Hello everybody

My old CD player is dying . The mechanical parts are too worn out and I feel the time has come for a replacement.

Not wanting to spend a lot of money at this moment, I'm thinking about buying a low end Divx/DVD player, which costs less than 60 euros. That way I also get mp3 playing abilities.

Does anyone have any experience with those kind of players as standalone audio players, without even attaching them to a TV set?

I don't expect miracles for that price, but are these players comparable (in "quality" in the broadest sense) to low-end CD players? I suppose they have bigger CPU & DSPs, better disc readers and 24/96 DACs...

Best regards,

Carlos

I once compared my Sony CD player (CDP 511, 9 years old, about 240 EUR then) to a new Yamakawa 365 DIVX/DVD Player (about 100 EUR). When listening to them through my Amplifier with good headphones (Sennheiser HD 600), I could clearly ABX between the two when listening to Rock music: The sound from the Yamakawa was far from bad, but the Sony sounded noticeably "cleaner" (better DAC, I guess). However, with Jazz music, I couldn't ABX the two, but maybe I was tired then. I think that expensive dedicated CD-only players tend to have better DAC for music purposes than cheap all-in-one DVD players. However, for non-critical listening I'd say most people won't hear a difference, especially without headphones. But there are probably also very bad cheap DVD players out there with regard to music rendering, so I would buy one, try it out (maybe compare with your CD player) and return it if you are not satisfied.

Pioneer dvd players are generally pretty good for cd listening. They cost more than da super 3l33t el cheapo all-in-one models but you can propably get one without getting totally ripped off.

On the first point, I have a Sony CD that acted ready for tjhe junk heap. It really only needed a new rubber belt (at about $1.50, or $100 if a shop does it )

Newer models may have improved, but in my experience with 2 DVD players (the newer being a 2000 model), they take a quite a while to figure out that you put in a CD instead of a DVD, compared to about 2 seconds startup time for a pure CD player.

There are some exceptions, but with most DVD/CD/mp3 players you need a TV to navigate an mp3 disk. A CD/mp3 will have an alphabetic display so you can navigate without turning on the TV.

Not all DVD players have those problems, and it will be a snap to check a particular model in the store if you bring a regular CD and an mp3 disk with you.

I have the Pioneer DV-350S DVD player and am very pleased with its quality - both video and audio.

My impression is that even for CD use only you are better off buying a budget DVD player than a budget CD player. However you will need to pick the right one. Do a search on Head-Fi.

Pioneer's 563 and 578A-S model DVD players sound very good for the price; I briefly owned one before having to sell it (and most of my other belongings) on eBay to fund pre-dissertation research. They can be purchased for around $100-$120 online; I got mine on sale for $129 at Best Buy.

The Pioneer players also offer the "benefit" of SACD and DVD-A playback, perhaps useful for multichannel enthusiasts.

Thanks for your answers.

I'll expand my search to the low-end Pioneer DVD players.

Following your pointer, I have also seen in Head-Fi that Toshiba DVD players are well considered as audio sources.

Best regards,

Carlos