Do all CD players output the same quality?

[Bubblejuice]

I've been enjoying hi-fi headphones for a few months now. I've using questionable Flac files and Spotify (high quality) tracks for the time being. But I decided I want to start using CDs. I found a good sale on CDs from my favorite artists and I went with it.
 
Now, my question is, I don't want to spend $200 on a CD player. I don't need it to hook up to my computer, or be anything special, I just want it to play the CD files transparently, and hook up to my headphones and or speakers, and for it to have the basic stop, play, reverse, fast forward buttons, etc. 
 
Now, my question is, is a $200 CD player going to output the same quality as a $50 CD player? Is there important differences I should care about, or are any of their differences just preference/convenience? Lastly, would a small portable CD player output the same quality as one of these nicer models? 
 
I have an old TEAC home system that has a built in CD player (really small, and probably not audiophile quality). But not much else. 
 
P.S. I understand $200 on this forum is like the bare minimum most would recommend to spend, but I'm very frugal, especially when I'm  walking into new territory. 
 
Anyways, I appreciate any advice you guys can give me! Thanks!

 

[ririeiman]

  I've been enjoying hi-fi headphones for a few months now. I've using questionable Flac files and Spotify (high quality) tracks for the time being. But I decided I want to start using CDs. I found a good sale on CDs from my favorite artists and I went with it.
 
Now, my question is, I don't want to spend $200 on a CD player. I don't need it to hook up to my computer, or be anything special, I just want it to play the CD files transparently, and hook up to my headphones and or speakers, and for it to have the basic stop, play, reverse, fast forward buttons, etc. 
 
Now, my question is, is a $200 CD player going to output the same quality as a $50 CD player? Is there important differences I should care about, or are any of their differences just preference/convenience? Lastly, would a small portable CD player output the same quality as one of these nicer models? 
 
I have an old TEAC home system that has a built in CD player (really small, and probably not audiophile quality). But not much else. 
 
P.S. I understand $200 on this forum is like the bare minimum most would recommend to spend, but I'm very frugal, especially when I'm  walking into new territory. 
 
Anyways, I appreciate any advice you guys can give me! Thanks!

1. No
2. Are you using an eksternal DAC?
3. Nope, 

 

[Bubblejuice]

  1. No
2. Are you using an eksternal DAC?
3. Nope, 

Could you elaborate a little more into why a more expensive CD player would be noticeably better? I assume they are still outputting the same data from the same CD no?
 
Again, this is purely functionally. Anything that's just optional is not necessary to me (like EQ, or different bit rate settings, or whatever may come on an expensive CD player. Obviously I don't know much though).
 
I'd get one with headphone/RCA outputs on it already, so I assume it would have a DAC in it. I have an external amp for my headphones, but I've never noticed much of a difference with a DAC so I Haven't bought one get one. I don't get any noise with my current set up.

 

[ririeiman]

  Could you elaborate a little more into why a more expensive CD player would be noticeably better? I assume they are still outputting the same data from the same CD no?
 
Again, this is purely functionally. Anything that's just optional is not necessary to me (like EQ, or different bit rate settings, or whatever may come on an expensive CD player. Obviously I don't know much though).
 
I'd get one with headphone/RCA outputs on it already, so I assume it would have a DAC in it. I have an external amp for my headphones, but I've never noticed much of a difference with a DAC so I Haven't bought one get one. I don't get any noise with my current set up.

 
thats very long answer , thats why i try to keep it simple. 

1. CD player have laser to read the surface of the CD . If not stabilize enough there will be error in reading . CD audio dont have error control like file read in computer . They will use complex algoirthm to guess what is missing in their reading . Thats why there always different variety when read and write in CD . For example if you buy 2 identic CD Audio you will have slightly different data read. As long as the different no more than 5% factory will call it identic 
2. Different DAC beetween CDP will vary the quality of sound output. If you can't hear the difference beetween qood DAC and soso DAC , maybe because your headphone and speaker not revealing enough . Thats a good news for you

 

[Bubblejuice]

   
thats very long answer , thats why i try to keep it simple. 

1. CD player have laser to read the surface of the CD . If not stabilize enough there will be error in reading . CD audio dont have error control like file read in computer . They will use complex algoirthm to guess what is missing in their reading . Thats why there always different variety when read and write in CD . For example if you buy 2 identic CD Audio you will have slightly different data read. As long as the different no more than 5% factory will call it identic 
2. Different DAC beetween CDP will vary the quality of sound output. If you can't hear the difference beetween qood DAC and soso DAC , maybe because your headphone and speaker not revealing enough . Thats a good news for you

1) So a song will sound different on every CD player? Couldn't a decent $50-100 CD player have good stabilization?
 
2) My main headphones are my Audeze LCD-2f. They are plenty revealing. But even trying the LCD-3 and Elear with some high end DAC systems, I noticed no real difference to my Dragonfly red. Personally, to me a DAC is just to eliminate noise. So a decent DAC is more than enough for me. 

 

[Mr Rick]

If you believe the reviewers, every turntable, tone arm, and cartridge sounds different too. As does every amp and DAC. Don't get me started on interconnects!!
 
But like you, I can't hear the difference. I consider it a blessing, not a curse. I can listen to the music, not sweat my equipment.
 
I own a Sony CD/ DVD player, the SR200P. You can pick up the newer version for $35.00 on Amazon.
 
Mine sounds as good as Spotify, if not a bit better. It's all I'll ever need.

 

[Bubblejuice]

  If you believe the reviewers, every turntable, tone arm, and cartridge sounds different too. As does every amp and DAC. Don't get me started on interconnects!!
 
But like you, I can't hear the difference. I consider it a blessing, not a curse. I can listen to the music, not sweat my equipment.
 
I own a Sony CD/ DVD player, the SR200P. You can pick up the newer version for $35.00 on Amazon.
 
Mine sounds as good as Spotify, if not a bit better. It's all I'll ever need.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, I can hear the difference between equipment with clearly different sounds, but those small things usually mentioned are not something I care about, fortunately for my wallet.
 
Oh ok! Cool. I have an old teac mini hi-fi system that plays CDs i've been using. The reason I want to start using CDs is because I want to hear that FLAC like quality sound when I plug my headphones in. And there's also a magic in putting the CD in and just listening. Not having everything at your fingertips.

 

[ririeiman]

  If you believe the reviewers, every turntable, tone arm, and cartridge sounds different too. As does every amp and DAC. Don't get me started on interconnects!!
 
But like you, I can't hear the difference. I consider it a blessing, not a curse. I can listen to the music, not sweat my equipment.
 
I own a Sony CD/ DVD player, the SR200P. You can pick up the newer version for $35.00 on Amazon.
 
Mine sounds as good as Spotify, if not a bit better. It's all I'll ever need.

 
 

  Yeah, I agree. I mean, I can hear the difference between equipment with clearly different sounds, but those small things usually mentioned are not something I care about, fortunately for my wallet.
 
Oh ok! Cool. I have an old teac mini hi-fi system that plays CDs i've been using. The reason I want to start using CDs is because I want to hear that FLAC like quality sound when I plug my headphones in. And there's also a magic in putting the CD in and just listening. Not having everything at your fingertips.

Yup thats a blessing , couldnt agree more .  I dont believe somthing cannot measure like cabel, interconnect and other mambo jambo audiophile . 
Reviewer tends to say about woow , huge leap, big different etc .  Sometimes the difference so small so inaduible for us to hear .

 

[ProtegeManiac]

 
Now, my question is, is a $200 CD player going to output the same quality as a $50 CD player? Is there important differences I should care about, or are any of their differences just preference/convenience? 

 

Depends. Some good $200 CDPs from Teac and Shanling can be as good as a Fiio X3-II, if not better for one reason: they output a 2volt signal instead of the <1.5v on similarly priced DAPs.

 

The $50 CDP would have a 2volt signal, but I wouldn't bet on it being as good. The real questions though would be 1) how much worse is it vs a decent $200 CDP (you have to make a distinction between what Sony et al were selling for $150 back in the day to what Teac and Shanling were selling, and what Onkyo has now for just a little more) and 2) would you hear the difference. No one can answer the latter for you since you need to be the one listening, but in my case, over ten years ago my CDP went bust so I took the main unit from the shelf system in the kitchen. Sounded like a tin can compared to my 1990s Onkyo flagship CDP (although despite the warm midrange, it didn't have the bottom end "slam" of NAD, Rotel, and Marantz). Also imaging was pretty much non-existent. It had a subwoofer output though so it was fun hooking up my HT sub to it when we have drinking parties downstairs (parents didn't mind, they'd much rather we got plastered in a house than even a bar just outside the university).
 

  Lastly, would a small portable CD player output the same quality as one of these nicer models? 

 
Wouldn't bet on it. If it was one of the good ones from the pre-iPod, pre-MD era, maybe. If it's a new production $50 portable CDP, it wouldn't even have a line out. Again though the question is, "would you hear it." We can't answer that.
 
If you want to be safe, I'd be much more inclined to get an iPod 5g and a dock stand (to hold it upright) that has a lineout pass through (ie the dock has to have a 3.5mm socket). Output voltage is low but it's a portable player that's known for very clean output, and decent enough imaging.
 

 
I have an old TEAC home system that has a built in CD player (really small, and probably not audiophile quality). But not much else. 

 
I won't be surprised if it stacks up to a good $200 DAP as I described above, or even suck vs an iPod, but the question is, would you be able to tell?
 

 
P.S. I understand $200 on this forum is like the bare minimum most would recommend to spend, but I'm very frugal, especially when I'm  walking into new territory. 

 
Not really, there's the Fiio X1 for $99. For those who use computers or smartphones/tablets as a transport, DACs can be had for $150 or less.

 

[PETEBULL]

Just rip the damn CDs into FLAC and be done with it. If you feel masochistic and smug go for vinyl.

 

[Slaphead]

thats very long answer , thats why i try to keep it simple. 


1. CD player have laser to read the surface of the CD . If not stabilize enough there will be error in reading . CD audio dont have error control like file read in computer . They will use complex algoirthm to guess what is missing in their reading . Thats why there always different variety when read and write in CD . For example if you buy 2 identic CD Audio you will have slightly different data read. As long as the different no more than 5% factory will call it identic 

2. Different DAC beetween CDP will vary the quality of sound output. If you can't hear the difference beetween qood DAC and soso DAC , maybe because your headphone and speaker not revealing enough . Thats a good news for you

Actually they do - they use a system known as Reed-Solomon error correction. This will recreate the exact data in the event of an error. It's able to do this due the data redundancy built into the encoding. Only if the error is too large to be recoverable will the CD player then guess the data. CD manufacturing and CD mechanism manufacturing is mature these days, and an unrecoverable error is really only likely to be encountered with a damaged disk or a failing mechanism.

The main difference between CD players in terms of quality today is down to the inbuilt DAC and output electronics. Even real high end CD players are likely to be using a basic bought in commodity mechanism (albeit a good one).

If I was going to do a dedicated CD playing system today then I wouldn't buy a CD player. The problem today is a plain old CD player is a bit of a niche item and therefore costs a lot more than it really should, even at the low end of the market. So, I'd just buy a cheap DVD player (all DVD players these days support CD playback) with an optical or coaxial digital out (some even support USB out) and then feed that into a good DAC, most of which will buffer and reclock the data therefore eliminating any jitter. To me it makes sense to do it this way as the mechanism part, being mechanical, is prone to failure, so it's cheap and easy to replace.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

The main difference between CD players in terms of quality today is down to the inbuilt DAC and output electronics. Even real high end CD players are likely to be using a basic bought in commodity mechanism (albeit a good one).

 

Like the Arcam that had a computer DVD drive in it. That said, it wasn't just on the same mounting hardpoints as a computer drive bay either, just not necessarily the same kind of tank-like chassis and transport mounting as a Wadia. That heavy duty build of course is easily negated by solid state memory or using a music server with storage that isn't in the same room as the speakers.

 

On the other hand though I've never really seen any problems apart from carousel changers. I had the SCD-595 before, and when I opened it up, you can see the arm holding the spindle visibly vibrating, and the disc visibly wobbling. Putting blutack on that arm had a more drastic effect than when somebody convinced me to line a CDP's cover with some spare Dynamat.

 

[Bubblejuice]

 

 

Depends. Some good $200 CDPs from Teac and Shanling can be as good as a Fiio X3-II, if not better for one reason: they output a 2volt signal instead of the <1.5v on similarly priced DAPs.

 

The $50 CDP would have a 2volt signal, but I wouldn't bet on it being as good. The real questions though would be 1) how much worse is it vs a decent $200 CDP (you have to make a distinction between what Sony et al were selling for $150 back in the day to what Teac and Shanling were selling, and what Onkyo has now for just a little more) and 2) would you hear the difference. No one can answer the latter for you since you need to be the one listening, but in my case, over ten years ago my CDP went bust so I took the main unit from the shelf system in the kitchen. Sounded like a tin can compared to my 1990s Onkyo flagship CDP (although despite the warm midrange, it didn't have the bottom end "slam" of NAD, Rotel, and Marantz). Also imaging was pretty much non-existent. It had a subwoofer output though so it was fun hooking up my HT sub to it when we have drinking parties downstairs (parents didn't mind, they'd much rather we got plastered in a house than even a bar just outside the university).
 
 
Wouldn't bet on it. If it was one of the good ones from the pre-iPod, pre-MD era, maybe. If it's a new production $50 portable CDP, it wouldn't even have a line out. Again though the question is, "would you hear it." We can't answer that.
 
If you want to be safe, I'd be much more inclined to get an iPod 5g and a dock stand (to hold it upright) that has a lineout pass through (ie the dock has to have a 3.5mm socket). Output voltage is low but it's a portable player that's known for very clean output, and decent enough imaging.
 
 
I won't be surprised if it stacks up to a good $200 DAP as I described above, or even suck vs an iPod, but the question is, would you be able to tell?
 
 
Not really, there's the Fiio X1 for $99. For those who use computers or smartphones/tablets as a transport, DACs can be had for $150 or less.

I hear you. That makes sense. The Teac system I have is the TEAC MC-DX32i. I got it cheap at a yard sale a while back. I'm not the biggest fan of the speakers/subwoofer it has, but i'm mainly using it for my headphones.
 
I mean, I could just upload files to my iPhone since I use my Dragonfly Red as an external DAC for my phone. But I want to specifically use CDs as I find it hard to reliably find my favorite songs in FLAC/Lossless. So I'd much rather use CDs. I don't need anything high end. I just want to hear the music file transparently for all it is. If my current system is good enough, then that would be great. I just don't have anything to compare it to really. However, I have a massive Stanton c.502 Dual CD player (rack mounted) from like 2004. It was my fathers, but he gave it to me as he no longer uses it. It's too big to fit in my room where I usually listen to music, and has one or two knobs that are broken. I don't know if fixing that and finding a place for it would be worth the upgrade though.
 
For digital files though, my iPhone is enough for me. This is so I can hear better quality tracks than I can get from Spotify I guess.

 

[Bubblejuice]

  Just rip the damn CDs into FLAC and be done with it. If you feel masochistic and smug go for vinyl.

Haha, I agree, but there's something about listening to a CD that I love. Can't explain it, but it's worth having a separate listening station just for that. Plus, my computer wouldn't have enough memory to hold my music if it was all in FLAC format. I can't be bothered to upgrade my SSD right now as my 500gb are good enough for everything else. 
 
It's definitely a good option for on the go now that I'm starting to collect CDs.

 

[Bubblejuice]

Actually they do - they use a system known as Reed-Solomon error correction. This will recreate the exact data in the event of an error. It's able to do this due the data redundancy built into the encoding. Only if the error is too large to be recoverable will the CD player then guess the data. CD manufacturing and CD mechanism manufacturing is mature these days, and an unrecoverable error is really only likely to be encountered with a damaged disk or a failing mechanism.

The main difference between CD players in terms of quality today is down to the inbuilt DAC and output electronics. Even real high end CD players are likely to be using a basic bought in commodity mechanism (albeit a good one).

If I was going to do a dedicated CD playing system today then I wouldn't buy a CD player. The problem today is a plain old CD player is a bit of a niche item and therefore costs a lot more than it really should, even at the low end of the market. So, I'd just buy a cheap DVD player (all DVD players these days support CD playback) with an optical or coaxial digital out (some even support USB out) and then feed that into a good DAC, most of which will buffer and reclock the data therefore eliminating any jitter. To me it makes sense to do it this way as the mechanism part, being mechanical, is prone to failure, so it's cheap and easy to replace.

That makes sense. A system like that + something like a shiit Modi 2 would probably work well if that's the case. 
 
Would any CD playing device work as long as it has a digital out? Or are there things that I should look for specifically in CD players?