Just be careful when doing comparisons to consider your source CD's may be part of the love / hate relationship.
I remember well how CD sound degraded when the so-called "loudness wars" hit big time, and cd's basically had no dynamic range left.
NPR has a good set of articles / videos showing the problem. From 2009, NPR released "The Loudness Wars: Why Music Sounds Worse".
Same problem with most of today's over-companded FM stations. You have to hunt to find the ones that don't have their companders totally tweaked sounding like mp3's or in a steel can.
Just saying - don't jump to conclusions if your cd collection is late-vintage or "remasters" from that era.
I have gone round a circle where first it was my Rega Planet purchased used around 2005. It was old then but I always read Stereophile magazine and always wanted to have one. Around 2010 I started with computer audio but in 2015 went back to the Rega Planet. Of course by then kids as old as the Rega could drive a car! Still I sincerely thought I could hear timing issues with USB audio? Now? I use Sony Walkmans as a source hooked up to the Sony TA headphone amp. Hooking my Rega with it’s SPDF Toslink RCA is not as good a source by a long shot? It’s so bad that I’m guess it’s just the implementation going on with the TA. So I guess I’m a USB audio guy, though not using a regular computer. Still in my situation I’m hopeful to have a cure for the USB noise using a DAP as the source and USB filters in the dock along with a special USB cable to try and smooth USB out and reduce timing error.
The old Denon CD players do indeed have a nice magic to them. I was doubtful initially as well until I compared them directly. At the time I was considering a nice player from Cambridge, a new top of the line Sony or Marantz or the Denon. I ended up with a lightly used Denon DCD 1560 CD Player. To this day, I am very happy with it. I paid $120 for it back in 2003. The sound it puts out is solid and IMHO, rather neutral and natural, so good in fact, that it can stand next to modern CD players costing up to $2,000.00 or more. I think it can still be used as a reference player. Usually, if you want to see what these Denon CD players can really sound like, you need to connect them directly to your main amp via the variable outputs on the back. Then you'll see just how much degradation is being added by the pre-amp and just how amazing the sound is. A lot of people who hated these players back in the day was most likely due to the result of bad synergy with crappy dolby pro-logic receivers. Trust me on that!
As for build quality, except for the main transport door, the build quality is also top notch. The transport assembly and laser are top notch!
Can you buy something better? Sure you can! However, you'll be spending a lot more dough to find something better. The DCD 1600 is supposed to be slightly better than the 1560 too (although many say it sounds the same)! I haven't heard a 1600 but I have heard a 1650 and IMHO, it sounded relatively close to the 1560 - a very good thing indeed!
I think it would be a wise choice sticking with your 1600. If the repair bill it too much, you could probably pick up two used 1520's, 1560's or even an S series from 1995-1996 for the same amount. They all sound fantastic.
How can this be? Some people feel that because the CD was still relatively new, most companies invested in quality products and design and used reference analog systems as the "gold standard". As time passed, less and less $$ went into designing quality products and the companies starting cutting corners by using cheaper plastics, eliminating the better chips and using inferior parts over-all. Others feel that these old chips sound more analog than their more accurate, modern counterparts. Still, other feel that vintage stuff is just better. Personally, I don't know and don't care as long as I feel it sounds good.
There must be a reason certain old (circa 1989) players still sell for over $1,000!
This shouldn't surprise people. Despite all the unfounded, and frankly false information that permeates the forms here, digital audio has been capable of audible transparency for decades now. There may be measurable differences on some metrics, but in terms of what people can actually detect with the hearing brain, the humble CD player has had the technological ability to be transparent. That doesn't mean that every iteration of a player was implemented perfectly and that there were never audible mistakes made, but there were many fantastic CD players at all price ranges that were indeed capable of delivering transparency to the listener.
This shouldn't surprise people. (*) Despite all the unfounded, and frankly false information that permeates the forms here, digital audio has been capable of audible transparency for decades now. There may be measurable differences on some metrics, but (§) in terms of what people can actually detect with the hearing brain, the humble CD player has had the technological ability to be transparent. That doesn't mean that every iteration of a player was implemented perfectly and that there were never audible mistakes made, but (¡) there were many fantastic CD players at all price ranges that were indeed capable of delivering transparency to the listener.
The original post was in 2010, CD player designs in 1990 were transitioning to what we use today.
However vestiges of the first generation remain in players from that time period.
Philips was unable to manufacture a 16bit DAC when CD was introduced, instead used 2x14bit DAC with DSP workarounds like noise shaping.
This was the TDA1540.
The legendary 16bit TDA1541 did not appear until a few years later.
Sony went down a different path, they used a single 16bit DAC but time shared this between the left and right channels.
This introduced weird inter channel delays that could mess the imaging and sound staging in some cases.
I would skip these when shopping for a vintage CD player.
Below is the schematic of the CDP501 and its siblings. This unit was at the top of the line in 1984 and was on the market for a few years.
The giveaway is the multiplex switch logic.
Here it is again in the midrange CDP302
Sony finally came to its senses and abandoned the above approach and created design below.
This is still the basis of the newer units manufactured today.
Individual 18bit Burr-Brown PCM58 DACs for each channel, without the complicated multiplex logic
CDP228ESD came out in late 1988, it ditched the Sony in-house DAC for the then cutting edge PCM58 R2R DAC from BB.
I have of course over the years (since the 1980s) owned several different CD players. Finally having gone pure computer based audio with my last CD player being an Audiolab model (Forget which one now, but it was quite nice). One of my very favourites was a middle of the road Marantz that I purchased in 1992/4. Hard to remember exactly, but it sounded transparent and worked like a charm for many years. Only gave up on it when the door loading mechanism began to fail and I wanted to try something else anyway which was a nice NAD player than onto another NAD before going to a Rega Apollo and finally to the Audiolab (8200 I think?).
I would never bother with a transport again, but I still have all of my CDs around should I ever wish to rip them to digital again.
I have been very pleased with my Audiolab CDT-6000. It is silent and reliable. It reads / plays CDs that the Rega Apollo-R and others would have difficulty with. I have an unopened CDT-6000 as backup should need be.
Last week, I brought my old Denon DCD-1400 at the audiophile shop for a tune up. I asked the maintenance guy if it would make sense to clean it up again, when I could buy a Marantz CD5004 for 350$. Note that I've paid my Denon 750$ twenty years ago. The maintenance guy told me that under 1000$ now, I'd be better to keep my Denon. How could it be so ?
It's true that the SQ of my Denon is very good, but the DAC inside is probably obsolete. How could a 20 year old DAC compete against the new ones that we can find in player like the CD5004 ?
@Headdie Hi there haven’t been here in quite a while— I have an old Yamaha c750 dvd-a sacd cd dvd changer that still works fine— had it refurbished BUT no longer have 5.1 system and I use digital out to new Schitt Yggy GS DAC to new Rggy 2 amp to a 2 speaker LEGACY Studio HD monitors- my DVD-A and SACD albums sound just as good if not better than my old 5.1 system and I also just connect via RCAs to the Rggy2 amp and the internal DAC on the changer gives great sound also. That all said it is just a royal PIA to look for the old discs take em out then have to put them away— much easier to listen to hires from Qobuz TIDAL (including MQA via Meridian Explorer 2 DAC to Rggy amp-ugh) and via ROON and Audirvāna Studio. Thought you you might be interested in my experience. Bobbmd
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