Having tried many CD players in the past, some of which cost way too much, I picked the cd5400 up for a very reasonable price from eBay. It has proved to be quite a revelation, with a clear detailed sound whilst being very musical, I have revisited many cd's in my collection. My cd5400 has worked perfectly, quiet transport and never misses a beat, I even have an old scratched Led Zep cd that I use to test how well it copes with errors, in a word "perfectly". I'm still not sure what or why you'd use the pitch control, I tried it then forgot about it!

This cd5400 is a keeper, if you find a clean well cared for example out there under£100 get it, and enjoy it!

Best cd player in its class. Match perfectly with Marantz Amplifier and Receiver to provide optimum sound.

Strengths:
Solid Build Quality.
Excellent value for money.
Sounds engaging, even at low volume.
Headphone with number of features which is very usefull.

Weaknesses:
None at this price.

Finally I had the change to find one of these in great used condition, and I bought it. I was after this model a long time ago. I advice everyone to try this player at least one time, and I will tell you why. Very well constructed player, solid rock mechanism (I would prefer an aluminum fascia, but looking at the price I absolutely understand the option). About the sound: ultra detailed, wide and profound soundstage, "warm" sound. You can feel a natural sense of air around the vocal interpretations. Piano notes are very well represented for a player of this price (and that is amazing!). This player does a very good job on almost any music genre (even heavy metal). Dynamics are great (only a little "slow" on the attack) - typical Marantz. I specially like the sense of space around every represented instrument (even on more complex tracks). You must couple it with a solid amplifier and with "paper speakers", I use an old Pioneer SA-708 (if you never heard it, do not judge!). I advise quality interconnects too! You can only hear this kind of quality on much more expensive players, this Marantz easily stands a blind listening contest with Sony ES's and other "exotic" contenders. Try it at least once. Thank you

Solid, good-looking unit. Excellent value for money. Sounds engaging, even at low volume.

None that I can find or would be churlish enough to expect at this price.

There have been some frankly shocking reviews on this product that thankfully I didn't read before buying. If I had, I may not have considered the CD5400, which would have been a minor disaster, because I really like this CD player and think that it deserves better. I would suggest that anyone into so-called 'top-flight' hi-fi should go and spend £500, £1000 or even £10,000 on a CD player if that's what floats their boat. Lets not compare apples with oranges here. I got the Marantz CD5400 to replace a similarly priced Technics SL-PG490 that I bought 7-odd years ago, after comparing against a couple of others, a Marantz included (CD63 or something like that). I believe that the CD5400 beats the Technics for clarity of sound. I also believe that the transport is LESS NOISY than the Technics. It also looks to be equally as well built and attractive (I have the black version - don't like gold much), but this is very much personal choice, of course. I preferred the look to ALL the Cambridge Audio players, which to my mind look like cheap Arcam impersonators nowadays. The Marantz has a look that impresses and a sound to match. I have tried it with techno, acoustic guitar, rock, classical and ambient music. It sounds great with all of them. I think that it lifts any detail out very nicely and renders the sound in a lively manner where it exists. There don't appear to be any 'dull' spots in the frequency response, which seems pretty uniform to me and I have heard the odd thing, like Nick Drake putting his guitar down after a song that I hadn't noticed before. Also worth noting is the fact that a couple of CDs that refused to play in the Technics have worked in the CD5400. I think that all in all it is a nice sounding player that doesn't require turning up loud in order to be sonically exciting. I had read elsewhere that high freqs were especially well featured but I would myself add that the bottom end is very tight and punchy and that I didn't notice anything lacking in the mid-range either. Any musicians/DJs might be interested by the +/-12% pitch control. I mucked around with it a bit but am not convinced of it's usefulness. I've heard that if you want to jam along with a CD and you can't be bothered to retune your instrument or you prefer to sing in a different pitch range you can tune the CD to it instead(?) This is one of the features that is only accessible via the remote control, which leaves the player itself uncluttered in that minimalist way that we all seem to love right now. Often there is talk about CD players that don't sound very 'natural' and have an artificial or synthetic sound. I suspect that this is often due to inferior recording processes or even sound sources, during the production of the CD that have been uncovered by said machine. Listen to a variety of favourite CDs on the player and this will tell you more about it than any audio reviewer can. Take that same CD selection around and play it on every player you're considering buying. I would recommend the Marantz be included within that sample group if it's within your budget. Ideally, take all the players home, audition them through your amp and speakers and then take back all the players you don't like.

Similar Products Used:

Technics SL-PG490

Functional remote, solid build. Can power on and off with the remote, could not do that with the rotel.

none for the money.

Hard to beat for the money. I owned a rotel rcd1072 before this, and although it had a quiter back ground I found it not to be worth the money. The 5400 is a great player with better features and remote than the rotel. You have to spend alot more to notice a substantial difference over this player. It is loved in europe & I forget what magazine but it was rated a best buy.

Similar Products Used:

rotel rcd1072.

Price

Noisy transport.

(Please note that the price is in Hong Kong dollar) The transport is noisy. It gives an anonying sound when playing in a quiet environment. Warmer sound than a Philips DVD player. But improvement is not impressive. Not recommended.

Feels like a solid build. Aspires to be a good cd only player. Pitch control (if you're a DJ).

LOUD transport. Fatiguing sound after 10 days of burn-in. Not that fast to cue tracks. Skipped on slightly smudged CDs that other players played just fine.

Just spent 2 weeks with the CD 5400. Took it back to the shop because it just didn't live up to my expectations. First of all, the transport was very noisy. Spinning disc sounds invaded quiet space in my music. Overall the sound had a relaxed quality to it. I liked that. But something about it caused my ears to hurt after about an hour of listening. While the unit seemed to get more listenable after about 10 days of play, it still didn't get to be easy to listen to. Too bad. I really wanted to like this product. Sad truth is that it sounded worse than my $99 Pioneer versatile disc player --going analog out into my AMC integrated amp.

Similar Products Used:

Consumer level Sony, Pioneer, JVC CD and DVD players. Outboard MSB Link DAC II. Marantz CC 4300 changer --cheaper and all around better sounding.