very small footprint.

What do you think? Comments and suggestions are highly appreciated.

[UzminiNu]

cgi.ebay.de/Apple-Power-CD-Complete-Boxed-example-RARE-/110632642034?pt=UK_VintageComputing_RL&hash=item19c23825f2

Apple Power CD ...unfortunate it doesnot take MP3 or SACD/ADVD:[.

[gommer]

Or you could hunt down an old but sturdy Marantz on ebay; it will be cheap enough and also have modding potential.

edit: Oops, i missed your form factor requirement, it'll be harder then.
and BTW, you never mentioned your budget i.e. how small is small?

[xerxes]

The Small form factor does limit your choice a bit. However used Cyrus CD players show up fairly frequently on Ebay here in the UK, you can also look in the for sale section of the forum here: www.cyrusunofficial.co.uk/

I have a Cyrus CD8x, they were about £1000 new, but you can pick them up for £300 to £400 used, you might also look for the older CD7q or the CD6x which is a slightly lower specified model than the CD8x without the ability to upgrade with the PSX-R external power supply. One thing to note, Cyrus CD players only play standard CDs, no MP3 discs etc.

[elysion]

My budget: As cheap as possible. Most likely I will not use the CD player all the time.

Too bad the Cyrus models play only standard CDs. MP3 discs and CD-R's are mandatory. BTW: Even the costs for used Cyrus CD players seem a little bit high for my budget.

Perhaps I should go for the Stanton S.300 and see what it can. I'd pay 264CHF at the moment which is rather cheap for a CD player. It's certainly an entry level DJ CD player and really no reference. But I would fit my budget, is small and portable, has the features I need and the design isn't too bad. I found no reviews about the S.300 in the internet (everything I found included the advertisement text of Stanton or specs only) and the main problem is that I absolutely don't know how it will sound.

I'll ask the dealer who sells them how they sound. Maybe it's possible to test one. With a bit luck I can do this next Saturday.

[PinkFloyd]

Jan 9, 2011 22:45:30 GMT elysion said:

My budget: As cheap as possible. Most likely I will not use the CD player all the time.

Too bad the Cyrus models play only standard CDs. MP3 discs and CD-R's are mandatory. BTW: Even the costs for used Cyrus CD players seem a little bit high for my budget.

Perhaps I should go for the Stanton S.300 and see what it can. I'd pay 264CHF at the moment which is rather cheap for a CD player. It's certainly an entry level DJ CD player and really no reference. But I would fit my budget, is small and portable, has the features I need and the design isn't too bad. I found no reviews about the S.300 in the internet (everything I found included the advertisement text of Stanton or specs only) and the main problem is that I absolutely don't know how it will sound.

I'll ask the dealer who sells them how they sound. Maybe it's possible to test one. With a bit luck I can do this next Saturday.

The specs are pretty shite Christian.... 85db S/N ..... I would REALLY make some space for something like a secondhand Marantz CD63SEMKll KI signature I picked up a MINT example a few weeks ago for £150 GBP...... plenty of them on ebay and truckloads better sounding than the Stanton I think

The Stanton does look good though.... shame about the specs.

Mike.

[PinkFloyd]

Check out the Stanton specs here: www.stantondj.com/pdf/products/cd-players/s300_manual.pdf

Those Sony laser mechanisms are pretty shite, I doubt you'd get more than a couple of years out of them...... seriously man, go with quality.... it will pay in the end

My recommendation would be to go for a mint condition (secondhand) Marantz CDP..... even if the laser mechanism starts playing up it's relatively cheap to fit a new one.....

The Stanton is a piece of junk IMO.

[elysion]

I'll keep an eye on second-hand offers inside Switzerland.

Probably it's a hard thing to get descent laser mechanisms today.

Maybe a second-hand Marantz would be a good addition to a portable DJ CD player. Portability isn't exactly one of the advantages of the Marantz.

I guess the Stanton S.300 doesn't have a good PSU, maybe because of size/cost reasons. I don't like Sony products at all (I hate them) and I've seen the specs also.

I can't explain it really, but the design of the S.300 would be perfect for tabletop use. I've seen also auctions of older Roksan CD player that had also top-loading mechanisms (and a damn good design).

[Seamus]

If you want affordable and a small footprint you'll not find better than this:

www.richersounds.com/product/cd-players-recorders-dacs-cassette-decks/cambridge-audio/sonata-cd30/camb-sonata-cd30-blk

Unfortunately they're only available in store here in the UK and the chances of one turning up on ebay are slim. I wouldn't expect great sound from that Stanton if I were you, perhaps the cd player from a Denon 101 series or Teac 300 or 500 series systems.

[elysion]

Jan 10, 2011 22:50:13 GMT Seamus said:

If you want affordable and a small footprint you'll not find better than this:

www.richersounds.com/product/cd-players-recorders-dacs-cassette-decks/cambridge-audio/sonata-cd30/camb-sonata-cd30-blk

Unfortunately they're only available in store here in the UK and the chances of one turning up on ebay are slim. I wouldn't expect great sound from that Stanton if I were you, perhaps the cd player from a Denon 101 series or Teac 300 or 500 series systems.

YES. This one looks very interesting. Good specs, great design and small footprint. I don't miss it too much that it probably doesn't plays MP3 CDs. But playback from CD-R's is a must. Does anyone know what kind of discs the Sonata CD30 plays?

So far the only problem is the (Swiss) price: A short internet search showed a price of 435CHF, which is about twice the price of the CD30 in the UK advertisement.

I hope to find a cheaper source for those CD30's, but maybe it's worthwhile to buy one in UK.

For now the Sonata CD30 is my favourite.

Thanks for the hint.

[xerxes]

Most CD players will play CD-Rs, my 20+ year old Marantz used to and my Cyrus player will. They won't play CDs with MP3s on them, CD-RW, DVD-A, or SACD, but anything that is the same format as a standard audio CD, including CD-Rs burned as audio CDs should be fine on pretty much any CD player.

[UzminiNu]

Looks very good:].

[elysion]

No luck with the Richer Sounds offer, but I have still an eye on the Sonata CD30.

In the next few days, I'll be searching for Cambridge Audio dealers inside Switzerland. I've found already a few, but I hope to find a cheaper offer.

Is there anywhere a good review about the Sonata CD30? What I've found with a quick Google search was far from being good review (and even more away from being "neutral").

Many thanks to all who have assisted me in searching for an affordable CD player. I'm now sure that I'll find something that fits. It simply has to fit. I won't buy the next CD player soon thereafter.

[elysion]

Finally, I ordered the Cambridge Audio Sonata CD30 today.

I'll buy from a dealer nearby. It's the Swiss list price (490CHF), but I've searched rather long and the only non-imported offers that have been cheaper are from unoffical dealers and with transport it's about the same.

I ordered the black case variant and hope to have it Saturday.

I'll keep you informed about how it sounds.

Many thanks to everyone who has helped me searching a good CD player.

[elysion]

Today my new Sonata CD30 has arrived and I picked it up at the local Cambridge Audio dealer a few kilometers away.

Unboxing was quite pleasant.





I see "Designed and engineered with passion in London, England.", but...



... "Made under license in China". Probably it's more a kind of Chinese CD player with some UK engineering behind it.

I've noticed also straight away that I've bought a "Sonata CD30-B". The "B" probably stands for the black colour version. Much more interesting is that it is a "Version: 2" and that the model name is "Sonata CD30 V2-B UK/EU".

Somebudy told me (I'm not sure if it was Will or UzminiNu) that the richersounds sale mentioned above was because Cambridge Audio was releasing a new model. That was also I reason why I've waited so lang to buy the CD player (beside that I had not much time and had to search for a good dealer first).

Looks like I have one of those "new" models. I've visited the Cambridge Audio website a few times and was awaiting to see a new model with a new model name like "Sonate CD40" for example. Since Cambridge Audio sells the revised model with the same model name, I guess that there are only minor changes.









After seeing the back of the CD player, I was rather sure that I already know what was changed.

Let's have a closer look:







The Sonata CD30 V2-B has a SMPS with 10W rating. According to Cambridge Audio it draws about 7W while operating. I'm sure you all have seen the "1W standy" marking on the backside. I'm almost sure that this was the change. The EU was tightening the regualtions for power-saving with an explicit limit of 1W for standy operation.

I can't verify that since I don't own a Sonata CD30 V1, but a lot of devices are revised today to meet current environmental standards.

If someone has a Sonata CD30 V1, I'd appreciate it very much if you would posts pics of the backplate of your amp.

Power-saving is no crime (far from it!), but the main question is if the SMPS used in the Sonata CD30 V2 has a negative influence on sound quality.

The remote control that comes with the Sonata CD30 is of good quality and feels very good in my hands. It's longer than you'd expect and quite narrow. The only drawback for CD only use it that the remote control is designed for a couple of Cambridge Audio Hi-Fi components. The remote control isn't for CD players only and you won't use all knobs with the CD player.



The display on the picture above isn't broken. It has some protection foil on the display. It's very likely that I'll pull the foil away after a few weeks.

Some (CD) fodder for the new CD player:







I can't comment much about the SQ at the moment. I need a couple of days/weeks for comparison. But I'm already sure that I won't regret the buy of this CD player.







Before you ask: No, I don't like it exactly that the X-Can V3 is on top of the Sonate CD30. It's a temporary solution. I'm already searching for something like a small audio rack that could be placed on a desk.

At the moment, I'm listening to the Sonata CD30 with the Neco Mosfet V2 amp. The X-Can V3 will follow soon...

[Seamus]

:DNice one

It certainly looks the part. It's got to be better than those DJ players you were looking at, then again it's a bit more expensive . I'll be interested to see how you get on with it.

Hope you haven't got any plans for this weekend, I reckon you'll be spending it sat in a chair with your headphones on

[mrarroyo]

I found this picture in re-seller's site. Nice looking unit but it retails for $329 over here, a bit more than I would want to pay.

[PinkFloyd]

That looks great Christian Cambridge Audio make some really nice stuff at sensible prices.... I am over the moon with their DacMagic, a very well made and nice sounding DAC.

Are you going to pop the hood and take some photos?

Mike.

[elysion]

Mar 5, 2011 2:07:22 GMT Seamus said:

:DNice one

It certainly looks the part. It's got to be better than those DJ players you were looking at, then again it's a bit more expensive . I'll be interested to see how you get on with it.

Hope you haven't got any plans for this weekend, I reckon you'll be spending it sat in a chair with your headphones on

Unfortunately, I'll have to do the annual tax declaration this weekend, but there's no reason why I shouldn't have headphones on my head while doing this. My CD collection is a bit limited, but I have most of the CDs also ripped on my computer which will make it easy to compare.

Mar 5, 2011 9:16:43 GMT PinkFloyd said:

That looks great Christian Cambridge Audio make some really nice stuff at sensible prices.... I am over the moon with their DacMagic, a very well made and nice sounding DAC.

Are you going to pop the hood and take some photos?

Mike.

I was also thinking about popping the hood yesterday. If I found an easy way to pop the hood without scratches or other signs, then I'll do that somewhen. I'll concentrate on the SQ in the next few days though.

I'll hope they have no warranty seals inside the case.

And yes, Miguel, it's a quite pricey. That's also a reason why I'm not too fond of opening the case before I exactly know how to do it without any damage.

The Sonata CD30 has 2 years of warranty and it looks like it would last much longer. The CD tray isn't very rugged, but nothing to worry about as long as you don't sit on the open tray.

[elysion]

Did anyone also notice that you can see a lot of things on the display that don't make sense for a CD player?

It can't play "DVD-Audio", "ST." (stereo?) is always on, "TUNED" is something for radios, just like "RDS", "KHz", "MHz" and "DolbyDigital", "dts", "3D" is something that would be shown on a receiver/amp.

I guess they have one display type that fits all products of the Sonata series.

[freddypipsqueek]

With the rack thing you may be better with some sorbothane. I find a bit under a CD player helps the player and everything then sits static if you're stacking; i.e. glue a bit under every foot.

[elysion]

Mar 5, 2011 19:20:53 GMT freddypipsqueek said:

With the rack thing you may be better with some sorbothane. I find a bit under a CD player helps the player and everything then sits static if you're stacking; i.e. glue a bit under every foot.

I was already thinking about a rubber mat.

At the moment I'm using the CD player next to the computer that I use for listening music. Perhaps I'll use the CD player later somewhere else.

[elysion]

Mar 5, 2011 1:27:09 GMT elysion said:

The Sonata CD30 V2-B has a SMPS with 10W rating. According to Cambridge Audio it draws about 7W while operating. I'm sure you all have seen the "1W standy" marking on the backside. I'm almost sure that this was the change. The EU was tightening the regualtions for power-saving with an explicit limit of 1W for standy operation.

I can't verify that since I don't own a Sonata CD30 V1, but a lot of devices are revised today to meet current environmental standards.

If someone has a Sonata CD30 V1, I'd appreciate it very much if you would posts pics of the backplate of your amp.

Power-saving is no crime (far from it!), but the main question is if the SMPS used in the Sonata CD30 V2 has a negative influence on sound quality.

Here is the backplate of the Sonata CD30 V1 (the silver unit below). Miguel already posted that picture above, but I didn't notice first that is shows exactly what I have wanted to know.

V1 backplate says "Max Power Consumption: 25W" while V2 backplate says "Rated Power Consumption: 10W". V2 uses only 7W while operating and below 1W during standy.



Here is also a link to an even bigger variant of the image above:
www.cambridge-audio.com/assets/documents/CD30-rear.jpg

Since the input voltage range is rather wide (100-230VAC for the V1 and 100-240VAC for the V2), I guess that both are using a SMPS. Maybe I'm wrong, but AFAIK the big input voltage range is a typical feature of SMPS'.

[Seamus]

I don't blame you for not wanting to void your warranty. Here's the only shot I could find under the hood:

[PinkFloyd]

Mar 5, 2011 21:59:32 GMT Seamus said:

I don't blame you for not wanting to void your warranty. Here's the only shot I could find under the hood:

Good god man, they don't booby trap the things Just undo the screws and pop the hood