Any recommendations for a radio/CD player (mains powered)

[johnb]

I am astounded that some CD players insert gaps (or momentary pauses) between tracks. (Perhaps that shows my naivety.)

Another thing I noticed about the Cambridge One is that it uses a slot loading mechanism. I would never use a slot loading player, except in a car and with copy CDs.

My experience of slot loading was with a from cheap <cough> Meridian G92. When a CD is inserted into the slot it is grabbed by rollers, and later the same rollers are used when ejecting the disc. It is inevitable that dust will settle on the rollers. This causes the rollers to make faint scuff marks on the CD when they grab the disc and later when you remove the ejected CD from the rollers. In the short term the scuff marks didn't affect the playability of the disc but I was concerned about the long term accumulation of scuff marks. This was one of the reasons I moved entirely to streaming from HDD.

[Anastasius]

I am astounded that some CD players insert gaps (or momentary pauses) between tracks. (Perhaps that shows my naivety.)

Another thing I noticed about the Cambridge One is that it uses a slot loading mechanism. I would never use a slot loading player, except in a car and with copy CDs.

My experience of slot loading was with a from cheap <cough> Meridian G92. When a CD is inserted into the slot it is grabbed by rollers, and later the same rollers are used when ejecting the disc. It is inevitable that dust will settle on the rollers. This causes the rollers to make faint scuff marks on the CD when they grab the disc and later when you remove the ejected CD from the rollers. In the short term the scuff marks didn't affect the playability of the disc but I was concerned about the long term accumulation of scuff marks. This was one of the reasons I moved entirely to streaming from HDD.

TBH Johnb I think that you have worried unnecessarily as the built-in error-correction will cope with an awful lot of CD damage. Personally I'd prefer to listen to CDs unless my HDD had an incredible sampling rate..

[jayne lee wilson]

Anything from Cambridge Audio is off the list. Certainly the Cambridge One inserts gaps. Yet they get rave reviews from the Hi-Fi rags. Speaks volumes for Hi-Fi rag reviews.

At first sight Yamaha seem fine.

Which Cambridge model are you referring to? Have you auditioned it? Their separates range is very well-designed, good-sounding and pretty well-built, and reviews consistently well for those reasons....
I lived for 4 years with their excellent DacMagic. I recall reviews mentioning the gapless problem with one of their streamers, but none of their separate CD Players would fail to play gaplessly....(often reviewed in HFN who wouldn't fail to pick up on something as bizarre as that...)

(Incidentally JohnB, my Tivoli Model CD is a slotloader and has played faultlessly over 10 years now... I was initially worried about how it would treat discs, but never found any of them to be marked in any way. Fine-sounding design too. Very fond of it in a bedroom system...Drawer-loading has its problems too of course, but that's another story....)

[Anastasius]

Well, Cambridge One as I said in my post. Then there is the Topaz 10 ? From their website. I have no idea if these are current models or not but for me I wouldn't even look at Cambridge if they can't get this right ...albeit however long ago it might have been. If the CD says 'Do this' and the player does not then that's it for me. Why waste my time enquiring any further as to their latest models. Please remember, though, that you are approaching this from the perspective of an audiophile with incredibly good hearing ! I used to be but now circumstances (and ears) dictate a lesser hearing. But gapless sticks out like a sore thumb !

• Cambridge Audio
• TOPAZ CD10
• Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Topaz CD10 support gapless CD playback?

The CD10 does not support gapless CD playback. There will be a momentary pause in-between tracks when playing CD's; this is normal when changing from track to track.
This will not affect the playback of regular CD's, however please note that 'gapless' albums will have a small pause between tracks.

I'm afraid that this risible response from Cambridge Audio is a CoS and/or BS of the first order. Almost on a par with the response from Philips.

[jayne lee wilson]

Well I guess I must've only read reviews of the Dacs and the Azur range before, but I'm stunned and saddened to find that out about the Topaz.... it is indeed unnecessarily poor design and a poor (almost incoherent) FAQ/response.... and from a company with such a long and great tradition....
All are bowed
with head hang low...

Once upon a time Cambridge Audio went to a lot of trouble....

http://www.hifinews.co.uk/news/article/cambridge-audio-cd1-vintage/20558

http://tvhf.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/cambridge-cd1.html

https://www.stereophile.com/content/cambridge-audio-cd1-cd-player

[Anastasius]

As I intimated elsewhere...follow the money. If you want to make the maximum profit then you will design your stuff around some cheap-as-chips integrated circuit from China. The fact that it ignores the Red Book is of no interest. And which explains why a lot of other manufacturers combined radio/CD players are the same. Gap-py.

Which does beg the question....why would Cambridge Audio stick the same 'El Cheapo' IC in their products as a bottom-end of the range Roberts radio or similar ?

[Dave2002]

Re msg 14

Several things.

1. Is it really not possible to set the time between tracks to zero (0) and thus achieve gapless playback?

2. Possibly there is flexibility in the “standards”, which would allow manufacturers to either achieve gapless playback, or not! I’m not sure that it’s likely, but that might be the case. In that case one might hope that consumers would check ASAP after purchase and immediately return the goods as not fit for purpose.

Perhaps several of your CD players have been designed within the specs to give gapless playback, but the one that doesn’t might still be compliant - I just don’t know. Market forces - that well known driver beloved of Mrs T should dictate that such devices are sent to the dump ASAP.

It’s hard to distinguish between hardware and software, as much “hardware” now contains significant software functionality.

[Anastasius]

Re msg 14

Several things.

1. Is it really not possible to set the time between tracks to zero (0) and thus achieve gapless playback? A CD does not have what you or I consider as tracks. It's a constant data stream and so there ARE no gaps.

2. Possibly there is flexibility in the “standards”, which would allow manufacturers to either achieve gapless playback, or not! I’m not sure that it’s likely, but that might be the case. In that case one might hope that consumers would check ASAP after purchase and immediately return the goods as not fit for purpose.

Perhaps several of your CD players have been designed within the specs to give gapless playback, but the one that doesn’t might still be compliant - I just don’t know. Market forces - that well known driver beloved of Mrs T should dictate that such devices are sent to the dump ASAP.

It’s hard to distinguish between hardware and software, as much “hardware” now contains significant software functionality.

The Red Book standard is just that. A standard. Early generation CD players were primarily chip based. But as chip design improved, different types of chips etc it will come down to the designers of the firmware inside said chips. And since the way modern electronics are developed...with daft short production life-cycles before the 'next one' has to come out...many manufacturers will not develop their own chips but buy one off the shelf. So if the idiots that designed those chips forget about gapless playback - which they clearly have - then it explains why so many CD players across the board and price range do not support gapless.

[jayne lee wilson]

The Red Book standard is just that. A standard. Early generation CD players were primarily chip based. But as chip design improved, different types of chips etc it will come down to the designers of the firmware inside said chips. And since the way modern electronics are developed...with daft short production life-cycles before the 'next one' has to come out...many manufacturers will not develop their own chips but buy one off the shelf. So if the idiots that designed those chips forget about gapless playback - which they clearly have - then it explains why so many CD players across the board and price range do not support gapless.

Come on now, that's far too sweeping.... How comprehensive was your survey?
I've either owned or auditioned or heard in others' systems many CD players from about £300 to rather a lot, from 1980s Sony battleships to vintage Krell and Marantz, my own mini-Tivoli, and more recent Arcam and AVI models. I can say for sure that none of them failed to play multi-tracked classical works continuously. Again, whilst shocked to find that the Cambridge Topaz is guilty of just that, I'm pretty sure it is a rare and very bad example in the separates market. Too many online reviewers seem to miss the problem in cheaper gear (probably through listening to little or no Classical program), but HiFINews would certainly not.

I did ask Cambridge about this and they confirmed that the 851C, CXC Transport and CXU models all do offer continuous "gapless" replay.

[Anastasius]

Fair cop, guv!

I also asked Cambridge and got this reply...

I can confirm that the 851C, CXC and CXUHD support gapless playback.

The choice to not include gapless playback in the One and Topaz CD10 was a conscious effort to produce the best sounding product at a certain price point. To have included a player with the same audio quality and a gapless playback feature would have pushed the cost of the unit up considerably as it would require a superior (and more expensive) component.

But it does prove my point that there are chipsets out there that do not support gapless. The annoying thing is that there is no way of finding out short of contacting each manufacturer and hoping that they respond. When I was looking for a replacement box the last time IIRC all the Roberts radio/CD players that I auditioned instore did not. One that I bought (Philips IIRC) had to go back to John Lewis.I'm guessing but I don't recall this being a problem on CD players of an earlier generation - be it standalone or a combined radio/CD player.