Audiophile portable CD player

Dear Dr. Jon Wong,

Being an audiophile, I like to bring along a portable CD player (discman) when travelling. Recently I am using AKAI PD-X73, which is actually the one that known as RADIO SHACK OPTIMUS CD-3400 in the USA and once favoured by STEREOPHILE's editors six years ago. The player is getting old and failed to read disc intermittently, therefore I have decided to seek a new player. My listening materials are very wide range but more on acoustic side, from small scaled ethnic music to symphonic orchestra. I wish that Dr.Wong could advice or give recommendations in seeking a new player, with my budget of S$300. Thank you.

Julien

Hello Julien!

Do not under estimate the performance of some portable CD players! I remember someone, who was limited by room size, used a Toshiba CD portable player to drive the Bryston power amplifier and the ProAc Tablete.

The sound stage was awesome. I nearly fell off the chair when I discovered it was just a portable player!

It is not appropriate for us to mention which brand is better than which here, because there are so many good models to choose from than 6 years ago! With your budget, you can buy a pretty impressive portable CD player and even stretch a bit to buy a pair of high quality (and also high efficiency!) European head phone as well. My suggestion is you find a model that does not come with a lot of fiddly gadgets such as supper bass boom or flashy control knobs. Get a sturdy unit with good audio spec, good facilities in resisting vibration, and something with a metal chasis. It is easy to spot a few brilliant models from big names like Sony, Panasonic and etc.

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