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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
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
doug99
288 posts
 
The Audio Matiere Tube CD Player was really good. It was designed by the same person, who designed the Audio Aero Tube CD Player. Also, the Cal Tempest 3 was very good.
mejames
986 posts
 
the California audio lab player mentioned above isn't in the same universe[much less the same league]as the Audio Aero Capitol
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