nordy

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Price Paid:  $270.00

Summary:
smooth, warm, correctly detailed sound; excellent midbass, nice midrange with good bass and high frequencies extention
great dynamic in sound and a bit lack of airy presentation for the best cd player i never heard at its price and two or three times over

there are 10 years i got it and i bought it used

to upgrade it add a d/a external audio converter aroud ten times its price

it absolutely needs a high end system and a silver interconnect cable to right rating

Strengths:
see above

Weaknesses:
see above

Similar Products Used:
marantz cd63se, teac vrds10, marantz cd6000ose, sony dvd/cd/sacd player, cambridge audio, classé audio cdp10, proceed 2 and 3 t+d/a, cec 5100 t+d/a, arc cd1 and many more now i don't remember

Price Paid:  $450.00 from Sevenoaks Hi Fi Oxford

Summary:
A good quality piece of kit which performs well. I've used it almost daily for six years and it still looks like new and performs brilliantly.

The Stable Platter mechanism is fantastic and preserves your CD collection by not dumping the (often still spinning) disc, playing side down, onto an abrasive plastic tray every time you eject the disc. Instead the disc glides smoothly out of the player, label side down on a turntable.

The player extracts breathtaking midrange detail from the CD, with the listener almost able to "feel" plucked guitar strings, fret movements and female vocals. Treble is open too, with only the bass definition sometimes letting the side down. Fast moving bass guitar or electronic dance stuff can lose definition and clarity. I used an external Audio Alchemy DAC for a while which cured this, again proving the quality of the Pioneer transport.

After six years it shows no signs of breaking down and is still capable of providing an engaging listen. For the money, I haven't heard anything noticeably better.

Strengths:
Bombproof build quality and reliability (6 yrs of regular use and still faultless)
"Stable Platter" transport preserves your CD's and extracts lots of detail.

Weaknesses:
Slight lack of bass definition

Similar Products Used:
Kenwood DP-2030
Pioneer PDS-703

Price Paid:  $300.00

Summary:
i`ve had this player since 97` and performed brilliantly in music and has given many years of musical enjoyment yet has been the most unreliable cd player that i have used.And just today the cd draw has packed up.Musically satisfying yes, longevity give it a miss.

Weaknesses:
bass,reliability

Similar Products Used:
marantz cd60se, technics various

Price Paid:  $350.00 from Beaver Hi-Fi

Summary:
This is a machine I've had for a while now and will probably stick with until it breaks. The reason I'm writing the review is because I've seen this model advertised for as little as $150 brand new because it's discontinued. I think that buying this machine and upgrading it will result in a superior player to anything currently available under $750, and for far less money. It also works well with the Pioneer A-300R Precision amplifier which I've also seen for $150 brand new - talk about a bargain system!

The 904 formed the basis of the Acousitc Precision Eikos, a highly regarded high-end CD player. Although the majority of the improvements were expensive and electronic, you can get some ideas of how to easily improve the basic model for the technologically challenged like myself. I agree with Martin that the casework resonates badly and the feet are dreadful and need urgent attention. The Eikos has a heavily damped body and transport and I tried the same idea on mine by using ISO self-adhesive damping pads. These pads are really easy to apply and have a thickish aluminium RF screen in addition to a good amount of damping material. They work well on the casework and on transformer braces, and are flexible enough to use on parts of the transport - the top of the transport is particularly flimsy and once damped you won't believe the resulting smoothness, detail and tight bass.

The feet are easily unscrewed, and I replaced them with three solid oak cones that I glued on with Araldite. They give a much better sound than the terrible imitation metal ones supplied.

Now to mains cables. I use an LAT Interational AC-2 with my 904 and I think it's great value ($100 for 4ft). The 904 has a captive cable so you'll have to either cut it outside the case and add a male IEC, or drill a hole and solder it directly inside. The improvement in sound quality is more noticeable than with the equivalent or double the price interconnects.

Use an anti-static spray on the stable platter, the transport and casework. Sounds excessive but you REALLY should try it (and on the print-side of your CDs).

All the above should cost up to $300 and what you have sounds MUCH better than anything you could by new for that money and more. You could even spend a bit having Trichord add a Clock 3 with power supply for you and still have change from $750. The Marantz 6000KI Signature would NEVER be able to match a 904 modified in this way.

It takes some guts to make some of the modifications, but I'm a biology graduate NOT a tech-head and I didn't have much trouble. The value and rating for this CD player is based on what you can find it for these days and the potential it has after some TLC, so I have to give it 5 stars all the way. Hey, I've even seen some PD-S505 Precisions going for $75 more than the 904, and I'd really love to get my tweaking hands on one of those!!!

Strengths:
Can find it really cheap now discontinued. Good quality Legato Link S-DAC and transport. Excellent canvas for upgrading.

Weaknesses:
Build quality - resonates badly. Can sound a bit muddled and poorly defined if not tweaked.

Price Paid:  $450.00 from Goodguys

Summary:
Great multi disk player.Havent had one problem yet,except you need to take out all of the cd's when moving.(I speak from exsperience).After you get back home with your new PD F904, go right back down and buy yourself a awesome pair of interconects like MIT TERMINATOR wire.Believe me there spendy but WOW what a difference!!!!That goes for speaker wire as well.Ive had this unit for sometime now and im still not bored of it.The price was a little high, but they were still brand new to the market then.Hope this player suits your listening needs, i know it has on my part! If you haven't allready make yourself a music note book, or library of artists,because you'll load your unit and after a while you'll want to listen to a certain artist and you might forget what # that disk was, it comes in handy.And its much easier than trying to find it by hand.

Strengths:
Great remote signal.quick shuttle time from one disk to another.Perfect multi cd player for fist time buyers.

Weaknesses:
Doesn't show artist name display.

Similar Products Used:
none