batphink
500+ Head-Fier
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- Mar 13, 2010
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The difference between old CD players and new ones are the drives.
When CDs first came out in the 1980's, there were 2 kinds of drives: CD-ROM drives and CD-audio drives. CD-ROM drives were for computers and CD-audio drives were for music players. In the late 1990's, CD-ROM drives became cheaper than CD-audio drives. Electronics companies began to use CD-ROM drives instead of the CD-audio drives to save money and to add features to their players. Manufacturers such as Toshiba and Sony quickly stopped making CD-audio drives due to lack of demand. Modern CD players (also DVD and Blu-ray players) are simple computers programmed to perform specifics tasks.
I became aware of this almost a decade ago when the major music labels began releasing CDs with copy-protection. Some players with CD-ROM drives can't play these CDs. Players with CD-audio don't have this problem because they "ignore" any non-audio data on a CD. They're designed to play music and nothing else. I've found that players with CD-audio drives have far superior audio quality to players with CD-ROM drives. Hang on to that Denon for as long as you can.
When CDs first came out in the 1980's, there were 2 kinds of drives: CD-ROM drives and CD-audio drives. CD-ROM drives were for computers and CD-audio drives were for music players. In the late 1990's, CD-ROM drives became cheaper than CD-audio drives. Electronics companies began to use CD-ROM drives instead of the CD-audio drives to save money and to add features to their players. Manufacturers such as Toshiba and Sony quickly stopped making CD-audio drives due to lack of demand. Modern CD players (also DVD and Blu-ray players) are simple computers programmed to perform specifics tasks.
I became aware of this almost a decade ago when the major music labels began releasing CDs with copy-protection. Some players with CD-ROM drives can't play these CDs. Players with CD-audio don't have this problem because they "ignore" any non-audio data on a CD. They're designed to play music and nothing else. I've found that players with CD-audio drives have far superior audio quality to players with CD-ROM drives. Hang on to that Denon for as long as you can.