The fact that digital has flown in the last 15 years or so is unbelievably true. A $700 CD player would regularly best most $3,000 units from 10 to 15 years ago. The Arcam CD73 is a KILLER unit. It's one of the best affordable units out there. Arcam goes as far as to be involved with the design of the DAC chips used in it's CD players (Wolfson.) Almost no other CD player manufacturer can make that claim. When it comes to integrateds, preamps, and amps buying used is a great idea. When it comes to speakers it's sometimes a good idea. When it comes to Digital it's ALMOST NEVER a good idea. Unless of course you have an audiophile buddy who upgrades all of the time.

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The fact that digital has flown in the last 15 years or so is unbelievably true. A $700 CD player would regularly best most $3,000 units from 10 to 15 years ago. The Arcam CD73 is a KILLER unit. It's one of the best affordable units out there.

I second that. Arcam in general makes very good sounding players and this particular one is fantastic.

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When it comes to integrateds, preamps, and amps buying used is a great idea. When it comes to speakers it's sometimes a good idea. When it comes to Digital it's ALMOST NEVER a good idea. Unless of course you have an audiophile buddy who upgrades all of the time.

I don't know if I would go that far in my proclamation, but it's a valid point in that most progress recently has been made in digital playback and the current offerings of digital players run circles around those from 15 years ago. However, if you do come across a player from 5-7 years ago at a great price, then you may want to consider buying one used. Otherwise, you can't really go wrong with the Arcam for $700 and you'd be hard pressed to find anything that would compete with it for that kind of money on the used market.

The Rotel 1072 at around $6-700 is a nice machine and good value.

Emotiva is coming out with a new CD player next month:

1. 24 bit processor with 384 x oversampling. (Most 'high end' players are 24 bit with 192 x oversampling)

2. Frequency response is 5hz to...absolute daylight. from 20hz to 20khz, it's flat as a board.

3. 4 independent power supplies, to drive each section of the unit separately. (1. CD carriage/2. digital portion/3. analogue portion/4. display) This prevents the different sections from interacting and causing noise.

4. The CD drive mechanism and the digital portion of the audio is encased in a steel substructure that shields it 100% from the audio stages. No noise from the mechanism or digital portion can get into the audio.

5. The audio board itself is fully isolated from the power supply and digital poritons and offers a fully discrete output stage, capable of producing 7 volts of output (no wimpy 2 volt output here!).

I believe it may be $499 and they have a money back guarantee

What DAC and transport are they using, Rich?

Good question? If you go to Emotiva audio.com and go to forums and click on the media you'll see the information they are releasing about the CD player. I just go an Emotiva amp and preamp and they are quality audio components for audiophiles

I've never listened to those Arcam's myself but they are older units and as many posters have indicated (myself included) many times buying used digital products isn' the bargain it appears to be on first glance. Plus of course they don't have a warranty and CD players are more likely to wear out than nearly any other high-end product (with the exception of a phono cartridge) because of the laser and the motor in the transport. Keep in mind both are about 10 years old. If you can get them at a really great price and have the option to listen to them before making the final decision they might be in the running but but other than that if I were in your shoes I'd keep walking. Keep in mind that comes from a guy that has bought nearly his entire system used (minus cables and power conditioner) so I'm not against used products. I'm just not crazy about used digital products, ESPECIALLY CD players.

I have a Marantz CD 5003 which uses a lot of components from their high end line costing 4 figures and it is amazing. It retails for $349 and I would stack it up against CD players costing 3 times as much

Wes Philips really liked the Arcam 73 when he reviewed it several years ago. I've not heard the player.

A couple of years ago I listened to a few sub $700 players to replace my Marantz 67SE. I kept my Marantz.

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I have a Marantz CD 5003 which uses a lot of components from their high end line costing 4 figures and it is amazing. It retails for $349 and I would stack it up against CD players costing 3 times as much

Yup!

Also, check out...

This Marantz.

Unbeatable value. Sounds good, too!

And this one... A steal at 399.00!

I have both and am very happy.

I spent last night playing my CES SACD's on the second one and I can't think of a criticism right now!

I own a set of Emotiva monoblocks, that I have never set up, but on display they sounded well above their price, the build quality is pretty impressive, and the ability to do imaginative things with it is pretty amazing.

I wish Stereophile would review their product.

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I own a set of Emotiva monoblocks, that I have never set up, but on display they sounded well above their price, the build quality is pretty impressive, and the ability to do imaginative things with it is pretty amazing.

I wish Stereophile would review their product.

So you'd finally know how they sound?

Sorry. It was such a good audio straight line!

More a case of there being a lot of interesting stuff out there that the trades don't get to. The forums are full of gear I have never heard of.