[davenrk]

Are there any vintage cd players or dacs that were considered TOP , that could be insered in top system nowadaysm too?
CDs 16/44 only, no music from pc

for example:
Mark levinson 30.6
Mark levinson 35
Mark levinson 390S
Sonic Frontiers Processor 3
EAD PRO 9000
Spectral SDR 4000

others?

[SteveFord]

Good question.
I asked a similar question on another forum and was steered away from the older CD players/DACs as time marches on.
You also have to figure in age-related reliability issues so I went with newer stuff.

[mix4fix]

Wouldn't it depend on how much the deal is versus the life it had?

[Letitroll98]

I went the opposite way suggested by our dear member Elizabeth and bought a beast of a old universal JVC player and attached a modern DAC.  The player was $5 at a thrift store, the remote was I think $10 or $15 on eBay.  The DAC can be as rich as you want to go.  When the drive dies, as they all do eventually, toss the player and get a new one.

Every high end CD player I've owned had the drive die sooner or later.  Back in the day you could get them repaired, now most are unobtainable in regards to vintage units.  Which is why you don't see a lot of them for sale today and why even a working unit is a crap shoot.  Since the models you suggest, all fine products in their day and likely still sound great, were TOTL the prices I've seen still remain fairly high.  So it's how much you're willing to risk owning a door stop.  For me that's $50, for you if could be $500, but I'd imagine the sound quality on Redbook remains very good.

[Phil A]

I agree that DAC technology has had many leaps in performance and it's best if one is attached to disc playback to use a more modern DAC and a transport.  Many, if not most, of the vintage CD players were built with drives which are no longer available.

[Yog Sothoth]

I'm very happy with my McIntosh MCD7007 that I bought a couple of years ago.  It sounds great on its own, and even better through my Gustard X16 DAC.

It is very solidly built, even if the tray needs a little help ejecting sometimes. 

My experience has been that the common thing that fails in these older units (although certainly not the only thing!) is the laser itself, and replacements are still available for many of them.  In fact, I have spare lasers for both the MCD7007 and a Sony CDP-x3000 for when their day comes (or I sell the Sony).

A counter example is that I once had the Sony CDP-X5000 and the unobtainable laser failed in it, and it was then a doorstop.

[Elizabeth]

The real problem of many old CD players is capacitors. IMO most so called laser fails are really just some capacitor in the circuit failed.
The problem is, you need the schematic to fix those little under $1 parts.   

[Yog Sothoth]

The real problem of many old CD players is capacitors. IMO most so called laser fails are really just some capacitor in the circuit failed.
The problem is, you need the schematic to fix those little under $1 parts.   

Interesting.  That may well be.  The only capacitors I have ever actually identified as being bad have been filter caps in power supplies; but one person's experience may not be representative of all the failures!

[RDavidson]

The real problem of many old CD players is capacitors. IMO most so called laser fails are really just some capacitor in the circuit failed.
The problem is, you need the schematic to fix those little under $1 parts.   

Yep. I have an old Denon 1650AR I use as a transport. It definitely needs caps replaced. It’s old and has never been worked on, that I know of (bought used 10 years ago). If I try to play a disc from a cold start, it will skip like crazy, which many would assume is a laser going bad. However, if I let it sit and warm up for an hour or two it’ll play discs just fine. Pretty amazing reliability for a 20+ year old disc spinner. It’s easy to understand why old Denons have a following. Now…the tricky part may be finding someone willing to fix it.

[WGH]

Interesting.  That may well be.  The only capacitors I have ever actually identified as being bad have been filter caps in power supplies; but one person's experience may not be representative of all the failures!

A lot more than one person has experienced failed capacitors in electronics. The worldwide problem started in 2003. The caps in my Asus motherboard failed in 2011. An old CD player may or may not have the problematic caps.

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=164876.msg1753125#msg1753125

[Yog Sothoth]

A lot more than one person has experienced failed capacitors in electronics. The worldwide problem started in 2003. The caps in my Asus motherboard failed in 2011. An old CD player may or may not have the problematic caps.

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=164876.msg1753125#msg1753125

Sorry, I wasn't clear.  I wasn't suggesting the OP was the only person to experience it; I was suggesting that I have only experienced filter cap failures and that my sole experience is not representative.

[ThePriest]

While not in the same price range as Mark Levinson or McIntosch, I acquired a Philips CD880 earlier this year.
Excellent transport with the CDM1 mechanism. I have not tried the analogue output.

/The Priest

[bregez]

Just a note that most laser diodes output power will degrade with age. 
Many transports will have an on board PC mount trimmer potentiometer that can be used to increase the power to the diode.  In many cases a slight increase in voltage will extend the useful life of the diode.

A budget transport that performs very well is the PS1
https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/sony-playstation-1-audiophile-cd-player
 

[SteveFord]

The OP appears to have vanished but you might want to contact the manufacturer and ask about the possibility of servicing the unit.
How much is a doorstop worth to you?

[davenrk]

last saturday I matched my YBA CD2 classic cd player (was retail 7.000 euro?) with the combination YBA as transport + Topping D90 as a dac
well, the YBA CD2 used as a cd player really ridiculed the latter compination

I know that d90 is not an expensive dac, but it's new, it has "perfect measures"...
so I was expecting a lot more from it

my belief is that you have to spend a lot of money in modern dacs to obtain the same level of the cd players (of course it has to be a good player)

[SteveFord]

The older stuff can sound really good.
I recently compared a Pacific Valve DAC Sixty Two against the most recent Rega Apollo and the Pacific Valve was the clear winner.
The Pacific Valve was also only around $100 used so if it fails I'm not out very much.

[veloceleste]

I’ve been using a 20 year old Pioneer Elite DV37 DVD player as a cd transport since 2015 (and as a a stand alone cd/dvd player before that) and it has been flawless. It gets used a couple of hours a day almost every day. I see no reason to replace it until it stops working.

[krustykat]

I had a couple thousand cds in my storage unit for years, and then I had to clean out my storage unit when I moved to a new home.  Not wanting to rent another storage unit, I decided to put my CDs into my new music room for storage.  Since they were so physically close to my system, I decided that I should be able to play them again.  My choice to play the CDs was an Audiolab 6000CDT cd player.   It has only digital out (no analog at all!) and fed directly into my DAC (Vinnie Rossie 2.0 DAC) without any problems.  I'm quite happy with this solution and fortunately it was quite inexpensive. I was able to by the 6000CDP for $399USD.  Prices vary quite abit for this unit on Amazon and eBay, so your experience may vary.  While I don't use it too often, it works out well when i want to listen to a disk without having to rip it.  Since this unit doesn't have an analog output, that probably saves a few dollars on the final price.