CD Player/Transport Reviews

I get that there are people out there who only listen to CD's and will never go down the computer route but to limit yourself as a manufacturer at this price point and not inlcude any digital inputs seems limiting to customers who might want to purchase it and have the option down the line of using a digital input.  Just sayin' 

I agree with volvic in that Parasound seems rather shortsighted for not including digital inputs on this unit.  With the popularity of music servers and computer-based audio as a source, being able to use the CD1 as a DAC would be a huge benefit for many.  No SACD capability either, unlike many competitive units.

People that haven't heard,it,simply can not relate to how good this CD player really is.  

It is the only player I have heard with outstanding resolution and completely non fatiguing sound.  Resolution better than SACD or DVD audio on the top oppo players which sound good but to my ears ever so slightly bright.  That resolution was there for older 1980s CDs many of which were poor recordings and yet they sound better than I have ever heard them.  Most of my SACDs are hybrids and the Cd layer is all that will play and yet I would rather listen to the cd layer on the CD 1 then the SACD on the Oppo.  This is the most analog sounding digital player I have ever heard and every genre of music sounds good on it.  

I think the Parasound CD 1 is a player for those smart enough not to go down a fairly frustrating computer audio rabbit hole and who just want to hear great sound.  I compared the cd 1 to two different set ups computer related.  One was using a Wyred for sound modded Sonos player both the 44 K model and the 96 K model connected to my wi fi set up.  Most f my music is in Wave files but I also had some Flac files which will play on the sonos.  I used an audio quest,digital cable run between the sonos and the using the built in dac in a MAC 6700.  The Parasound CD1 kicked it's butt.  I had two audio buddies over and we matched songs on the sonos and the cd 1 so that you go go back and fourth.  I used the analog balanced outputs on the cd1 into the MAC .  One of my buddies uses the modded sonos 96 k in his set up but we all agreed the cd 1 sounded better on every tune we played.  We then compared music played on a MAC laptop via USB against the CD 1.  The resolution of the dad's inside the Mad via USB upsamples to 192.  But again in every case music sounded better on the CD1.

so I've been trying to why the emphasis on computer audio is so hot?  Having been told by the audiophile press that higher resolution is better people have consumed the kook aid.  To me now it seems that perhaps we are just finally getting to the place where we understand how best to get the information off of a disc and convert it to analog In a really high quality way,where it competes with the best analog.  The CD1 does it better than anything I have heard and clearly simply having higher resolution music files is not the answer.  Computer audio seems to offer a million confusing paths to music that is good but not great.  Just my Opinion.