"I Prefer Their Old Stuff"

My Marantz CD-63SE CD player has finally given up the ghost after fifteen years of sterling work, being used pretty much everyday, it now refuses to play around 50% of discs. I have recently been using my Yamaha CDR-D651 CD recorder that I bought a few years ago for copying discs, but it just doesn’t quite step up to the mark.

So, I decided to buy a decent player to replace my old friend the Marantz and came across this, the Audiolab 8200CD, which won CD Player Product of the Year at the What Hi-Fi Awards 2010 (see here). Reviews seem to say that it performs at a level that would usually cost upwards of £1500 but for half that. I like the fact that it has a USB connector so pc/mac media players can be played through it and mp3s will benefit from the incorporated DAC (Digital to Analogue Converter) and be brought to near CD quality.

I will update this to give you my first impressions when it’s delivered! 😀

Update: 5 weeks later and I still haven’t got this 😦 Audiolab are due to send out stock this month.

Update Update: 10/02/11 It was delivered yesterday, only six weeks since I ordered it! Listening now, mmm, sounds bloody good!