Marantz CD 67 SE

There are simply not enough superlatives to describe this CD Player. The CD67SE is a single disc CD player. Obviously you're going to have to connect it to something that will do it justice. (My setup involves a Yamaha DSP-A595a and Kef Coda 9 floor-standers.

Sound -

I play many different music types, from classical to metal and rock. The output of this player is just fantastic and warm. I only ever use the Analogue outputs, since with a player like this you're paying for the expertise that went in to designing the D-A converter in the box to provide you with such a great sound.

Outputs -

The rear of the unit has Analogue outputs (On a CD Player like this, what else would you use?) and a Digital co-ax and digital optical out. There are also connectors for a remote control link to other Marantz Hi-Fi equipment you may have. (There's also a switch to set the remote control from external to internal...)

There is also a headphone jack on the front of the player.

Controls -

The front of the unit is cleanly designed, and very simple.
Besides Play, Pause and Stop, there are track skip forwards and backwards, and fast-forward and reverse. These are all separate buttons. No messing about pressing and holding to try to make it work.

For convenience, there are buttons marked 1-0 to allow you to type in a track number directly. No skipping tracks if there are a lot on the disc.

The player is programmable, so if you're taping things, you can program in which tracks from a disc to play back. Some other nice touches are a dimmer button, to dim the display on the unit - fine for a romantic night listening to some jazz - soft lighting will not be interrupted by a bright display! You can also make the player count the time down, rather than up - just so you don't have any awkward silences if your romantic night in doesn't go to plan.

Remote -

The remote has all of the functions of the control panel on the front of the player (except power) and in addition to those, it has a volume control, which will adjust the output from the player, and it also has the all important "random" button, to make the player choose random tracks from the CD to play.

Things that are missing -

CD Text. But I can't find any discs with CD Text anyway, so it's really a moot point.

mp3s - can't play them. But why would you play mp3s on such a nice piece of audio equipment? Keep your mp3s on your portable player.

Conclusions -

I have had this player for several years, and it continues to give great service. I haven't even had to take dust out from inside it, since it is so well built, hardly anything gets inside. It's a high quality product that gives a high quality sound.