Good CD player or cheap CD player connected to a good external DAC?

[IndianEars]

The Pro-Ject RS2T is excellent.

Did you buy it from the Indian Distributor?

 

[Shammi Dang]

I use a cheap CD/DVD player with a digital output (Coax/TOSlink) connected to an external DAC.
I was wondering if a better engineered (more expensive) CD player with a good inbuilt DAC would sound better?

Although my reply cannot be relevant looking at the date of your first post. But still I will share my experience.

I have used NAD CD player for many years but all that time the CD player was very heavy on the pocket with continuous problems and repairs - lens change, buttons malfunction, hum from analog output. Every time repair was done it was costly and I spend close to half the amount that I had spent on CD payer purchase.

I was also having a old Pioneer DVD player that I purchased in 2007 for around 3,500. Now that dvd player is in use for CD playback from more than 5 years routed via a co-axial cable and an external dac (schiit modi 3).

Very honestly there is no qualitative difference. The only difference is the visual appeal and the build quality. NAD was build heavily and this Pioneer DVD player is flimsy in comparison to NAD. In all these years just one change of lens, no other repairs.

So my conclusion is if there is a good sounding DAC available then even a normal CD playback through a player like Philips etc can sound equally good.

 

[Nitin K]

I was also having a old Pioneer DVD player that I purchased in 2007 for around 3,500. Now that dvd player is in use for CD playback from more than 5 years routed via a co-axial cable and an external dac (schiit modi 3).

Very honestly there is no qualitative difference. The only difference is the visual appeal and the build quality. NAD was build heavily and this Pioneer DVD player is flimsy in comparison to NAD. In all these years just one change of lens, no other repairs.

So my conclusion is if there is a good sounding DAC available then even a normal CD playback through a player like Philips etc can sound equally good

I too find Pioneer disk players quite reliable in general and almost fuss free. Although the new mid level ones have flimsy build quality.
Despite having a Marantz cd 6006 cdp which is quite fussy with cd's, I have kept my old trusty Pioneer bdp 180 for cd playback should the Marantz give any issues.
If at all the cdp players give up, then streaming is my last option and will try to digitize all the cd's on a hard disk.

 

[Shammi Dang]

I too find Pioneer disk players quite reliable in general and almost fuss free. Although the new mid level ones have flimsy build quality.
Despite having a Marantz cd 6006 cdp which is quite fussy with cd's, I have kept my old trusty Pioneer bdp 180 for cd playback should the Marantz give any issues.
If at all the cdp players give up, then streaming is my last option and will try to digitize all the cd's on a hard disk.

I already have all my CD's back in one Hard Disk that is part of a WD media player (live tv hub) so even if the CD player is totally gone then also I have back up in Flac format. As such I have not purchased any new CD from past 4-5 years. These days online streaming is good enough, quality and variety at fraction of cost.