Good CD carousal for $500

Well it is time to replace my 10 yr old Kenwood carousal :-)

Before I start I would like to mention that I am not very picky about
the mechanical noise of opening and closing of the tray. If I am ok with
my old Kenwood I guess anything that I buy now for $500 should be fine.

I was planning to get the Rotel RCC-1055 carousal but some people
think RCC-1055 may not be as good as the single disc RCD-1072.
I did compare them at the store but a few mins or even hours in a store
isnt same as auditioing them at home.

I also have OPPO 980H and I am very happy with it for 2ch CD.
If the 980H had a carousal I would be sold on it :-)


So any recommendations for a good CD carousal. I am not into CD changers
or music servers so I have excluded that option.

Thanks

well like I said I am not very concerned about the mechanism.
If my kenwood lasts for 10 yrs and still works well it is not at all
my concern. I am sure when I pay $500 I am not getting a piece
of junk. I am also not looking for no name brands that I can
buy from Walmart!

Unless you soak all parts in grease, there is going to be noise and
wear and tear. You are taking as if the tray of a CD carousal will
fall apart the moment you open it.

What I like to compare is sound quality not build quality. So lets not start an unnecessary war comparing 1-disc build verses carousal build.

Like I said if I can get the same sound as 980H on a carousal (which will not fall apart in 2-3 years) I will be happy with it.

I am mentioning 980H as that is the only player that I own which is a current model. I dont think I can compare my 10 yr old Kenwood with current models.

I sure would like to spend less.

I have ordered the Yamaha RX-V659 reveiver. I have the RX-V795a receiver
which I am replacing. Infact I got the RX-V661 but didnt like the sound. I am sure I had it set to 2 channel mode but the highs were not sharp at all and the mid-range was too forward. Where as my 6 yr old 795a sounds far superior to 661. There is a good review of 659 at audioholics. So I decided to get that. I dont need HDMI right now.

So if I can use the digital connection, like you said I could buy a cheaper carousal. I set some $500 as the budget based on the Rotel carousal price.

Many of the AV receivers use the same burr-brown dacs used by Rotel. So I could just get a cheap CD carousal and use digital connection.
Infact this is what I am doing with my 10yr old Kenwood carousal.
The RX-V661 also uses the burr-brown dac but I dont know why it sounded inferior. I also tried the analog connection to 980H and that was also bad. May be the 661 receiver was defective. Since I bought it from a Hi-Fi store (big mistake) I couldnt just return it. I also didnt bother about getting a replacement.

I should have bought it from BB or internet store.

Anyway...

lesson learned: dont buy a mass market receiver from a Hi-Fi dealer which doesnt have a return policy at all :-)

BTW one of the main reasons why I am trying to replace my old carousal is that it doesnt have on/off on the remote. Otherwise I could just use it as a transport and not bother to spend more money on a new carousal.

It has one major feature which I am not seeing in many players whether
1-disc or carousal.

I can not only program the CD's, I can also store the program. So next time I play the same CD I dont have to program again. I can store programs for up to 100 CD's. Sure all CD players have the program feature but once you turn off the CD player, the program is gone. So I have to re-program each time I want to play. Where as on my Kenwood DP-R6080 I just program once and save them. When I start the player I just press the "PGM FILE" button to play the programs.


So any of the current carousals have this option.

Please note the difference: Just programing vs saving the programs.

I dont do it for the obvious reason that the CD player auto starts!

you mean it has the feature to save the programs.

I posted this in another thread. didnt get any response. So
copying the same post here.

I have the pdf file of the manual but I have no way to post it. I dont
have a personal URL to post it. If anyone likes to post it, I can email
the pdf file.
-------------------------------------------------------------
I have a Kenwood DP-R6080 carousal. It is some 10 yrs old but
still works and plays fine. I guess Kenwood no longer makes CD players.

It has a feature/button called "PGM FILE". Please note that this is not same
as just program-play option all the above mentioned cd players give.
The problem with just program-play option is that they disappear when the
unit is turned off. Where as on my Kenwood once I program the tracks on
a CD and save it, it is there for ever unless I clear it or re-program it.

On my Kenwood I can program the tracks for a CD and then save this
by just pressing the "PGM FILE" button. Next time I play the same CD,
I can play that program by pressing that button again. I dont know how
it recognizes each CD. But I guess that is beyond the scope of the discussion
and I also dont know much about CD player technology. Who cares how
it does. But it does :-) I guess CD's have some information stored
which can be accessed by the CD players to identify the CD's or something.
Anyway...it doesnt matter how my good old kenwood does. May be
it has a small hard disk or memory to store the info. I dont have the
manual anymore so I cant find out more about it. I can put a picture
of the front panel :-)

The only issue is that this feature is only on the front panel and so
cant be used from remote. Fine with me as my CD player is just within my
reach. Also it only allows 100 CD's to be saved. Not a problem to me
as I dont have 100 CD's. I also dont program all CD's. I only do those
that have just 1 or 2 songs that I like so that I dont have to play
all the lousy songs in the CD.

So now my question is: are there any CD carousals that will let me save the
program so that they dont disappear when I turn the unit off.
I know there are CD players with a hard disk. But I dont want to spend
that much. I know they are uncompressed files but I prefer to play
the CD and use an option like the "PGM FILE" on my Kenwood.

I dont know for how long my Kenwood will last. So it is time to
replace it with something that has the same/similar feature