good dynamic music maker...strong on bass ..sweet treble on most classical stuff

deep in the bowels of this machine..there is something gone haywire!

ON FIRST PLAY...THE MUSIC WOULD NOT POP ON FOR SEVERAL SECONDS ...WITH MORE PLAY OF A VARIETY OF DISCS THE TIME GOT LONGER AND LONGER...UNTIL IT WAS MORE THAN TWO MINUTES INTO A DISC BEFORE ANY MUSIC COULD BE HEARD. THIS PROBLEM CONTINUED EVEN AFTER A FULL THREE DAYS OF BURN IN. THE UNIT WORKS FINE OTHERWISE...BUT THIS GLITCH I CANNOT LIVE WITH..SO I SHIPPPED IT BACK FROM WHENCEIT CAME.. I HOPE THIS IS AN ISOLATED PROBLEM AND NOT AN ENGINEERING FLAW WITH THE NEW SPECIAL EDITION ..D500se. TOO BAD ...ANY OTHERS HAVE THIS PROBLEM?

Similar Products Used:

sony 7es..panasonic dvd 110(no comment please!)

Very high Class!!! BEST BUY!!! No doubt!!!

Nil!!!

The construction is the best for his price, a lot of quality in all particulars.

Sound is the best in his class of price. It sounds better than Rotel and very similar at the Pink Triangle that costs ten times!!!

Anyway the triangle is more natural, but are only little difference!!!

BEST BUY!!!!!!

Similar Products Used:

Rotel RCD 970 BX - Pink Triangle - Linn Mimik

smooth detail imaging

remote no power on/off, dim dissplay

very smooth great detail. i heard things in my music i never heard before. break it in at first very bright and
fatiqeing,after a few days almost heaven, to reiterate once again try many cables my esoterics lost the detail and made the mids forward and bright , then straight wire encore =bliss this was cd direct to an old nad amp and energy 26.1 towers. give it a demo .

Similar Products Used:

nakamichi, rotel 951, marantz

Analog type sound.

Jog shuttle

Too bad Tim below did not experiment with cables. I made similar comparisons and found the cable being used matters a lot. This is true with all CD players in my experience.
The older CD4-SE has a slightly darker tonal balance than the D500 from my test. The shop I went to had Nordost cables, so that is what I used. The Solar Wind and Blue Heaven worked well with the CD4-SE. These are bright cables. Brightened the darker balance. This was too much for the D500 and it did sound smeared like Tim described. But when I went to a half meter Red Dawn the D500 really sang. Also worked well with the Van Den Hul D102mkIIIs I brought with me.
The D500 also is louder (has a higher output stage) so actually to compare the volume had to be adjusted on the amp between the two players. The Red Dawn and VDH were not as successful with the CD4-SE.
I like both players, they are both great, but since the D500 sounded better with better cables and the CD4-SE did not, then just maybe the D500 is the better player. A high resolution player will sound bad linked to poor equipment. But to each his own anyway. The CD6 also sounds better the better the cable and amp; sounds lousy on cheap equipment. Good cables cost almost as much as the equiment, but are worth it.

Similar Products Used:

CD4, CD4se and CD6

Bass, Toslink out, smoothness

dim display

I've become a big fan of Cambridge products over the past couple of years. The CD4SE was my first purchase and I always enjoyed telling my friends and fellow audio enthusiasts about what a steal that player was. Soundwise, the CD4SE held it's own with the Alpha 7 and the Planet. Moneywise, it's hard to say that any player in that price range could compete.
With the advent of the D500, Cambridge has upped the ante yet again by improving the sound markedly and decreasing the price (compared to the CD6). Other improvements are the coax and Toslink outs and a little more solid build (in a slightly smaller package). On the downside, some don't like the jog shuttle (doesn't really bother me as I almost always use the remote) and the display is hard to read in daylight. These really are minor quibbles though especially when you consider just how far this player is sonically above anything in its price range.
While I loved the sound of the CD4SE- the D500 has that and so much more, particularly bass! If I had to quantify it, I'd say there's 20% more depth to the middle to bottom end as compared to the 4SE. There is more 'air' as they say and much more definition and separation between voices and instruments (ie, more of a 3-dimensional image to the sound). The sound overall is characteristically Cambridge smooth. This player is a true giant killer and the other guys now have a much higher standard at which to compete at the sub-$1000 price point. Recommended without reservation.

Similar Products Used:

CD4SE

built quality, excellent sound

none really

I have been in the market to replace and up grade my old Technics single disk player for sometime. After looking at Rotel and Marantz players, what really impressed me with the D500 was its built quality. It is a real solid looking unit with none of the bells and whistles that most people never use.

As well, although I'm no audiophile I enjoy good sound and found the sound of this player much to my liking.

Although some have complained about the shuttle control, after a bit of use I find it quite easy and effective to use. The remote is simple and gets the job done.

Overall, I highly recommend this player to anyone in the market for a single disk player.

Sound, Price

Display, no power button on the remote

After having my Sony for a looong time. I decided to put it to rest and get a good cd player.
To be honest. I never even heard of this company. Cambridge Audio NOT Cambridge SOUNDWORKS!!!!
I was leaning towards the Marantz, but read that it wasnt so good for rock music, which I mainly listen to. Well...more alternative rock than anything. That along with Rap, R&B, Soul, and some Blues.
Anyway. I was very impressed right out of the box. The sound was very natural and the highs werent too bright. After having it for a month. It sounds better and better each day.
The only gripes I have is the display(of course). No power button on the remote and when you have the tray open with a cd. Pushing play is not an option. You need to press close on the unit before playing the cd.
Otherwise. For the cost of the player. It cant be beat. Well...next to my old Sony anyway.

Similar Products Used:

Ancient Sony single cd player. About 10 years old

Detailed clarity,Deep bass,Stable sound stage,Smooth mid to high,

Dim display,Sensitive about dust or bad track on CD

First of all,D500 is undefeatable in much higher price range.This brandnew CDP cost me only 2900 RMB which is about 349 USDs and I don't think there is a better one existing at the price of USD600 or less.

D500 is more detailed in sound and more stable in focus compared with used products listed above.Bass boost is fast,and I do like its clear deep bass with the feel of a little thin. D500 is born for rock and jazz although the sound is smooth and warm when play classic and vocal.

Open the container of D500 you will find 4 copper plated shield covers,one for the control servo system specially supplied by Sony,one for a huge (for CDP)tori transfomer,the other 2 are for L&R channel VeryLargeScaleIntegreted DAC,the latest version from Crystal.There are totally 11000 uF capasitors in power supplies respectively for circuit of control&servo,digital and analog.Very nice looking.Jitter is less than 180 ps(A weighted),better than some hi-end CDPs.CD drive is also from Sony which is more elegent moving and fast reading than Philips CDM12 series.

Now shortcomings.Bad ergonormic.Display is dim and almost usefulless even in night.The drive is sensitive about the dust and bad track on CDs where CDM12 not.

Similar Products Used:

Philips 951, Marantz CD63mkII KIsignature and CD19

Sounded good

Skipped on my CD's that had very little wrong with them, display looks like I spent $79

This has been quite a lot of fun. I am not into CD's as I have a CAT preamp with very expensive vinyl front end, ARC VT100 amp, and Magnepan 3.6. I don't care much for CD except in my car.

The Cambridge is finished decent enough except for the display, and sounded good, though a little bit bright on my system. I mean the top end at the very top was slightly glossy. This is where I preferred the Ah! Tjoeb 99. It was more like my best vinyl.

But if you have a system that is really dark the D500 may be good for you because it is bright. One thing I may warn of is to make sure you have CDs that are perfect or near it with the D500 as it did not like mine that I play in my car. It did skip. The Ah! Tjoeb played the same ones no problem as does my car CD player.

For the money it is good, though I did not keep it.

Similar Products Used:

Jolida 603, Ah! Tjoeb 99

Lucid and involving sound. Gets to the heart of the music.

Display.

One morning, while listening to my cheap car radio on my way to work, I noticed how much I was getting into the music. CBC FM was playing Bruch's Violin concerto and I remember how sweet and tuneful Heifetz's violin sounded. On another morning, I remember waking up to the one of the Brandenburg Concertos (Taffelmusik) and becoming enraptured with the spontaneous joyfulness of the performance. Amazingly, this performance was being sung by the single two and a quarter inch speaker of my wife's clock radio. The irony here is that, although I have both of these pieces of music on CD, I never enjoyed them nearly as much on my living room system (Technics CD player, NAD 3020 amp, Infinity RS 325 speakers). Why did the music sound so much more soulful and involving coming from the cheap radios than coming from my budget, yet nonetheless significantly better living room system? I came to the conclusion that it's not so much the speakers, or even the amplifier in a system that matters most, but the original transport reproducing the sound on the CD. A good signal can make even a crappy system come alive, but a poor signal can't be made good no matter how fine the rest of the sound system. I figured that radio stations have good CD players and so I then decided that if I wanted to sense the soul of the music again (like I used to with my records), the first thing I needed to do was upgrade my CD player. And so my quest began.

After reading a number of articles claiming that many DVD players offered at least entry-level audiophile sound, I tried the players listed above. They sounded, well, ok. But whenever I'd leave the room and walk back in, I'd find that the music either lacked depth, or it was down right irritating and grating. Even disks that I normally find emotionally fulfilling (Neil Young's Tonight's the Night, for example), would sound dry and empty. The emotive force just wasn't there. As with my existing Technics CD player (and the Pioneer I owned before the Technics), the music coming out of the DVD players lacked presence. There was sound coming out of my speakers (yes I know my Infinitys are not exactly refined, but they're very sensitive, responsive and farily articulate). But the sound didn't seem to do anything. I heard it, but it just seemed stuck in the speakers.

So I scrapped the whole DVD thing (I'm more into listening than watching anyways), and purchased a Harmon Kardon HD720 cd player instead. I listened to for about a week and no matter how much I tried to convince myself and my wife that this was it, this was the sound I was looking for, again, the music sounded dull and flat. There was no soul to it. So back to the store it went.

I almost gave up the quest for a half-decent cd player thinking that my theory was wrong, or that maybe my speakers were just crap. I knew that my amp (NAD 3020) is a good one, even though it is old (I picked it up in mint condition for $75.00 Canadian at a second hand store). After all, it sounds great with my records. I thought that, like many others out there, CDs just don't cut it when it comes to music. But, as a last resort (and in great part to the reviewers at Audio Review), I decided to give it one more shot and purchased the Cambridge D500 from The Sound Room in Vancouver for $470.00 Canadian. For me, when you can purchase a budget multi-disk CD player at any drug store for a bit over a hundred bucks, the D500, which only plays a single CD, was a bit of an investment. But it was an investment that, nine months later, has paid off a thousand-fold.

I just can't get enough of listening to it. In short, the spirit of the music is alive and, once again, I can sense the soul of the music.

There are some things I don't like about the D500. When I sit on the couch, I can't read what the display says, no matter how much I strain my eyes. It reads okay when within arms reach, but I rarely listen to music that close to my CD player. At first I didn't like the knobby switch thingy either, but when the room is semi-dark, and I'm dancing with my lady, and I want to skip that sucky song that will destroy the mood we're building, it's easy to flip past the song with a simple flip of the dial instead of trying to remember which little button is the "next track" button as opposed to the "eject" button.

But what I do like is the music this machine produces. I think that I finally have a taste of what audiophile sound is all about. I listen mostly to classical (Schumann, Bruckner, Part, etc.), as well as everything else from Antu (Andean Wind Music) to Frank Zappa. For me music is religion. I play accordion and have rebuilt many accordions over the years. Music, for me, is not for the ear, but for the heart. And I feel the heart of the music coming out of the D500.

Not only is the emotive force of the music present, but the D500 produces music that is very clean and precise sounding, sometimes almost to the extreme. I can almost make out the individual instruments in complex orchestral passages and love to get my friends over and have them close their eyes and point to the cellos (a bit to the right of the left speaker) and kettle drum (there, in the distance) and so on.. I love the bite and snarl of the horns in some of the period-instrument works I have and have come to await for the thrill they give me every time they begin to blow, something that hasen't happened with any of the other units I've listened to.

Sometimes I feel that the D500 is too bright for my system, and that I would almost prefer a warmer, fuzzier tone. It's hard to use this CD player for background music or for music to read by. The music is often too attention-grabbing. You simply cannot ignore it. When company comes over, I often have to turn the volume on my NAD way down so that the music doesn't become too intrusive (though, thankfully, the NAD is old enough to still have a loudness button to boost the low and high frequencies so that the music still sounds natural at low volumes).

Of the six-hundred or so cd's in my collection, I haven't had a single one that skipped or wouldn't play properly (though I may not have played every single one yet over the nine month period). I did have a pair of Deutche Gramaphone CDs that wouldn't play at first because the holes in the middle were too small and they wouldn't load properly. I widened the holes with a few twists of a rolled-up piece of emery cloth and the problem was solved. Also, I have one cd that the D500 jumps onto too quickly (Mozart Symphonies 36, etc. Naxos 8.550264), cutting off the first second or two of the opening movement. My Technics didn't do this so I know that the D500 is at fault (though a bit of back-tracking easily overcomes this little annoyance). But these are minor quibbles that are easily dealt with.

As a final note, I had also contemplated the Ah! Tjoeb which is supposed to have a warmer and rounder (but less precise and focused, and with less impetus) sound than the D500. But if I want a warmer sound I can always upgrade to a tube amp and still take advantage of the D500's clarity and precision. With the Ah! Tjoeb I'd be stuck with the warm fuzzies forever.

In all, I believe that the Cambridge Audio D500 is an excellent player to start building a system on. If I ever win the lottery, I know I'll probably be able to get something better, but for now, I am content. The music is, once again, alive and, for me, that's all that counts.

Similar Products Used:

Similar Equipment Used:
Pioneer PD-M423; Technics SL-PG300; Harmon Kardon HD720; Toshiba SD-3109 (DVD); Panasonic DVD-A150; Pioneer DV-515 (DVD).