Hi, now I know this cd player is a rather old model and they don't retail new anymore, but for the record and the purpose of someone else like myself who will find these reviews useful, they can still be purchased 2nd hand for a very reasonable price (and do). I picked one up today for just £9.99 in very good condition (except a few light scratches from general stacking of other components on top of it, but not even a single scratch on the display lens or front panel etc, that you might expect from a used item). I haven't really had chance to listen to it properly yet, though I did listen to a track for about a minute before I was called into work unexpectedly (lol), and I have to say it sounds smooth and warm, the treble isn't harsh at all and the bass is not edgy or un-tamed, the mid range frequencies don't take over the hi's or put the bass in the shadows either...everything just sounds like it's where it's supposed to be (again in the brief minute I listened, but comparing from memory when I listened to the same track on my previous player). I'm not an audiophile by any stretch, but I've seen this unit in quite high demand by audiophiles around the net because of it's simplicity and lack of fancy functions that when present, might suggest you "need" these extra functions to improve the performance of the unit, it's not the case here. You get the feeling Cambridge Audio said "this is how cd's are meant to be played and listened to, and this is how it's gonna be done!", and the results work. I'm aware certain items are not to everyone's personal taste, and I actually set out to find a replacement 5cd carousel player for my previous one that broke down, but I seen this and thought "it's Cambridge Audio, it's £9.99, as long as it works who's going to complain at that?" So I snapped it up and I'm rather pleased with myself. Back in the day they did retail brand new for £120, the highest price I've seen asked for one of these in used condition is £59.99 so...draw your own conclusions :)
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