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Review NaN of
Price Paid:
$65.00
from Best Buy Summary:
The first of these, which I bought as a DVD player, was so successful that I bought a another one as a second CD player, replacing the dreadful Teac CDP-1250 which sounded sweet but only lasted a few months before ceasing to function--a waste of $80; the repair warranty had expired (if it was even reparable) and a paid repair would have cost far more than the unit (see my optimistically positive review before it died). The Toshiba SD-1800 is a great DVD player but in some ways even better as a musical CD player. It will track anything, it has a 192kHz sampling frequency/24-bit DAC, like audiophile units, and it sounds warm and detailed. Moreover, it reads out CD text (take that NAD!) and appears to be utterly reliable. All for under $70. Who'd have thought?
[[By the way, DVD players in the new Toshiba line, like the SD-4900, are not really usable as a music CD players since some transport details make them impractical: e.g., if you scan back beyond the beginning of a track, the inter-track gap confuses the machine and you end up at the *beginning* of the previous track, rather than getting a linear scan back. Also, it only reads out time elapsed, no matter what you do. Try to get the older SD-1800.]] Strengths:
Excellent, warm, detailed, nearly audiophile-quality sound with 192kHz sampling frequency/24-bit DAC. Very flexible, will play anything. Weaknesses:
Too many functions can only be accessed via the remote, but what else is new? Scanning in either direction can only be cancelled by pressing play, a little unsettling at first. Similar Products Used:
Teac CDP-1250 (garbage!).
Harman Kardon HD-710--the most musical player I know.
NAD C-521i--good but a little nasal, and definitely over-rated.
Cambridge Audio--beautiful sound but horrible transport: won't even track CDRs, let alone CDRWs.
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