I normally don't write reviews but this product is so special that it's compelled me tell others. I'm writing this on the basis that I own and have owned quite a few players. I think all products have trade offs and what it comes down to is what we judge individually as the best given our own values. In my humble opinion... the CD5004 performs way above its price and will stand up to any player I've heard in the $1500 or so class. It is that good.

It is truly an impressive player in that it conveys all to nuances needed to enjoy the music. If you're the type of audiophile looking for a player to extract the very last bit of digital info.... the CD5004 is probably not for you. In comparison to other players I own and have owned, it most resembles the qualities of Rega and Musical Fidelity players. Its a very musical sounding player with the prioritization of a solid midband. Its very open and transparent with a bit of warmth. Vocals really shine with this player. The extreme highs and lows seem to be rolled off a tiny bit and I think that might be the biggest difference compared to higher end players. Don't get me wrong, we are speaking of small margins here. The CD5004 is able to paint a big vivid 3D picture. It is impressive how close this player stands up against even highly regarded highly priced CD spinners. A reference product for sure.

If you are looking for a CD player under $1000, this should be on your short list. You won't regret the purchase even if you bought blindly. It is a solid player and hard to fault at this price.

I received this CD player only yesterday, and have only listened to one disc of mixed songs and genre's, but already I have to say that it sounds amazing. Even my wife is starting to sit up and listen and sort of understands what I'm talking about when I call out - honey, you've got to come and listen to this!!

The CD5004 is the final piece to my budget audiophile system. My system started out as more geared towards home cinema, fronted by a Marantz SR7000 surround amp [received positive reviews as having good 2-channel stereo playback as well] with a Marantz DV4200 DVD player [again received good reviews as a decent CD player] and a set of tower speakers bought from a local designer with a LPG titanium tweeter and Axon 6S1 woofers. It all sounded pretty good.

Then the upgrade bug hit, and I sold the SR7000 and picked up the NAD C352 two-channel stereo amplifier. HUGE improvement over the Marantz – amazing improvements in power, imaging, extension at both ends of the frequency range, clarity – to coin a phrase, “it was like I was listening to songs for the first time”.

Next, I played around with speaker cables and interconnects. Initially, I had some low-end Ixos interconnects and speaker cables, and swapped those out with speaker cables from Supra and interconnects from DH-Labs. Many argue whether cables make a difference or not – I have to side with the ones that say they do, you don’t have to break the bank on cables but well worth spending a couple extra dollars to get a quality cable. Maybe not a huge difference but enough that as soon as I plugged them in, I could sit back and smile….nice!! I could also add that even changing the NAD factory jumpers from the preamp to power section made a difference. Perhaps part of the reason I’m hearing differences with each equipment change is my listening environment; because I have young children in a small house, I listen at very moderate levels and any little change is perceptible [to me anyways] perhaps compared to if I was cranking it up and shaking the foundation.

Next step was speakers. Enter the Wharfedale 8.3. Changing from titanium to silk tweeter took a bit of getting used to, but where the metal domes would sometimes scream and fatigue, the silk domes are a joy to listen to without being tiring. I also found the silk domes much more detailed – cymbals were clearer, background singers were more “there”, voices and snare drums more natural – and the single Kevlar woofer of the 8.3's was putting out more bass then the two woofer setup of my previous speaker. Bass lines and kick drums had far more impact and were easier to follow. “Are you going through your cd collection AGAIN?” the wife was asking. I had to – this was starting to sound REALLY GOOD!!

Finally, the CD player; as mentioned at the top, I’ve only listened for about an hour, but it is amazing. I was worried that I might not hear much of a difference between the DVD player and the CD5004, but right from pushing the play button for the first time, I was stunned by the difference. The high-end is amazing, giving the somewhat laid back Wharfedales just that little extra bit of top-end sparkle and clarity – listen to the complex arrangement of cymbal’s on Van Halen’s “Top of the World”, and it’s brought about with amazing accuracy – previously rather jumbled with the DV4200 dvd player. Or track the complex bass and drum lines of Van Halen’s “Humans Being” – again amazing. Listen to the reverberations from the kick drum at the beginning of the Eagles live “Hotel California”, or Alison Krauss’ and Robert Plants voices on “Raising Sand”, throughout the frequency range this player lays it all out with amazing clarity, naturalness and impact.

This CD player has really injected new life into my “old” system, and seems to work really well with my NAD C352 amp and Wharfedale speakers. I know we are only talking “budget” equipment here, but so far I’m very impressed with the CD5004.system.
Build quality seems very good as well, it’s a solid unit, very quiet and I found the remote and its functions very easy to operate.

I chose this unit because previous models received good reviews and early reviews on the CD5004 were positive, and a great deal came along. I had listened to cd players from NAD and Arcam as well, albeit in a showroom hooked up to other equipment, they sounded good too. But for the money, I would highly recommend the Marantz CD5004 player.