I've been looking for a CD player to replace my dying, barely-functional Technics SL-PD6 for a while, but I've had no luck finding anything decent. Well, last night this Panasonic DVD-F87 showed up in the disposal area of my own building:
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Fired it up and found it works 100% perfectly, including immediately reading a bunch of discs that the Technics choked on. It's a DVD player, but seems to be designed towards audio playback (and looks like it has a really good reputation for that if you search around.) Unfortunately it can't play SACDs (I have exactly one SACD in my possession) but it does handle some neat things like HDCD and multichannel DVD-Audio discs, which I've been wanting to mess with. Has SPDIF out (coax only) & 5.1 analog right on the back panel.
No, I'm not leaving it permanently set up on top of my wastepaper basket. 😜 It's going into my stereo setup but I might stick a little video monitor on it anyway. I'm a bit disappointed with the lack of interesting visuals while playing an audio CD though - was hoping for a Jeff Minter-style light synth - but can't complain too much for the price.
twitch.tv/oldskooljay - playing the obscure, forgotten & weird - most Tuesdays & Thursdays @ 6:30 PM PDT. Bonus streams elsewhen!