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Author Topic: CD players Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-12-2003 07:30 PM                        For those who play non-sync music off CD (as opposed to using satellite transmissions or something), what type of CD player do you use? How long do they last? Is it better to get the cheapest bottom-of-the-line consumer-grade player and consider it to be a disposable item, or does it make more sense to get a high-end professional model (like the broadcast units from Denon, Marantz, and others)? Other than better quality construction and balanced outputs, do the higher-end players offer anything that the cheap ones don't for non-sync use?  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 01-12-2003 07:38 PM                        I've had good luck with regular Sony 5 Disc changers.  |  IP: Logged Craig Hanham Film Handler Posts: 79 From: Wellington, New Zealand Registered: Oct 2001 posted 01-12-2003 07:47 PM                     The obvious answer is service life and reliabilty. The extra dollars are worth it. There are some good Tascam models., priced about the same as good domestic gear, with professional specs. Shop around, oh yeah listen to your favourte CD any decent supplier should bring a model to you for a demo.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 01-12-2003 07:48 PM                        When we needed a CD player for the hold music on our company phone system, we bought the cheapest player we could find that had a "Repeat" function so it would run continuously & unattended. It was a JVC, purchased new in 1995 for $79. That player was in service for 6 straight years, 24/7. It was plugged into a cheap UPS and literally never stopped in 6 years except for 2 or 3 times when I swapped the CD out for something different. I was kind of impressed. When we bought it, we figured we'd get 1-2 years out of it before it died; I never would have believed a bargain-basement consumer model could last anywhere near that long.  |  IP: Logged David Favel Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 764 From: Ashburton, New Zealand Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-12-2003 07:58 PM                     O.K. but what about running non-sync from a computer?  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 01-12-2003 07:58 PM                     My DVD player (a Pioneer DV-C603 5-disc changer) doubles as my CD player. DVD players are often criticised for not having optimal CD playback quality over differences in the laser pickup. Not so for this moderately priced unit. It has a two different laser pickups, one for DVD and the other for CD. The only perceivable downside is the slight lag in the player switching pickups when you go from playing a DVD to a music CD. One requirement I have for CD players is a pure digital output jack. I have a few DTS music CDs. Some CD players will digitally alter an existing Linear PCM data stream with DSP stuff or with simple digital volume adjustments. Any of those things will toast an outgoing DTS bitstream. The data on DTS music CDs is written to look like LPCM so any CD player will "see" the tracks and play them. But the slightest alteration to that data compressed bitsream will totally corrupt it. The next DVD/CD player I'll get will likely be a "universal" player that handles both Super Audio CD and DVD Audio discs. I have not bought such a player at this point since the digital output issue remains unresolved. At some point, IEEE-1394 Firewire is going to be standardized for home theater hardware. It already seems to be on a fast track for HDTV. The wide bandwidth of Firewire I/O is needed for DVD-A and SACD high res audio tracks. Current digital outputs cannot handle data loads that high.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 01-12-2003 08:01 PM                     Has anyone checked out the latest CD players from the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas? Pioneer has three different digital audio transports that function like the vinyl turntables rap DJs and techno people to scratch records. They have two models that use CDs and another that uses MP3 files and networks to a PC. The units seem really pretty cool.  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 01-12-2003 08:34 PM                        These days I think I'd go with either computer playback or one of the newer cheap stand-alone machines that can play other formats as well as CD. My new DVD machine can do DVD-A, CD, and MP3 audio--for $70 US at Bust Buy. Certainly not built like a tank at that price but hard to go wrong with that as a non-sync source.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-12-2003 08:50 PM                     I generally supply a 3-U clampable rack shelf for the customer to supply their own CD player. I normally advise to not get the best of the best..."just what you need in features" and treat it as disposable. With the price of consumer CD players it is hard to go wrong. As for the Pro-sumer stuff (Marantz and Tascam)...sometimes the big difference is only the rack mount. We have been looking into Marantz pro and often the balanced outputs are an option that for a theatre you don't necessarily want. Most cinema processors are already set up to handle unbalanced inputs from a CD player (Dolby has been using RCA jacks since the CP-500). One thing I have noticed is that on the Prosumer stuff you do have the option of "heavy duty" transports which, in my opinion, betters your chance of long term life but that is no guarantee. Steve  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 01-12-2003 09:10 PM                     Given the way some booth personnel take care of booth equipment, I would opt for the cheapest stuff I could find. So I guess it depends who and what you have working with you.  |  IP: Logged Jamie Sanson Film Handler Posts: 33 From: Port Macquarie,NSW, Australia Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-12-2003 09:59 PM                     I use YAMAHA audio equipment such as the CDC-685 cd changer and the KX-W421 double deck tape player.  |  IP: Logged Rob van Ede Film Handler Posts: 25 From: Zeist, The Netherlands Registered: Sep 2002 posted 01-13-2003 05:53 AM                        The theatre i work for is running for eight years now. All cd-players are the cheapest models from technics. All have been replaced once and last year, two of four were replaced for the second time. So here, they last about four years running on repeat during the shows. Reading non-perfect cds and skipping becomes a problem. Cleaning does not help, so i think the laser just gets old...  |  IP: Logged Brad Haven Master Film Handler Posts: 300 From: fremantle, West Australia Registered: Aug 2001 posted 01-13-2003 10:45 AM                     I usually buy our cd players second hand as it's getting increasingly hard to find a store that sells cd players new (in perth that is), unless they are of the more expensive variety. I have been finding many great near new decks being sold off to pawnshops, i guess everyone is trading up to dvd! I found a near new marantz deck going out at a quarter of it's original price, but i've been happy with the 5 deck sony of which i have bought a few of, there seems to be a lot of them going cheap second hand?  |  IP: Logged Jean-Michel Grin Expert Film Handler Posts: 222 From: Geneva & Lausanne, Switzerland Registered: Jul 2002 posted 01-13-2003 01:43 PM                        A good idea is to powered the CD player by the automation system or by a N.C. contact of a relay powered by the motor switch. With that, the CD player will just operateat the intermission or when the motor don't running, and will extend the life of the optical head of your CD player. For background Music in the lobby, we tryed a lot of different players: Sony carousel with 300 CD but it was out of order six month later, an Ultrak heavy duty rack mounted CD changer was returned four times to the dealer Lately I put a Pioneer CD changer with 25 CD, modified for auto random repeat by the local dealer, It's work perfectly I know that Onkyo made a CD player with an Hard drive inside, to stock music in MP3 format. It could be interesting, but not easy to use.... Bye, Jean-Michel  |  IP: Logged John Hawkinson Film God Posts: 2273 From: Cambridge, MA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-13-2003 05:07 PM                     Personally, I'd expect repeatedly cycling the power to the CD player to be far worse than leaving it on all the time. --jhawk  |  IP: Logged

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