Physical media is still very relevant; we discovered that to be very true during the summer of 2022 when Rogers’ mobile and wireless networks collapsed all across Canada forcing almost 33% of Canada’s population offline. No Wi-Fi. No cable. No music or video streaming for over 24 hours and even longer for some customers. According to data published by the Recording Industry Association of America, 46.6 million CDs were sold in 2021, so there is still a definite need for hardware to play compact discs. Plugged in to the Onkyo TX-NR717 receiver and thence to the Klipsch Reference FR-42II speakers, I wasn't expecting miracles. I'm pretty sure the weak link in the chain is the speakers, which only have iddy-biddy 4-inch cones, failing that the receiver. It isn't the interconnects or speaker cables, all Chord from dear old Blighty, that's for sure. It may be a bit awkward to get the player level, but if you hear improvements then you know this is a course worth taking. If you don’t, then hopefully you at least had a bit of fun in the process. As long as no one was watching. Before buying any CD player, consider whether you are going to hook it up to external speakers or want something with speakers built-in. There are great options for both choices. If you want speakers built in, the PHILIPS 1268 or the Bose Wave Music System IV are great choices. For use with external speakers, the Onkyo DXC390 is everything you need.

The receiver uses a Burr-Brown 192/24 DAC but only one, I think, to handle up to 7.1 audion channels plus, I'm guessing, video as well. Don't know which DAC is in the Bluray but that too must be designed to deal with up to 7.1 plus video. Rather than being directly connected to the chassis base, the circuit boards inside the P-3000R are cushioned by internal struts and affixed to the front, side, and rear panels. This method of construction prevents vibrations from the chassis from adversely affecting the circuit boards. Bass-reflex loudspeakers. Richer low tones - These bookshelf-style loudspeakers give you clear sound and good bass thanks to the combination of woofer, tweeter, and bass-reflex ports. A 60 W maximum... It’s been over a year since I had the opportunity to listen to the CXC Series 2, but the Evo CD player doesn’t stray too far from the farm — same excellent pace, clarity, and detail of other Cambridge sources, and it most certainly has a warmer tonal balance compared to something like the Cyrus Audio CDi-XR, Rotel, or Naim CD players. The other thing to consider is if you need an integrated CD player (one with a DAC built-in) or a CD transport (no DAC inside). Transports such as the Cambridge Audio CXC will need to use either a standalone DAC or the one in your stereo amplifier to handle the digital-to-analogue conversion before the sound reaches your speakers. The upshot of a CD transport? It puts all its concentration and skills on reading the CD disc. The downside is you'll need to make sure you buy or already have an appropriately skilled DAC to connect it to.

Show your CDs some love

Over that 5 year period, I tossed over 1,800 jewel cases and only kept a select group from MoFi, DCC, Sony Mastersound, and JVC XRCD because of their album art and collectibility. Onkyo is a Japanese company that isn’t so popular on our market but it really deserves more attention than it currently gets. They make some great audio equipment and today we’ll be talking about their CD players .

The CD Box DS3 is not a very large component (8”W x 3”H x 8”D) and will take up less space than even a large hardcover book making it ideal for a media unit or even bookshelf. For audio, you get the preservation of digital signals with the hyper-dynamic amplifier modules, plus digital filtering and dual crystal DAC. While some of that may not mean much to non-audiophiles, what it all means is that you hear music from your CDs as musicians intended. The CD Box DS3 was consistently good with most CDs but it will not turn horrible recordings into good ones.Besides being able to let you listen to your audio in crystal clear quality, a CD player can do a lot more. Let’s take a look. Testing the Marantz and hooking it up to an older set of speakers lying around was a reminder that streaming, while convenient, doesn’t always offer the best overall sound. For that, you need better physical hardware and the Marantz ND8006, along with the PHILIPS 1268, deliver. In the case of the Lukasa, its highlight is that it not only plays all of your favorite CDs but also acts as its own speaker. If you thought the feature set would stop there, the good news is that there are actually multiple functions alongside playing CDs, including Bluetooth connectivity and USB flash drive access.

Bose has long been a standout in the music quality business, so it’s no surprise to see one of their products at the top of any “best of” list. The Bose Wave Music System IV is a mouthful of a name, but is our choice as the best home CD player.The final reason is sound quality. Audiophiles conveniently forget the days when they spent thousands on separate transports and DACs, before the hi-fi press decided that a CD player was good enough. Before moving on to streamers and very expensive DACs again. We have some niggles, though. The player’s large display is easy to read from a distance, but its single line of scrolling text looks meagre. It scrolls very slowly, and the cut-off text can be frustrating to read. We’d like a more sophisticated display – two lines, at least – that gives more information in one glance. Verdict No matter how forgotten CD players and CDs generally are, we mustn’t forget that they are still the only relatively affordable devices that can offer us some Hi-Res music. All the gadgets you use every day, no matter how expensive and good they are, work with highly compressed audio files because that’s the only way to store so many files.