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CD Players

The CD player has been the most common form of music source for the past 30 years, virtually replacing vinyl turntables and radio tuners as the most convenient, high quality music format. High sound quality, absence of background noise and ease of use made the CD a hit with consumers, as it still is today. For convenience, it is hard to beat a multi-disc CD player which allows 5 or 6 CD's to be loaded for replay individually or in sequence for up to 5 or 6 hours continuous music.

Downloads and music streaming have started to reduce CD's dominance in the marketplace, but it will continue to be with us for many years yet, we believe. Standard CD players replay discs using 16 bit 44.1kHz sampling, but the best sounding CD players have low jitter transports with precision DAC circuitry, often able to upsample to 24 bit at 192kHz sampling.

If you have an external DAC, you can choose a CD transport rather than a CD player with integrated DAC - better sound quality should be on offer from a dedicated transport.

All CD players will perform of their best when matched to similar quality amplifiers and loudspeakers, and connected using good quality audio cables. For more guidance on purchasing the best CD player for your hi-fi system, see our How to choose CD players article on our blog.