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"tube" cd players?

Hiya, who makes a good tube cd player, and how would you compare them to "regular" cd's? I have a Classe ca300 amp and classe cp50 pre and am looking at getting a cd player of equal quality. I have heard so much hoopla about the player, don't know which way is up. I have BW N804 speakers, Cardas and HT pro-silway xlr interconnects. Been using a cheap Technics cd player. I friend of mine recently purchased an expensive player to his relatively high end equipment, and said it didn't sound any different than his cheap Marantz?
joeb
joeb
jtinn
1,123 posts
 
I am a dealer for Audio Aero and have carried many other brands. They make the finest tube CD players that I have heard. The differences between the top selling cd players and the Audio Aero are clear... most sound like hifi while the Audio Aero sounds like music. I have taken in dCS, Levinson Reference, Wadia Reference and quite a few other digital company's product in trade and my customers could not be happier with their choice.

There is currently a huge back log on the Audio Aero Capitole. The product is in very high demand for a great reason... they are terrific.

Another tube dac which is pretty good is the Audio Logic.
hawaiikid
107 posts
 
The BAT VK5SE is an excellent cdp that is very expensive at retail. You can buy one used for around $2,700. Another good cdp is the Metronome I or II. You can buy a used Metronome I for around $1,200 or a used Metronome II for roughly $2,000.
mejames
986 posts
 
Audio Aero Capitol is one of the best if not the best tube CD player available.
psychicanimal
1,738 posts
 
Ah! Tjoeb: made in Netherlads out of a Marantz chassis.
egoss
124 posts
 
Hi Joeb-
The best sounding tube CD player I've ever heard was a Cal Audio Labs Tempest II SE. It was manufactured in 1989-1990. 18 Bit O/S Burr-Brown DACs and a Philips CD-4 drive mechanism - my favotite drawer of all time. It's kinda hard to find one used, but if you see one for less than $700-800 or so, I'd grab it as long as you could hear it. They were $4000 new in 1989 (gasp!), but were commonly considered one of the best ever made. It's a large (very!) two-box unit, with the power supply in one chassis and the drawer & electronics in another. Caution - it does not have digital out, so you can't use it as a transport - but why would you want to? I owned one for years, and heard one just a few weeks ago, and it's very musical. Non-fatiguing digital - what a concept! BTW, Cal Audio Labs still supports service on that model - they're actually still proud of it!
Good luck,
Ed
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