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Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

Magnavox CDB-586 for me

A few weeks ago I bagged a CDB-586 from a thrift shop for <$10.00. I cleaned it up and checked its operation out to then plug it into my system. Well I was quite impressed by it. It had a round almost analogue sound, nice texture though in comparison to my previous reference unit a Cambridge Audio D-300se it has less air. It outperforms my Pioneer PDR-555RW CD recorder as the PDR-555RW plays through the built in Burr Brown 24/96 DAC on my Denon AVR-3802 (running as my preamp, tuner, surround processor). It definitely outperforms most run of the mill CD players that proliferate the market today and over the last many years. As I said it offers a fidelity of soothing roundness to its sound. Good presence and nice general texture in sound but no it is not perfect but it is pleasant I think that is the best word for it. I'm certain many an audiophile who has been rather brainwashed to think newer and more pricier gear is better may be surprised as how good these older generation Philips/Magnavox units can be.

Mine has the CDM-4/19 swing arm laser / transport so it tracks well and it has the TDA-1541A 16 bit Dual DAC's. These 1980's 16 bit DAC's by Philips obviously have a grand tradition and general respect for quality. The CDM-4 like its previous CDM-2 and CDM-1 transports works like a champ but so typical with them it takes a second or so longer to skip from track to track as compare to the plethora of other laser/transports.

All in all my CDB-586 is a charmer and impresses the heck out of me.



Edits: 07/01/09

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