Price Paid:  $750.00 from Singapore

Summary:
Very detailed and yet smooth sound. Very pleasant to listen to for hours. Extremely refined sound therefore lacks a bit of punch and musicality compare to a Marantz cd player. In fact, I still keep a cd17 and the cd 7300 for some different moods. But the transport of the TEAC is a fabulous piece of mechanic and the player looks gorgeous. Once you bought it, a love story starts and this is why it is hard to find on the second hand market. If you like pop - rock (like me), maybe not the player I would recommend but for all other type of music it is a superb sound provider. So far I have mot experienced problems with scratched cds like mentioned in others reviews. So far so good.

Strengths:
Built, looks, refined sound and detail. Hifi japanese sound.

Weaknesses:
Lacks of punch, musicality and natural for voices. Hifi japanese type of sound.

Similar Products Used:
Marantz cd 17, Micromega minium.

Summary:
I found the Teac VRDS 25 provided the most accurate musical timing of all the cd players, which I have listened to. The player also provides excellent levels of detail, this is particularly obvious in the bass regions of complex passages on classical music recordings. The VRDS 25 I found to perform better using the XLR analogue outputs rather than its RCA analogue outputs. When using the XLR analogue outputs the sound stage opens out to encompass a much bigger area.

Using the VRDS 25 as a transport only, feeding electrical digital signal in to D/A converters costing twice as much as the VRDS 25 did, produced results which only one of the other players which I listened to could come close to and again it was in the bass region where I detected the greater difference. This became a selling point to me as it enabled various upgrade paths in the future.

Few cd players are constructed in the manner of this Teac, it could be considered overkill by some people. I choose the dark finish over the gold for personal reasons though my decision to buy this player was made entirely on its sound quality, it plays all music well but excels at playing close miked rhythm driven acoustic music accompanied by vocals. For me the quality of the digital output was a plus in my finial decision. All the cd players that I lstened to cost approximately the same +/- 20%, +/- haggling.

Strengths:
Timing, detail particularly in the bass region, dynamic with a very open sound stage and build quality.

Weaknesses:
Fussy about some minor scratches on discs, some players image a little better.

Similar Products Used:
Meridian, Linn, Copland, Niam, Primare, Arcam.

Summary:
I bought this on ubid. I've s wanted a high end player for a long time now and I was excited to see this on the auction bloack. the unit was new but it was dated 1997 on the back label. Nevertheless it sounded wonderful. the stereo imaging was very precise. This thing weighs about 30 lbs and has seaprate cone isolation feet. It's built like a tank. At first i was worried that I was spending too much for a cd player but when I got it ups, all doubts disappeared. Highly recommended! I wish it had a set of separate variable outputs os i could hook it directly to my amp.

Strengths:
rock solid. beautiful gold finish. super quite transport. lush. detailed remote control

Weaknesses:
no head phone out out. sound dimmer on remote only drops sound 20 db. Can not hook player directly to a power amp w/o being way too loud. unit is sensitive to minor scraches on cds.

Similar Products Used:
onkyo integra cd player, carver t -2000 cd player, cheapo sony cd player

Summary:
I bought the TEAX VRDS 25X 4 month ago. The sound of this player is outstanding: very dynamic, very high resolution, very natural. It is build like a tank: very solid in every detail. For users with other digital equipment it may be useful that it also has digital inputs so that you can use it as a DAC.
I audited it against all the other players mentioned under "similar products used" and for me it was the best.

Strengths:
Sound, build quality

Similar Products Used:
Onkyo 7911, Sony CDP XA 50 ES, Marantz CD 17, Cambridge CD 6, Rotel 991 AE

Summary:
teac have certainly come a long way from the 60s. now 1999 they have comewith this fantastic product for a budget price.i thought its just another
mid product,hey ,i was infact wrong.this 11kg steel chasis comes with the
incerdible cmk 3.2 v.r.d.s.cd drive,digital servo ratio loop (d.s.r.l.l)
that really reduce any jitter 1/100th,distortion shaping zd-11 circuit,
20 -bit with 1/16 shift operation,high rigidity chassis.i certainly recommend
this set as it outbeat any high pricing cd player.spend just only sid2800
or usd1647 n u can get into shangrila,match superbly with my jadis jpl2
preamplifier,ja 30 and mit mh850 speaker cables,mit 350cvt reference
interconnects and avalon speakers.you must not miss this set.thumbs up