Price Paid:  $800.00 from ?

Summary:
I do own one already for almost 16 years.
Ive replace the opamps and the clock Tentlab). The sound is great for al kind of music

Strengths:
musical

Weaknesses:
none

Similar Products Used:
marantz cd 67se, micromega duo

Price Paid:  $900.00

Summary:
I bought the CD-80 and was immediately impressed by its weighty and authoritative sound. Nevertheless it had none of the strengths of my vinyl system. In particular there was a rhythmicness in music which seemed to be missed by this CD player (maybe all CD players, I thought) About 3 years later I tried the CD-63 and was amazed at the tightness of rhythm and the increase in musicality, albeit at the expense of that authoritative weightiness for which the CD-80 was fantastic. I sold it and have not missed it

Strengths:
Powerful impressive reproduction, especially in the bass.

Weaknesses:
Failed to reproduce rhythm and urgency of the music

Similar Products Used:
Marantz CD-63-II, Marantz CD-67, Various other CD players by Technics, Pioneer.

Price Paid:  $800.00 from philips

Summary:
best player ever

Strengths:
everything

Weaknesses:
none

Price Paid:  $142.00 from eBay

Summary:
Years ago I bought a new CD60 (I'll get to cd CD80 in a minute). I wanted a CD80 but couldn't afford it in my student days. In the last few years my CD60 started to skip more and more often on the first few tracks. I traced this down to a design problem with the CD drive cable connector NOT BEING GOLD-PLATED!!! and subject to movement from badly centered CD's!!!! (non-gold-plated contacts +humid wheather +contact movement +high frequency signals = TROUBLE). Repaired it several times, as I really liked the sound of the player. Three months ago I saw a mint CD80 on eBay. How could I resist? Got it for £140. Plays all my CD's without any problems at all! The cable is the same as in the CD60 but the PCB is now bolted onto the drive so the connector is totally free of movement, a BIG design improvement. It is hard to believe this CD80 is a ten year old player. I'm sure the (very expensive) latest high-end models sound "better", but I am not convinced they sound more, say, "musical". Rhythm and Pace was always a very strong point of the CD60. I once tried out variuous other players to replace my CD60, most of them bit-stream delta-sigma convertors. Some sounded more detailed but on Rhythm & Pace the CD60 beat all of them hands down, no comparison. I am glad to see the CD80 equals this with better detail in the sound to boot. The quality of engineering is quite unbelievable. Solid metal everywhere. A PSU fit for a heavy amplifier. If this player last for another ten years (it may do since I got it almost unused) then it's value for money cannot be beat!

Strengths:
Very detailed sound and superb Rhythm & Pace. Unbeatable at this price.

Weaknesses:
Well, if I must come up with a weakness I would say it is too heavy for most bookshelves...

Similar Products Used:
various Denon's, Marantz CD60

Price Paid:  $100.00

Summary:
Now hold on. What is this. Ancient CD player of 17kg weight ? Ken Ishiwata's first effort ? Go on then, open it up. Jesus. Look at the transport mechanism, high quality capacitors, huge PSU, copper all around, excellent PCB..... OK let?s listen. .....
(3 CDs later). And how much ? 100 Euro ? Thank you very much don't wrap it. I' ll take it as it is. (Now run before he change his mind).
Couple of hours later connected to my system (AMC 1030 tube preamp, Artemis EL34 monoblocks from Tsakiridis-Devices, another true audio bargain - check them at www.tsakiridis-devices.com, and my DIY full-range speakers) and believe it or not, that day I didn't use my (pretty big) vinyl collection at all. I even experimented with removing my preamp and driving the monoblocks through the motorised remote. Really good (although I am not a fan of passive preamps). I won't go into the area of "expressive-highs-combined-with-warm-mids-and-tight-yet deep-bass". You have to listen for yourselves. And when you think that I haven't change (yet) the power cable, the opamps etc. Thank you AudioGod.
Ladies & Gentlemen. This is a BARGAIN. A good CD Player for Music-philes with down to earth budgets. There are better CD players out there, but you have to pay substantially more (unless you take DIY option). Let's take advantage of the emerging trends of various formats and grab the "obsolete" devices for peanuts.

Strengths:
Quality oozes from every inch of this player. This is reflected to the sound.

Weaknesses:
How can a 17Kg CD player be weak ?
(anyway some experimentation with Opamps is in order)

Similar Products Used:
Too many to mention, too expensive to afford (the good ones).
I own a Pioneer DVD 626 (quite good for what it does but no comparison)