Recommended Budget Components

[Carl Reid]

It’s almost a new year and it seems like a good time to recommend the best budget components you’ve encountered in your quest for Audio Nirvana.

“Budget” is very subjective… so I won’t impose any limits in terms of dollar amounts…

But I will try and define a budget component as being: An item that costs significantly less than other comparable items but offers a similar/better level of performance.


So my top pick is:

The Marantz 5001 CD player

Cost: $330 Canadian (so probably a little less than $300US)…

This one was a shocker for me…. I previously owned a NAD C521Bee CD player costing around $500 CDN… which I sold a few weeks ago, partially because I found little difference in sound quality between it and my MAC sound card…

So when I finally decided to get a new CD player, I figured I would have to get at least a $1000 player to hear any significant improvement in sound quality… so I was checking out Rotel and Arcam and my heart was set on a Rotel … though my wallet, due to Christmas expenditures, was not at all thrilled at the price of the Rotel….

Anyway, I went to audition some Monitor Audio Gold RG6 Speakers and asked the sales guy what CD players he recommended in the $1K price range… of which he Said Marantz 8001 (interestingly he didn’t fancy the Rega Apollo that he also had for sale in the store)… So I went home and checked the stats for the Marantz online… and saw that it was a SACD player as well… and that they had a CD Player with the same DAC for a quarter of the price (with no SACD playback and an inferior build quality of course)… So anyway, I figured what the hell…. And took the plunge… $300 for an ‘audiophile’ CD player… I had little to lose… worse case it would sound no worse than my MAC…

So I took the little critter home and plugged it into my Rotel Pre-amp and tossed on some Jackson 5…. DAMN! The little monster sounded better than the NAD…. The vocals were clearer and the bass was more defined… even on some of my more questionable CDs, the drums finally sounded like drums and not just low frequency noise….

So anyway, let’s just say that I’m happy with this budget purchase… so I’ll put this little Gem at the top of my list of Highly Recommended Budget Components….


So what’s your pick?