Bryston BCD-3
 

Hello everyone ... new subscriber but long-time lurker here.

I'm in the market for a new CD player. My player for the last 23 years has been the estimable Meridian 508.24, which I bought new in 1998 for $3495. While the Meridian still performs flawlessly, I'm itching to upgrade to the 21st century.

I have a collection of about 4500 CDs, of which about 3% are hybrid SACDs. While it would be great to have true SACD capability, I don't want to spend double the cost of a great red-book CD player.

I've been looking at two players: the Bryston BCD-3, and the Technics SL-G700. As you know, the Bryston is CD only, and the Technics is both CD and true SACD (along with streaming, which I have no interest in). I have also owned Bryston power for the last 24 years, and the amp and preamp perform flawlessly; I'm very impressed by Bryston products, and so am leaning toward the BCD-3. But the Technics is enticing, and I've read some good reviews of it.

What would you recommend? I use balanced interconnects and want to stay that way. My self-imposed limit is 5k. Also, I have no interest in used products ... having learned a hard lesson a long time ago. Finally, I'm basing my search on the assumption that either the Bryston or the Technics will offer significant sonic improvement over my 23-year-old 508.24. If anyone disagrees with that, please let me know.

I really would appreciate your advices.

jeroboam… Welcome to AA! :wave:

I updated my Sonic Frontiers CD-1 transport and Classe DAC to Bryston BDP-2 and BOT-1 years ago. BOT-1 is now discontinued unfortunately. But this combination was by far much better then the Classe system I had. Both Classe CD and DAC were rated #1 by Stereophile.

I’m sure the BCD-3 will give you the same experience.

To be honest, I play most of my music (a lot!) streaming via Tidal through my BDP-2.

What DAC are you using? I have the Bryston BDA-3 on order which I had on demo in my house for a few week’s and loved it!

Considering inflation you might be justified increasing your 5k limit to attain a comparable
level of quality and open the door to a wider selection of players. The Esoteric K07xs retails for approximately 7k and can be had for a good discount. :thumbsup:

I know you still want to play discs, but my vote goes to the BDA-3.14.
Once you'll get the taste of streaming, you won't spin much anymore.
And the DAC/streamer has HDMI-inputs. Connect a universal player and you can still spin (SA)CDs.

Thank you for the message. The Meridian player has two Crystal 24-bit DACs. I like the one-box concept, which is why I'm looking intently at the BCD-3.

Like mentioned in this thread, CDs are great and you have many. Maybe some very rare ones.

Although I have less CDs then you, some are very rare. Once I started streaming I’ve have not played a CD for years.

You should be able to purchase both the BCD and BDP-3 within your budget. And setup a streaming service. Trust me, once you use something like Tidal, you will love it! Everything I ever wanted to listen to I’ve found on Tidal. Sure, some classic music may not be on it, but with this combo you have more then you’ll ever need.

I’ve done back to back with CD via my BOT 1 and Tidal, and both sound the same. Did this with many reference songs. Using Tidal and a digital streamer there is access to highly remastered music that have surpassed my CD sonics.

The resolution you get from the BDP is incredible.

Well ... who knows what the future will bring?!? But today I bought the Bryston BCD-3 (thank you, Ivan!). And it's possible that one day I'll add the BDP-3, or its successor. My discs are mostly classical, and mostly piano at that, with many rarities, and I do get pleasure from handling the physical product. I'm hoping that the new Bryston player will give me many years of enjoyment, like the Meridian has. Report to follow sometime in the new year, after I've had a chance to thoroughly listen to the BCD-3.

Congrats!
There are other streaming services that offer classical music. Tidal is very limited for this.
Do some research on which would provide your genres.

Congrats indeed!
I also still spin CDs from time to time (the signal goes via my streamer, to benefit from its terrific clock and upsampling).
But the majority of the time, it's Qobuz! You'll find lots of very rare classical recordings there, more than you'll ever be able to listen to.