DVD player that plays Cd's well?

K

Kart

Guest
I'm looking for a DVD player that will play CD's at a reasonable quality (with a home cinema amp and speaker system).
My budget is £100 to £130.
Any suggestions?
 
I'm sorry to say this but I think you'll struggle to find a machine remotely close to that price that plays CDs well. It all depends on what sort of playback quality you are looking for but my normal recommendation as a bare minimum for a machine that plays CDs well would be the Arcam DV78 at £700.

Within your budget I would consider the Pioneer DV-575 which is a decent DVD player and has a stab at playing CDs. I would advise visiting you local dealer and booking a demonstration on order for you to listen to a few machines and make your own mind up about how good at CDs it needs to be.
 
I don't think you'll find a better cd playing dvd player for the money - and even for quite a bit more - than the Limt DVD900SE.
 
Another vote for the Limit. Seems to pull out a remarkable amount of sound detail from cds. Very pleased with mine. Play were selling it for £79.99. Their is also a 800SE model with less features but still has the improved sound. In fact the 800SE was well reviewed in What Hifi.
 
And another vote for the Limit DVDA900se, fantastic sounding CD player that also plays DVD's. And at £80 it's a steal.
 
amraam said:
Shoot me if I am as stupid as this sounds, but dont all DVD players play CDs?
Yes they do but the poster was asking which player's play CD's well.

Back on topic. How about a Yamaha S550? Does CD upsampling up to 4 times as high a quality as the original disc (Apparently). Should be able to pick one up for £100. Don't pay extra for a MR model as there's an easy remote hack for this model.
 
ADV-M71 is a good unit. It is a bit more expensive that your budget, but when we tested different units this one blew my proverbial socks off.

Not perhaps for the audio purest but it is damned load - a spinal tap "11"
 
Crustyloafer said:
I'm sorry to say this but I think you'll struggle to find a machine remotely close to that price that plays CDs well. It all depends on what sort of playback quality you are looking for but my normal recommendation as a bare minimum for a machine that plays CDs well would be the Arcam DV78 at £700.

Within your budget I would consider the Pioneer DV-575 which is a decent DVD player and has a stab at playing CDs. I would advise visiting you local dealer and booking a demonstration on order for you to listen to a few machines and make your own mind up about how good at CDs it needs to be.

I've recently bought a Pio 575 and due to lack of space am currently using it as my CD, replacing a Cambridge Audio CD4 (150 quid about 10 yrs ago so not high end) and don't rate it too highly (although I don't think any budget DVDs are much good at this).

It seems to cope most of the time, although it's a bit forward for my taste. However occasionally it just gets completely lost and also sounds like it's clipping some of the bass. I've got a Belle and Sebastian EP which sounds fine until a section with a trumpet and then it's just nasty, so bad I have to skip the track.

I choose the 575 because I was hoping SACD and DVD-A support meant the CD playback would atleast be useable, but as soon as I've got room the CD4 is going back in.

Adding a cheap or 2nd hand CD player would be a better choice I think
 
I tried to use my Sony NS900 to play CD's for a while. Even at £385, I ended up getting a £100 CD player that still played CD's better.
 
nwgarratt said:
I tried to use my Sony NS900 to play CD's for a while. Even at £385, I ended up getting a £100 CD player that still played CD's better.

Again this is only serving to highlight my point that to play CDs well you will need to look at the Arcam DV78 and above in the range.

Those who are recommending the Limit DVD900SE do so without any apparent appreciation of what a CD player should really sound like.
 
Yes, it will blow budget cd players away, But given the posters budget of £100-130 and the fact the poster only mentioned a DVD player that plays CDs at reasonable quality, why would the Arcam at £700 be a sensible option?

As another Limit 900se owner i'd also say at that price point(£80) the dvd quality and the cd quality are very good.
 
Thanks for all your recommendations.
I will look into everyones suggestions.

I have been looking at the Marantz DV4400 and the Denon DVD 1710, so if anyone has played CDs on either of these I would appreciate your comments.
( I chose these to match Marantz or Denon AV amps, and speaker systems which I also intend to buy to make a complete system).

The Limit DVD sounds like its worth a look at. Does anyone know if they also make AV amps to match?

I realise I'm almost asking the impossible, so thanks for taking me seriously. I just want to be sure I get the best within my price range.
 
Crustyloafer said:
Again this is only serving to highlight my point that to play CDs well you will need to look at the Arcam DV78 and above in the range.

Those who are recommending the Limit DVD900SE do so without any apparent appreciation of what a CD player should really sound like.

You may have a point about the Limit as I've never really owned a high end cd player or heard a Arcam playing cds. However I can make the comparision with other dvd players at budget to midrange prices and the Limit does perform very well and noticably much better. Compared to the average dvd player at any where near the price it is definitely better. Compared to an Arcam or dedicated cd player then perhaps not. What Hifi were suitably impressed with the Limit 800SE anyway so theres something in Cyrus's tuning of these players. I doubt if they would want to put their name to something that wasn't very good and I don't think Limit would spend the time modifying them with improved psu circuitry and other tweaks for no reason at all.
 
I don't know if the Cambridge 540D falls within your budget on your side of the pond, but I bought it to be my dedicated CD player. I found it outperformed its brethren, the 540C in a head to head audition with two commercially made copies of the same CD. In fact, I think it outperforms my twice as costly universal player with CDs. I generally concur that dedicated CD players outperform DVD/CD players (even if the CD only player costs a lot less) but in this case, the 540D seems to be the exception that proves the rule. The sales rep where I bought the 540D was floored when I did the comparo (he had no way of knowing which player was which on playback). The players cost the same, so he had no particular agenda there. Since then, three other shops that carry the Cambridge gear that I've visited have told me (before I tell them I own one) they often sell a 540D as a stand-alone CD player. Is it in the same league as a 1000$ Arcam? No. But after my extensive auditions in and above my price range, I would submit that you have to spend at least 1000$ to get a noticeable improvement over my 540D (ymmv, of course).
 
Kart said:
Thanks for all your recommendations.
I will look into everyones suggestions.

I have been looking at the Marantz DV4400 and the Denon DVD 1710, so if anyone has played CDs on either of these I would appreciate your comments.
( I chose these to match Marantz or Denon AV amps, and speaker systems which I also intend to buy to make a complete system).

I would recommend the Marantz DV4500 which is approx £200. It really is quite fantastic at CD playback for the money and an excellent DVD player as well. No DVD-A and SACD though which is why I went for its big brother the DV6500.
 

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