[faive]

Hello. I want to buy a PCDP. After many hours of searching in the Internet, and finding out how great and incredible this Radio Shack CD-3400 was, I wanted to get a similar/better PCDP. To my dismay it seems that after all this years there isnt a better thing than this discontinued 1994 model!

So, I read that nowadays the second best thing are the Panasonic PCDP´s.

I need the PCDP just to have it in my bed table so I can listen to it at night and then not awake my wife and neighbors. Since I dont plan to travel with this PCDP obviously I would like to use the AC adaptor with it.

I dont care for skip protection, thin or ultraslim sizes or super saving energy. I just want the BEST SOUNDING UNIT of all.

Oh, I forgot, I would really like the remote control if possible.

The problem is that right now there is this Panasonic 790, the 590 and the 490.

The 490 is $50, the 590 is $100 and the 790 is $160. The 790 has some EQ sound THE 490 does not have.

Do you know if this 3 systems sound all the same. Is the difference in price just for stuff like (ultra thin, metallice case, extra long batteries) or for a difference in sound?

Since I wont move my PCDP I wouldnt want to pay $160 for a unit that would sound THE SAME as a unit of $50.

Any suggestions, recomendations? Thanks!.

PS. Have anyone used this new systems (790, 590 or 490) and compare the sound with the 470 and 570 the site of headphone.com/headroom.com advise?

Thanks again!

 

[kin3tix]

if you're looking for a great sounding (both head and line out) stationary pcdp source, it doesn't get any better than the high end old school sony pcdps (i.e. d-303, d-555, d-25s, etc.).

 

[faive]

Thank you for your suggestion. But I would like to buy a BRAND NEW ONE.

Any suggestions?

 

[jlo mein]

so you aren't going to move this?

have you considered buying just a home cd source player instead?

 

[Eagle_Driver]

jlo mein, that bed table where the original thread-starter may be too small to hold a full-sized CD player. Thus, full-sized home CDPs are out of the question.

 

[faive]

Well, I have a audio system in my home. Just wanted to have a small cd player that I could put, e.g. in my bed table. Yes, if I find a really small cd player wich I could use headphones with and sound better than a portable cd player, would be great too!

Any suggestions?

 

[faive]

Eagle-Driver, actually I would be very interested in hearing your comments about my answer since you already have heard a 790 and hear the named 470 and 570.

What do you think?

Have you heard too the 590 or 490?

 

[Jodiuh]

Faive,

I too am in the market for a new pdcp. Do you mind telling me where you found those panasonic models at? Specifically the 490.

Jod

I thought I read "470"...oops. But how's the sound quality compared to the old panasonics?

 

[00940]

Quote:

Originally posted by faive Hello. I want to buy a PCDP. After many hours of searching in the Internet, and finding out how great and incredible this Radio Shack CD-3400 was, I wanted to get a similar/better PCDP. To my dismay it seems that after all this years there isnt a better thing than this discontinued 1994 model!

a general feeling in this forum seems to be "the newest, the worst"

Quote:

I need the PCDP just to have it in my bed table so I can listen to it at night and then not awake my wife and neighbors. Since I dont plan to travel with this PCDP obviously I would like to use the AC adaptor with it. I dont care for skip protection, thin or ultraslim sizes or super saving energy. I just want the BEST SOUNDING UNIT of all.

All pcdp's have these features now and you pay for it, which means there is less money for the other components...

I'd like to second Kinetix. What you describe is exactly a good old pcdp. I know you want it brand new, but do you know that you can get d25s never used on ebay from silicon salvage ? They are sold at 45$ and you need to buy a ac adapter (15$ at radio shack). They come in the original package and are in perfect state. And if you had a problem, there is a 30days warranty to return it.

There are plenty of advantages : you will have the better sound out of a pcdp, there are more robust (metal and not plastic), you won't need an amp to get the best of any common headphones. If you have a budget of 150$ to put in this system, you can afford the sony d25s + a sony mdr-V6 or a senn hd497 for example and you will have a better sound that everything you plan now for your money.

just have a look there : http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showt...&threadid=4784

 

[Eagle_Driver]

My CT790 sounds the best of this year's crop of current-model PCDPs. (Cheaper Panasonic models in the same line sound a bit grainy and woolly in comparison to my CT790.) Just don't expect a great quantity of good-quality sound (read: loud and good both at once) like you would often get from an older-model PCDP.

 

[faive]

Message to everybody:

Thank you much for your answers. Im totally pissed off and still cant believe that in PCDP technology, as time passes by the techonology is made to make the sound worst. You know who are to blame? The mainstream consumers. Stupid people who nowadays buy a PCDP just because is the "tiniest of the world" or because it has the "coolest colors".

When will HIFI companies like NAD, NAKAMICHI, DENON to name a few will make a PCDP for audiophiles????


Message to Jodiuh:

I saw the CT790 and the CT490 at amazon.com, of course.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...947577-4474416

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...947577-4474416

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Quote:

Originally posted by faive Im totally pissed off and still cant believe that in PCDP technology, as time passes by the techonology is made to make the sound worst. You know who are to blame? The mainstream consumers. Stupid people who nowadays buy a PCDP just because is the "tiniest of the world" or because it has the "coolest colors". When will HIFI companies like NAD, NAKAMICHI, DENON to name a few will make a PCDP for audiophiles????

Half-truth. You also forgot to mention that cost-cutting and the desire for super-long battery life are also factors in the weakening of the sound from PCDPs. If PCDP manufacturers had designed their units to sound great AND have all of the cool features (such as "skip-proof" anti-skip) and the longest battery life and the coolest colors, the price of even the cheapest PCDP would have been driven up so astronomically that the PCDP market would simply die off, because nobody would have been willing to pay so much $$$ for superior performance and looks. And the size and weight of a PCDP in that case would also increase to practically "non-transportable" levels (who wants to carry something that weighs more than 25 pounds including the batteries that weigh 20 pounds that such "PCDP"s require?). And sadly, we see this sound-worsening trend not only applying to portables, but also extending to even consumer-level full-sized home components as well. What the ****** are those consumer electronics makers doing, giving us $200 surround-sound receivers that deliver a lot of total watts but at a cost of a restricted total frequency response bandwidth (or a restricted frequency-response bandwidth in stereo mode) and relatively high distortion? (No wonder why we are increasingly seeing rated bandwidth of 80~16,000 Hz instead of 20~20,000 Hz and rated distortion figures of "no more than 1% THD" instead of "less than 0.08% THD" in even mid-priced consumer-level receivers.) And also, we consumers are getting $150 multi-disc jukeboxes that can sound like crappy 128kbps MP3's and are unreliable!

As for the question about high-end companies, none of them are interested at all in making portables, for the very same reasons as what I've described in the first paragraph. Denon did make a PCDP, but it was more a "transportable" than a truly portable unit.

 

[Jodiuh]

Thank you Faive.

I think I'm going to search the pawn shops for a month or so though. *feeling lucky*

Jod

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jodiuh I think I'm going to search the pawn shops for a month or so though. *feeling lucky*

I found my first old Sony that way (D-12), and it's a better player than my Panny CT 470 IMO. The line out is simply cleaner. I finally broke down and bought a D-303. If there's a better portable out there, I don't want to know about it...wait a minute, this is payday... go ahead and tell me