SACD/CD Player with excellent Headphone out?

Seconded Uncle Erik's suggestion. I owned a Marantz Ki-Pearl and the headphone out is good. The only problem here is: you are using a 600 Ohm headphone and the CD player alone might not be able to drive your headphone to its fullest potential.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik 

Consider one of the Marantz SACD players - they have several models with an onboard, discrete headphone amp.

I've owned the SA8001 for about four years now. It still has impeccable measurements and hasn't so much as coughed on sneezed over the years. It gets used almost every day, too. Their newer models look nice, but I'm keeping it until it dies.

The headphone amp isn't too bad. I've swapped it back and forth with my headphone amp. I like the tubes better, but I don't like running tubes when it's viciously hot down here, so I often just run the SA8001 by itself. It's plenty good enough.

X3 on marantz cd players. I have the 8004 and the headphone out is at least on par with a budget "desktop" dedicated ss headphone amp. It's probably closer to most midfi ss amps than most budget ss amps though.

I agree the SA8004 head amp is pretty good. I use it sometimes for my D7000 and like what it does. Its better than most I have heard in a SACD player.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik 

Consider one of the Marantz SACD players - they have several models with an onboard, discrete headphone amp.

I've owned the SA8001 for about four years now. It still has impeccable measurements and hasn't so much as coughed on sneezed over the years. It gets used almost every day, too. Their newer models look nice, but I'm keeping it until it dies.

The headphone amp isn't too bad. I've swapped it back and forth with my headphone amp. I like the tubes better, but I don't like running tubes when it's viciously hot down here, so I often just run the SA8001 by itself. It's plenty good enough.

Erik when was the 8001 introduced. I know the 8260 and then the 8003 and now the 8004. That machine is heavier than the 8004 if I am not mistaken. The 8004 is 17 lbs.

I heard the Matrix Cube is a good entry-fi headphone amp for connecting to SACD players, but don't quote me on it.

I also read reviews translated from Japanese on the new Fostex HP-A7, with mixed thoughts, lots of stuff about SACD playback, at the very least it has a headphone-out for both low impedance and high impedance headphones.

http://www.sa-cd.net/ seems to have a nice vault of information.

it was nice to see that the Absolute Sound gave the Marantz SA8004 a Golden Ear Award. I know I have never regretted the purchase and really cannot see spending more as it is that good.

Anyone actually compared the SA8004 headphones out to an dedicated headphones amp fed by the SA8004 analog out?  My Hi-Fi guy has a SA8004 for under $700, but I'm not sure about it yet.  I plan to use it next to my bed with headphones.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DjAmTraX 

Anyone actually compared the SA8004 headphones out to an dedicated headphones amp fed by the SA8004 analog out?  My Hi-Fi guy has a SA8004 for under $700, but I'm not sure about it yet.  I plan to use it next to my bed with headphones.

The amp in the SA8004 is very good and can be used that way. It does benefit from higher priced amps but can be listened too with the built in head amp. I do for my D7000 at times.

A few years back I was looking for a CD player with a headphone out. I was eyeing the Marantz CD 6002. I auditioned the Marantz CD5001, CD6002, SA7001 and a Denon that I don't remember and cost more than all the Marantz. I went home with the Marantz SA7001, I wasn't prepared to spent that much but the improvement over CD6002 was IMO substantial even with red book CD.

Subjectively speaking, all the Marantz has a lively sound signature to them, the Denon sounds warmer and mellower in relative to the Marantz. The Denon was highly recommended to me by the sale rep but I wasn't impressed by it, may be not my cup of tea. All those heard with an AKG K501 directly plugged into them.