Vintage CD Player?

[thekid]

Was not sure where to post this since I find it hard to think of a CD player as possibly vintage equipment but anyway........

Since scoring those (IMO) rather sweet RTR speakers I have become a bit of a thrift store addict when looking for electronics. It really is kind of amazing what I am seeing out there, so while I am looking for a vintage receiver I noticed that there are a lot of CD players out there. My guess is people when they got their DVD players just got rid of their CD players. So my question is for the 2 channel set-up I am building does anyone see any value with going with a older CD player and if so what brand/model would you recommend? Thanks!

[Feanor]

Was not sure where to post this since I find it hard to think of a CD player as possibly vintage equipment but anyway........

Since scoring those (IMO) rather sweet RTR speakers I have become a bit of a thrift store addict when looking for electronics. It really is kind of amazing what I am seeing out there, so while I am looking for a vintage receiver I noticed that there are a lot of CD players out there. My guess is people when they got their DVD players just got rid of their CD players. So my question is for the 2 channel set-up I am building does anyone see any value with going with a older CD player and if so what brand/model would you recommend? Thanks!

For me true vintage ends about 1980, a couple of years before the introduction of CD. In my view "vintage" isn't just old, either. There are a couple of things for me:

In the early '80s integrated circuits began to replace discrete components., The practical aspect is that old integrate circuits aren't available, so the components are unrepairable.
The second is mostly esthetic. I prefer the look of flip switches to push buttons, (whether mechanical or electrical), and I prefer rotary knobs to sliders, buttons, etc., that became all too prevalent in the '80s. The old radio tuning dials have a lot of appeal for me over LEDs; (lots of people still insist that analog tuning works better).But getting back to CDPs, I still have my Technics SL-PS70 for 1991. It has a plethora of control features that simply aren't found on today's players; (OK ... people rarely use these features). Soundwise, this player (with 1-bit and Technics proprietary "MASH" technology), was a huge improvement in sound over the 1st generation players, such as my earlier Yamaha CD2 circa 1985. However today's decent quality players are a big advance again over the early '90s era. I have recently used my Technics as a transport and it works well that way.
...
http://ca.geocities.com/w_d_bailey/System07Jan-TechnicsCD.jpg

[dingus]

i would only consider vintage players with digital output, that way it can be used as a transport and will give you a huge increase in sound quality over using it as a stand-alone player.

[Woochifer]

As Feanor pointed out, people seek out vintage components because they have a certain level of quality and tweakability. CD players are different in that they don't use a lot of user replaceable components, and the digital circuitry is much inferior to what's commonly used today (very different from amps or receivers that might have been built with higher spec discrete components).

As with most digital components, using vintage electronics is nice for the nostalgia, but it's probably not something you'd want to use everyday. For example, who still does any productive work on an original IBM PC or Macintosh 128k? The CD format was actually created around the same time as those aforementioned PCs!

Sure, it might be cool to acquire an original Sony CDP-101 for the historical value. But, I doubt you'd want to listen to it for too long. That particular player had a harsh grating sound to it, was vulnerable to disc errors partly because the circuitry did no oversampling, and the unit used an analog brickwall filter that introduced audible ringing into the signal path.

The $4,000 Meridian CD players from the mid-80s were viewed as state-of-the-art at that time, but by the early-90s, the new generation of 1-bit bitstream players IMO surpassed the Meridian's audio quality. More recently, the CD playback on my Sony CD/SACD changer with its Burr-Brown DSD-1791 DAC has been a noticeable improvement over my old bitstream CD player. Unlike with a lot of analog components like amps and turntables where you can obtain fine sounding vintage gear, I don't think that digital components work that way. Aside from the fact that CD players will at some point wear out (and replacement components for something like the laser or the transport might be difficult, if not impossible, to obtain), old CD players don't command much value simply because newer models typically sound better.

[basite]

some vintage cd players are still good today, I like the 'old' sony's though...

http://thevintageknob.org/SONY/sonyes/sonyES-main.html

pick anything from off the cdp-557esd...

or even more vintage: a meridian 206 or 208... they're really good players, and can be had for 'not that much money', but be careful, the transport will eventually die (and it will) and replacements are really hard to find (and really expensive too, the 206 uses a Philips CDM-1pro, which will cost you around $900, just for the transport...

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

[thekid]

Thanks to all who have replied so far. I thought it was a bit of stretch in considering an older CD player. BTW Feanor one of the brands I did see out there was a TEAC but I am not sure it was the same model as yours. I am going out thrifting tomorrow so I will keep you all informed if I come up with anything interesting.