Perfect absolutely perfect sound that makes the nmusic come alive. Neither laid back or forward, just right. You can hear the layered sound of the instruments. The bite on lead guitar is awesome.

None

This is the best solid state CD player I've ever heard It's absolutely incredible I'd buy this over any $2,000 player. The sound is amazing. Perfect music tones. The music sounds alive with guts & balls & is just right- not overbearing or laid back. It is easy to isolate the instruments on a CD when you play it on the PD-59. I play alot of remastered blues & blues rock recordings & they sound awesome on here. Stuff like John Mayall's Bluesbreakers Crusade gives Mick Taylor's guitar incredible bite. I can;t say enough how great this sounds. I actually prefer it to the more heralded PD-65. I have this connected to my Denon 3801 Receiver by fiber optic cord which to me gives it a better sound then analog cables no matter what people say. This player is awesome. I love it. Don't let the price fool you, it's better then any costly higher end player for 60/70's blues rock, rock & blues. It turns up on Ebay once or twice a month. Get it!

great sound, reasonable price, excellent transport

discontinued march 99

A fantastic cd player, putting competition to shame, and featuring a transport that is used oem in very expensive units. A smart trick is to use it with its coax digital output into fine dacs. But they have to be rather excellent to better the dac in the pd-59. I have mine connected to an audio research dac 2, and I am steadily amazed at its performance. However, I have also used it with its own dac, and its great as it is. Check out the pioneer elite pd65, its big brother, which as far as I can tell is still in production. The pd59 is very very close. I have no intentions of replacing mine in the foreseeable future. It is truly the only mass marketed piece I have ever seen at this level of performance and construction. A hands down five out of five in both categories

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high end transports from esoteric companies

I purchased this product last January. I know that this model was discontinued in march. But wow. This destoryed all of the competition both single platter (like this one) and multiple. This is by far the best cd player I have found.
My system:
Pioneer Elite 26tx (reciever)
Pioneer Elite PD-59
Jvc 2921 (tape deck)
B&W 603 S2

What a surprise this product is! i have never, ever considered any mass-market brand when i was purchasing my audio gears....well, untill yesterday. i stopped by at a local hi-end store. in their so called "Ultimate sound" room, they were playing on a system with this Pioneer Cd player. first of all, the face plate looked very nice. whole body has very good built quality (made in Japan originally). side by side is a Denon CD player as well. i compare these 2 with the same track, same anything else, cable, speaker, etc.. and amazingly, yes, i have to say "amazingly", the sound is incredibly clear, sweet and "alive".
I was one of them who don't believe Cd-players can make noticeable difference. but now, i have to admit it. the price is $499. since i wasn't paying attention to Pioneer products, i don't know exactly which years model, or is this a good price or not. but still, for this price, PD-59 is definitely a winner.

don't just take my words for it. strongly recommend anyone to take a listen to it. i'd like to hear more feedbacks about it.

Excellent CD player/transport. Stable platter works real well, and It's DAC's and Legato link are state of the art. Produces incredible high end sound,,,I love this unit. 5 stars all the way.

User friendly, Nice looks, excellent transport

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This cd player is excellent. It makees the music come alive--good detail and not to harsh. I like the stable platter mechanism. Nice simple remote that has direct track access. It has a very good D/A converter plus it has digital outs in case you want to buy an even better one. Although it was discontinued, if you can find it used somewhere it is an excellent choice.

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sony cd player

Built quality, separate power for digital and analogue parts.

None that I can think of.

My Sony CDP-XA1ES was giving me too much headache and destroyed so many disks that I finally returned it back to Bryn Mawr Stereo and asked them for something better for a change.
As usual - they offered me player that was $500 more. It was Pioneer Elite PD-65. I asked if they had something more reasonable and they offered the discontinued model for much less.
Enter the Elite PD-59.
It is basically very similar to Elite PD-65 - just less bells and wistles. $500 less, to be exact.
Same built quality, same DAC.
Sound is very warm and clear and the unit does not have any character whatsoever.
Paired with decent amplifier and speakers (Yamaha CX-1/MX-1 and Mission 754F5 in this case) it produces very good sound.
Good cables are very recommended though.

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Similar CD players by Sony and Marantz.

inexpensive way to get a stable platter transport; good DAC

flimsy build

In agreement with other posted reviews. The stable platter transport gives you a good digital read and far less mechanical noise than most transports.

I tried two other implementations of the stable platter transport -- by Acurus and EAD -- and both produced great detail, but painful high frequencies, when hooked up to an MSB Link DAC via an MSB cable. The PD-59 by contrast was detailed but caused no listening fatigue in the same setup. Its DAC is also very good -- not far short of the stock MSB Link.

The only complaint is that the lower price seems have to have been achieved through a much flimsier case than the PD-65, and minimal internal damping and shielding. But for now it sounds better than gear weighing four times as much.

Similar Products Used:

Marantz, AMC, Acurus and hi-end Denon CD players, Rotel and EAD dedicated transports