# Recommended CD player?



## Sayen (May 13, 2009)

I have some money budgeted for booth audio gear, and we've never had a quality CD player designed for theatrical playback - something with an easy fast forward/rewind, quick playing and cue options, that sort of thing. Any advice on a rack mount unit?


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## cprted (May 13, 2009)

If you're looking for sometime for theatre (as opposed to playing CDs for dance/variety shows), I would look at going the computer route. Look into SFX and/or Q-Lab. There is a thread on here somewhere that goes into a fair ammount of detail about these set ups.


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## avkid (May 13, 2009)

The Denon DN-D4500 is awesome.
DN-D4500





I don't think I had ever been in love with a CD player before I got one of these at my old theatre company.


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## Sayen (May 13, 2009)

Thank you both. I should clarify - I run all of my own shows off a laptop, for a variety of reasons, but as the building manager I have to dabble in all sorts of shows, including dance. I didn't realize how poor our existing system is - it's just some old CD player intended for home use, and won't even play burned CDs - until a recent dance rental.

I'm looking for things exactly along the lines of the Denon. I have to be honest though, I don't think I've ever spent much time learning what CD player options are available in the field.

Budget is around $800 right now.


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## DaveySimps (May 13, 2009)

We have two of the Tascam MD-CD1's. They have served us well for 5 years now, and are still running strong, even though we recently switched to SFX. They play .MP3 CD's, have pitch control, and other great features. Plus, you can use a standard PS/2 keyboard as a remote. There are a lot of great models out there in your price range.

TASCAM

~Dave


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## BillESC (May 13, 2009)

+ one on the Denon DN-4500. Fits in your budget with change back.


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## avkid (May 13, 2009)

Also, if you encode the disc correctly you can view your track names and artists.


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## jkowtko (May 13, 2009)

That's a lot of money for a CD player. If you really don't need all the advanced I/O, I suggest a Stanton C.501 for $300 and buy something else nice for yourself with the remainder ...


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## firewater88 (May 16, 2009)

I run (2) Tascam CD-01U Pros. They are slot load, pitch control, one rack unit with digital and analog outs. The greatest feature on these is Auto Ready and Auto Cue. With both those options enabled, it will play one track and pause at the beginning of the next. I run a lot of dance things here and found that NO cd player has played everything brought in these dance troops. I think it is in some way they record it, or just cheap media. Slot load CD players have some problems with CD's with labels (which dance troops use as well sometimes) although if you get a big enough label on the cd, it could through it off balance and skip. They are $500-600 each.


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## mnfreelancer (May 16, 2009)

firewater88 said:


> ...although if you get a big enough label on the cd, it could through it off balance and skip.



Or shoot the CD into the rear cavity of the unit taking the show down as happened to me a long, long time ago when somebody loaded a CD with masking tape on it into a tray load Marantz.


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## firewater88 (May 17, 2009)

mnfreelancer said:


> Or shoot the CD into the rear cavity of the unit taking the show down as happened to me a long, long time ago when somebody loaded a CD with masking tape on it into a tray load Marantz.



Wow... never seen that before. I did replace a tray load Marantz with the two Tascams. I am working a dance competition right now (as I type ) that wanted a CD player on stage, so I put my old Marzntz up there. So far it will NOT play any Memorex media put in it, we have to pause the show and I get the CD handed to me to play in the Tascam FOH. Almost all the CD's that they bring in have sticky type labels on them, so far none have "ejected to the rear of the unit". Sure hope that don't happen to me today!


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## pacman (May 18, 2009)

firewater88 said:


> I run (2) Tascam CD-01U Pros. They are slot load, pitch control, one rack unit with digital and analog outs. The greatest feature on these is Auto Ready and Auto Cue. With both those options enabled, it will play one track and pause at the beginning of the next. I run a lot of dance things here and found that NO cd player has played everything brought in these dance troops. I think it is in some way they record it, or just cheap media. Slot load CD players have some problems with CD's with labels (which dance troops use as well sometimes) although if you get a big enough label on the cd, it could through it off balance and skip. They are $500-600 each.



+ one for the CD-01U Pro. Also have two. They'll play anything you throw at them except the very worst disks that have been ground into the grit of the car floorboard where they've lived for the last six months. They also have a feature that allows speeding or slowing playback while retaining original pitch, or changing the pitch without changing the playback speed. Great for singers who can't quite hit that high note, or dancers learning a new routine. It works amazingly well, without the digital artifacts until you get to extremes.


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## Dionysus (May 19, 2009)

I love the DENON line. There are others than the aforementioned that are much more affordable. The entire line that you would be looking at is rack-mount, Cueable, and very handy. They all do a great job, and keep on ticking.
They are well worth the price, and can save you money compared to getting CD players that will die much sooner.


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## Shillyer (May 25, 2009)

pacman said:


> + one for the CD-01U Pro. Also have two. They'll play anything you throw at them except the very worst disks that have been ground into the grit of the car floorboard where they've lived for the last six months. They also have a feature that allows speeding or slowing playback while retaining original pitch, or changing the pitch without changing the playback speed. Great for singers who can't quite hit that high note, or dancers learning a new routine. It works amazingly well, without the digital artifacts until you get to extremes.



I also have had great experiences with the CD-01U Pro I only have one but it has been rock solid and I find slot load to be much better suited for performance situations. We also have the regular CD-01U although it lacks balanced outs it is also a great unit.


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## jkowtko (Aug 5, 2009)

Has anyone used the Marantz PMD321? 

I'm looking for a relatively inexpensive upgrade for our theater, and these units have XLR outs which I'm hoping will clean up the signal going into the board (vs RCA jacks). The PMD321's appear to be in the $150 range used.

Thanks. John


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## TimmyP1955 (Aug 8, 2009)

As to the problem of not playing burned CDs, it would seem that CD players than can play discs of mp3 files are a little more tolerant. But this may have been luck, as even some computers have this problem. Always burn at the slowest possible speed, and always back the files up to a USB stick in case the CD won't play.


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