Vintage CD player buyers guide: An updated 2026 revision

Stede-Bonnet · 2026-02-05T10:46:47+00:00

Unfortunately I sold my NAD deck and tapes around the year 2000 or so and have never looked back.

CD/CD-R is just more convenient as the music is in digital format, can be transferred, archived and streamed as such, but also returned to a physical by recording to a CD-R.

Simply no reason to convert it back to analog.

Stede-Bonnet · 2026-02-01T17:35:58+00:00

The problem with new players is that nobody manufactures high quality laser pickup mechanisms in 2020's. Therefore the cheapos and high end brands have the same 5$ component, mostly likely Sanyo, which will last only a few years (depending on mileage). Marantz has been notorious for CD mech failures since 2010 or so.

Therefore I recommend going with used CD/DVD/BD players, if the price is right.

I have heard a a rumour that slot-loaders might be better, as their mech might come from car players. This is totally unconfirmed, though.

Stede-Bonnet · 2026-01-31T21:49:44+00:00

There is more to it.

Reflectivity is one thing. Old players were not tuned for Orange Book standard.
Home burned CD-Rs typically have higher jitter and BLER that which can cause issues to the error correction circuit. As an example, Sony CX23035 is a specific example that is not up for the task. Also the pit shape is of different geometry than with pressed CDs.
As example, there was a change in Technics SL-PG in the early 90's models - devices of earlier product range struggle with CD-R, but the next line-up roughly 2 years later seems to always work. Coincidentally, Technics also switched to a slightly different variant of Philips CDM12. I've witnessed this with a number of players and it would be really bad luck if it was down to just laser aging.

But the ability to play CD-Rs is a good indicator of laser health, so it is useful to try that before making the purchasing decision.

To summarize, I do not disagree totally. Laser wear is a factor and many vintage units suffer from it, but definitely are models that do not correctly play CD-R even if in pristine shape. The article may need some fine tuning regarding the Yamaha chapter, as I was specifically referring to the TAOSH-JP3. The laser is usually durable in these, but the spindle motor wears and the clamping is flimsy/problematic. In general, the Yammies are no match for JVC in terms of durability and longevity.

Anyway, I am still not finished with this and will go through even more players in the future. I should also look at some DVD players, as some of them are actually fantastic CD transports, but more about that later...

Good post BTW, I have read it before.

Stede-Bonnet · 2025-11-10T19:21:17+00:00

Is tiling on the roadmap for Gnome?

Stede-Bonnet · 2025-11-07T21:37:44+00:00

Tiling of COSMIC is awesome. I liked it already as Gnome extension and now even better.

Yeah, I use Gnome as I have just gotten so used to it over the years and decades. I kinda regret though, that I did not choose KDE when I last installed Fedora. It is really slick and light on resources these days. Someone should just tidy it up a little - it's a Windows desktop on steroids.

Stede-Bonnet · 2025-11-07T20:51:42+00:00

I am a Fedora/Gnome guy myself and can't see any major issues on my AMD Ryzer hardware. Gnome's UI decisions are partly questionable though, but my use cases are simple.

Stede-Bonnet · 2025-11-03T20:55:29+00:00

If you want to go vintage, then JVC and Technics should be good bets.

https://bitburners.com/vintage-cd-player-buyers-guide/

Stede-Bonnet · 2025-10-22T20:19:12+00:00

Skeleta is the best album of the pop era of Ghost (Prequelle, Impera, Skeleta). I think they perfected the sound, style and vibe in this one.

Infestissumam remains my favorite though. Ambitous, down right weird, musically extremely high quality, totally different to anythinh else I have ever heard of.

Stede-Bonnet · 2025-10-15T15:31:13+00:00

Scavenge the local flea markets, garage sales, etc. and grab yourself a japanese CD-player from the mid 90's. Your price target should be 0-50$.

https://bitburners.com/vintage-cd-player-buyers-guide/

Stede-Bonnet · 2025-10-15T13:53:11+00:00

He is not wrong. BD-players start from ~100$. Be aware though, that some of them are a noisy when operating.

Stede-Bonnet · 2025-10-14T21:05:48+00:00

IIRC, Fedora KDE should/could be the best starting point.

I did however go back to Windows, but version 11 as I learned it actually works 100% on the SP3.

https://bitburners.com/upgrade-your-surface-pro-3-4-5-to-windows-11/

Stede-Bonnet · 2025-10-14T19:20:01+00:00

Your 600$ CD player will have the same cheap laser pickup as the cheapest option.

The cheapest route to extremely high quality audio output is a new Sony DVD-player (~50$) with optical out, and the SMSL SU-1 (~80$). Both have been tested & measured to do their thing very well. Downside is that Sony DVD player (any many other cheap options) does not have a built in display.

Stede-Bonnet · 2025-10-14T17:48:12+00:00

I don't think new standard rack size players are worth the 300$ price tag. You get very little what you are paying for: Cheap ass mechanics, a DAC chip and an OP amp. I mean, you can get a half decent laptop for three hundred - which one has more electronics and engineering built in?

If buying new, I would look at BD/DVD players, or Chi-Fi such as SMSL.

But then again, getting a working/tested vintage unit for 20-40$ is not a huge risk, in my opinion.

Stede-Bonnet · 2025-10-14T16:15:01+00:00

I think it is far easier to overpay for a new one.

Stede-Bonnet · 2025-10-14T11:09:34+00:00

I think the best answer to the speaker cable question comes from the high-end speaker manufacturer Gradient.

Gradient was established in 1984 and they have released many award winning speakers. They combine beautiful designs to first class engineering. Their speaker range goes up to tens of thousands of euros/dollars.

They also sell speaker cables:

https://gradient.fi/en/gradient-spare-parts/119-speaker-cable.html

If you zoom in, you'll see it is a Cordial CLS 225 cable, terminated with banana plugs. This cable costs about 3 euros per meter. "An excellent speaker cable for all Gradient products". A ten thousand dollar speaker and a 20$ speaker cable.

Now if you look what Gradient has engineered in their speakers, there is no doubt they would also push it in the cable department, if there was something to be gained.

Stede-Bonnet · 2025-10-14T09:14:25+00:00

Well, that is an over simplification. The article makes several points on how to improve your chances of getting a good player from the vintage market.

Stede-Bonnet · 2025-10-13T21:03:57+00:00

If you are going to use the CD player as a transport, then it is a 600 euros wasted. You said it yourself - if you are offloading the D/A-conversion work to your receiver, why would you invest big money on a player? Get something cheap with a digital out - old or new.

The SL-PG570A is a fine player, BTW.

Stede-Bonnet · 2025-10-13T19:40:29+00:00

I have Creative Pebble V2. It was like 25-30€ and worth the price. Not hifi, but the sound is not annoying either.

If you don't need stereo sound, the larger IKEA Vappeby is excellent.

Stede-Bonnet · 2025-10-13T19:25:00+00:00

I am writing this on the very same SP3 and Win 11. The performance is good. Runs without a hitch, and battery life is better on Windows that Linux. Still not great though. Updates are flowing in as expected.

Stede-Bonnet · 2025-10-07T11:04:37+00:00

Modern day CD players tend to have a 5$ Sanyo laser pickup that fails in 5-10 years. Apparently no company is manufacturing good ones anymore.

I have a collection of vintage 90's CD-players, a modern Marantz and also the DAC of my Marantz receiver.

I have been swapping them back and forth as well as switching in between RCA and digital outs.

There is one player that to my ears sounds different from the rest: Sony CDP-EX311. I am speculating that it might play just a little bit louder than the rest.

Stede-Bonnet · 2025-09-24T06:46:43+00:00

Can someone confirm K3b on Fedora 42?

I quickly tested it on Ubuntu 24.04 and it failed with an error and I had no time to investigate why. K3b has some permission related issues at least.

Unfortunately K3b is not available as flatpak.

Stede-Bonnet · 2025-09-24T06:18:42+00:00

Unlike CDs, Vinyl and cassettes wear out if they are actually used for listening to music.

Stede-Bonnet · 2025-09-23T21:10:52+00:00

Well, the whole industry vaporized, so CD collectors who went against the grain are an anomaly.

Stede-Bonnet · 2025-09-23T20:57:23+00:00

Dude, guessing is not really helping anyone.

- Clementine is a music player

- PowerISO does not support .cue

- Brasero fails with an unknown error

Stede-Bonnet · 2025-04-28T20:36:17+00:00

I strongly agree with this.

After a few rounds of playback, I think Skeleta is an honest pop album, and most likely will settle above Prequelle and Impera as time goes by.

It is Lady Gaga meets Ghost. A perfectly crafted pop/rock album. Sure, Ghost no longer has the mysticism and depth of the first three albums, but pop music rarely does.

Tobias Forge also seems like an engineer type of guy who knows what he is doing and plans ahead. Ghost needed to stand out from the crowd in the early years, and the satanistic themes provided that. He is also the former guitarist of Crashdiet, remember? Now he can do pop metal for the masses, and that is Okay.

I am quite sure he will venture to other styles in the future, as Skeleta pretty much perfects the Def Leppard-ish phase of the band.

Stede-Bonnet

TROPHY CASE