CD/DVD Players

Even if we exclude the several other brand names (Mission, Meridian, Marantz, and others) that utilize the Philips chassis and mechanism, Philips had always maintained a commanding position in the sales numbers for CD players in Europe from their collaborative creation for the format (alongside Sony, of course). They had a tendency to focus their […]

Marantz is one of the rare firms that has succeeded in the mainstream while also progressing along the audiophile route. Its ambitions appear to have risen steadily over the last few years, as additional refinements and advancements surface in its Reference range. The SC-5 preamplifier, for example, is available with a battery power supply (of

Philips, which was first to market with CD players, had taken its time promoting units that can accept multidisc cartridges. The CDC875, a six-disc monster, was made available for £299.00, and touted to satisfy the needs of anyone who wants up to six hours of music on demand. The low price does not imply that

Rega’s first Planet CD player, which was released in the mid-1990s and was not to be confused with the first Planet turntable, was the company’s entry-level silver disc spinner. This was the 2000-model-year update, and it was an unusual piece of equipment. It’s a pleasure to operate simply because it doesn’t have a traditional drawer

MiniDisc was on its way out in 2003. Sales were dropping, and the format’s brief resurgence between 1998 and 1999 seemed like a distant memory. Of fact, it was at this point in its sales cycle that vinyl made significant advancements in the sound quality of its players, and we now see CD doing the

Compact disc had a particularly intriguing period in the early 1990s. Digital audio, like ‘that difficult second album,’ had a dilemma in terms of how to progress. Philips and Sony had developed slick second-generation machines, but these were simply evolutions of their first-generation goods, and it was time to start over and create fresh forward-thinking

The Cyrus CD transport, which was released in 2011 for £699, filled a much-needed vacuum in a hi-fi world that was suddenly seeing a drop in the number of silver disc spinners being produced. Linn had already announced that it would no longer offer Compact Disc players, and the major Japanese manufacturers — with the

A top Marantz engineer once told me, “The original Bitstream players sounded horrible.” You understand that this is strictly not for publishing, yet it is refreshingly open all the less. Others used more diplomatic terminology at the time, but it’s worth noting that the company didn’t release a flagship Bitstream system until 1994’s CD-15. This

The sheer quantity of low-cost Philips-based Marantz CD players produced in the 1980s and 1990s is staggering. The market was continuously moving throughout the heyday of the silver disc, and Marantz, like everyone else, had to come up with new features, adjustments, and/or style to maintain its market position. In 1988, Marantz released the CD65

In 1988, the recordable CD (also known as CD-R) was introduced. The format, known as CD-WO (CD-Write Once), was fully compatible with the original ‘Red Book’ CD standard, offering up to 74 minutes of recording (650 MB), although later CD-Rs gave up to 80 minutes of recording (800 MB) (737MB). CD-RW (CD-ReWriteable) discs were also