CD-Players Test

Reviews on CD-Players

"High-end sound under £200"

Issue: 2/2008

On test: NAD C515BEE

The sub-£200 CD player arena has been mighty quiet of late - in fact, only Cambridge Audio has hit that particular five-star bull's-eye in the last 12 months. Until now that is. → More

"Cambridge tops budget league"

Issue: Awards/2007

On test: Cambridge Audio Azur 340C

Cambridge has dominated the budget CD arena for a number of years, and judging by the 340C little is going to change. This may be a cost-cutting special, but you'd never guess it from the performance or build. The company has even managed to include one of its classy remote handsets rather than resort to one of the nasty, cheapo offerings most rivals use. → More

"Apollo offers regal performance"

Issue: Awards/2007

On test: Rega Apollo

Rega CD players are top-loading designs. There are good reasons to build a CD player this way - no complex, expensive loading tray mechanism to fail, for instance - but we reckon the chance to style a disc cover like the Starship Enterprise didn't put Rega off, either. → More

"CD all-rounder leaps to the top"

Issue: Awards/2007

On test: Leema Antila

Leema is on a roll. This is the third product we've reviewed from this brand, and every one has gained five stars. This achievement is all the more impressive when you consider the reviews cover an amp, a pair of speakers and now a CD player - few companies get one area of hi-fi right, let alone three. → More

CD-Players

CD players were specially designed to reproduce high quality audio using a non contact optical media to solve the problem of quality degradation which was prevalent with the previously used magnetic tape. The size of the original CDs 74 minutes, corresponds to the size of the original developers favourite piece of classical music, but nowadays the standard running time of a blank CD is 80 minutes. CDs have all but replaced every previously existing form of consumer audio storage but the question of fidelity versus 'true' sound remains, with vinyl lovers bemoaning the lack of emotion contained in the digital medium. As the CD was intended as an evolution of the vinyl record it makes use of tracks and pits and is read in the same way, with concentric circles holding the information, be it data, audio or video. A laser reads the disc by firing at the disc and reading the resultant reflections with a detector which then converts this information into digital bits. CD players come either integrated into a Hi-Fi system, as a Hi-Fi separate or as a portable player. So called 'CD changers' can cope with a number of discs and switch between them like a jukebox at the touch of a button. There are also special CD players for DJs which offer the same controls and effects as a set of turntables in a smaller box. Pure CD players will inevitably be phased out in favour of DVD players which can play both formats, but the CD has seen off competition from both the MiniDsic format, which remains popular in Japan, and the DVD-audio format which was seen as the logical next step in the evolutionary process of the audio storage medium.