Chinese CD players vs. Arcam

My 73T has a sticker on the back of the unit stating Manufactured in PRC which I take as Peoples Republic of China. A friend bought an 82 which clearly is marked Made in the UK. I have had my 73 for a couple of weeks and find it to be a nice sounding player. I prefer it to the Cambridge 640 and Jolida JD100. The one thing that I do not like and I find this on nearly all the units I have looked at recently is the really flimsy drawer and general plasticky construction. The Cambridge and Jolida have nicer casework than the Arcam. The transport on the Cambridge I had was noisy and the tranport on the Jolida was the typical run of the mill Phillips. Under the hood these players all had construction with robust power supplies, dampned chassis, good parts quality, the stuff that counts but I think for the increased cost the transports should be of a better quality than your basic $60 Best Buy unit.

Lant .. thanks. Sorry to hear Arcam has sold out. One of the last hold-outs of UK hifi manufacturing. Naim and Cyrus still manufacture electronics in the UK.

Lant5

so are you totally happy with your 73t? would you recommend it in it's price range? any specific characteristics it might have vs other players (soundwise)?

I'm not totally happy with the 73T. I think the top end could be better, cymbals don't seem to have as much of the impact and bronze tone to them as they should. Bottom end seems a little lacking. I do like the mids however and soundstaging is solid, wide, and decent depth. I think some more time and experimentation with cables might get me to give it a unqualified thumbs up. I did try the 82, and it is a better player with more control and energy at the frequency extremes, a smoother operating transport but for the price difference I didn't feel that it really distanced itself from the 73.

I heard the Eastern Electric MiniMax in the Audio Zone Amp at CES and I have to say I was stunned at how good the sound was; excellent resolution and focus. The build was solid, the finish up to the standard of other made-in-Asia-western players. My bet is some this could be attributable to the Audio Zone Amp. I did not ask whether Audio Zone had put NOS tubes in the MiniMax or not, since it has a slot in the back panel for 2 6DJ8/ECC88/6922 type tubes.