CD Players

The CD Player is not dead! CD players are not difficult to find here at Duratone Hi-Fi we carry new CD Players at a range of prices with full warranties. We also fix or service CD Players purchased from Duratone or one of our other stores.

The CD player started production in 1982 and while streaming services have largely replaced the CD player, the silver marvel CD is still preferred by some for their simplicity and sound. While new technology has helped people to stream vast amounts of music simply, it has been at the expense of sound quality. Simply put, a budget CD player when playing its native 16 bit 44.1 kHz PCM format is in most instances, superior in sound to that of more expensive streamers that are connecting to budget streaming services. It is definitely without doubt a vast improvement in sound quality to that of the current budget Bluetooth systems. Until the prices of quality streamers reduces and native PCM 16bit 44.1 kHz becomes the entry level norm for streaming, there is still life in the humble CD player.

CD Player Disc Technology

CD disc technology ushered in a new era in high fidelity sound reproduction, enabling up to 70 minutes of full fidelity audio in a compact format. The players developed to use the technology delivered, even the most modestly engineered, previously unheard of levels of rich full sound, free from noise and there was no need to turn the disc over midway through.

Many manufacturers responded, offering a wide selection of players, ranging from very basic uncritical machines to the exotic, the latter having extreme attention paid to disc rotational stability, advanced digital to analogue conversion and higher sampling rates. Some exotics are even equipped with “old fashioned” tubes in the preamplifier circuitry in a search for smoother sounding audio performance. However the CD format is subject to historically imposed technical limits: a 16 bit data stream sampled at 44.1 Kilohertz. But many find the digital sound harsh, too clinical or lacking in presence.