Oh so musical, clarity, detail, warmth

None so far

I've only had this CD player a short time but I am extremely happy. In my job I've used a variety of professional players (Denon, Tascam, Marantz), and at home I've only had 2 (a DBX player from 1988 that was a beauty and more recently a consumer Yamaha).

How we hear music and what equipment we like is VERY SUBJECTIVE, but for me, especially for the price, the Marantz CD5000 sings it's heart out. It is very musical to my ear, which for me is the most important aspect of listening to MUSIC. I listened to both the NAD 520 & 540 and they both sounded great although I couldn't hear a great deal of difference between them and the Marantz. The ability to program my CD player, to do A/B repeats and to play CDR's & CDRW's is very important, to get all of these features, a beautiful sound, a three year warranty and only pay $229.00 is a no brainer.

I have a 12 year old pair of DCM TimeFrame 350 speakers,
I am about to upgrade my Onkyo 8211 Receiver to a NAD 340 Integrated Amplifier (I can't wait to rediscover my music all over again), and I'm using Tara Labs Prism 22 Interconnects and Prism Omni Speaker cable for an overall feeling that is very warm and musical while remaining incredibly detailed.

I'm giving it 5 stars for value and since I can't eliminate value from my overall rating (and I do love the sound) 5 stars overall. If anything changes, I'll let you know.

Similar Products Used:

Marantz, Denon, Tascam

FOR THE PRICE, bass is very accurate and focused, midband voices are fantastic, very realistic and natural, highs are also very clean and distortion-free (a little harsh at high volume level)

somewhat of weak and not so well built in the front panel (bottons...), but not so notable or important

This CD player is quite stunning for the price, it's very chip, but it does the work very well. Of gurse is not the best in terms of neutraliti, smoothness, realism in reproduction, but for the esigue price its performance are well above the excellence. Among all the frequencies its reproduction is never disappointing, in relation to his modest price level. I have to say that I appreciate very much the dynamic, the focusing and the sound stage it could deliver. Ii is also quite smooth and accurate, expecially the mids and the high are clean and pure like cristal, but even the bass, if not so strong, is well presented.
I use it with my third Hi-Fi system in my house on the seaside.
It is composed of:
NAD C350 integrated amplifiers
KEF Q15.2 speakers
Marantz CD5000
Van den Hul cables

Similar Products Used:

different Philips and Technics models in the past(...),Musical Fidelity X-Ray,Rotel RCD991,Mark Levinson N39

This is the revision of that submitted 12-9-2001

As I mentioned before I changed CD player AND amplifier at the same time. Since then I completed my MOSFET amp with ample power rating and a damping factor of 200 into 8ohms ... and voila ... the CD 5000 gets a new lease of life. The amp has an amplification of 40 and the CD player analog output directly drives the power amp through a pot ... the setup I had before ... all of a sudden bass is well proportioned and IS audible the mid/high range is as before.

That leaves only one comment for me: the Yamaha HTR 5250 REALLY sucks for sound quality

musical, variable outs, good build, easy to use

remote for Audio Refinement Complete integrated adjusts the variable output, very inconvenient, though you can shut the variable output off on the Marantz player

This is a very competent player, I found it marginally more enjoyable than the Sony machine I was comparing it to. Sound quality was essentially the same (which was excellent), but I found the Marantz a slight bit more musically involving. It wasn't enough to warrant purchasing a CD only player, unless you need variable outputs. I don't think I could tell the two apart in a double blind test and the Sony plays SACDs, so I'm keeping the Sony.

Liked the Marantz quite a bit more than the Cambridge Audio D300 (which I found to be bright).

Audio Refinement Complete integrated amp
Triangle Zephyr xs speakers
DH Labs interconnects
Analysis Plus speaker cables

Similar Products Used:

Cambridge Audio D300
Panasonic DVD-A310
Sony NS500v SACD/DVD player

Good For recording with a Mini Disc Deck.

I have not found a weakness yet.

I have recently bought the CD5000 from marantz amd i fell in love right away. I used the digital optical out to record mini discs and i have never got such good recordings. This is my second CD player I have a Kyocera from 1996 wich is in great condition. This player is an excellent Low price Player.

Similar Products Used:

None

good with light progressive rock, $250

the whole musical picture is not fully held together- sounds like it can't cope with fast, heavy tracks

A love or hate player - I use it as a transport only for the Assemblage dac and it works ok - I'd really say spend an extra $100 or so and buy a real action player - Arcam alpha 7se is great or Rotel rcd951 is worth a try

Cheers!

Similar Products Used:

naim cd 3.5 , Assemblage DAC 1.5

???

lacks bass, very digital sounding

Tend to agree with other reviewers...not much base here - my 7 year old 16bit DAC Sony sounded more balanced. To me the mid/highs seem to edgy and forward while it REALLY lacks base. The Pioneer DV-535 with the home theater amp doing the digital processing in stereo mode sounds more natural then the CD-5000. I must admit I recently replaced my amp as well so it can be that I'm judging the overall effect of the different sonic signature of amp/CD player - but still - will definitely look into replacing the CD-5000 with something else...

System:

Marantz CCD-5000 player
Pioneer DV-535 DVD player
Yamaha HTR 5250 home theater amp
B&W DM602 front, CC6 center and Mordaunt Short V-100 rears

Similar Products Used:

Sony CDP297, Kenwood ????

sound so artistic and delightful. Very, very nice...

....but bassless

This is an extremist of a player, sounding like a an aristocrat.
Basically all I've got to say is on above. You just can't get enough of how good the sound is. To describe it in good words, it's just 'good', not some cliches and jargons. But there was one critical weak point to this player. It was, simply, 'bassless'. Even if you're not particularly a bass enthusiast, you'll feel it hard to cope with them whenever you think of the missing bass that you had with the music you play on them. It results in music just floating in the air - which has two sides of meanings. Can be either good or bad.

I think I'm going to change them (bought them 3 days ago) or change them. I've tried same CDs on 3 different players and I'm hesitating a lot right now but that gap of total lack of bass is just too much for me to cover since I like listening to bass quite a lot.

But look, give it a listen bc it's worth a go. I don't think I can really argue with their cost/quality value but it's sort of too extreme for me. So, I give them 5 star value ratings but just can't give 5 on overall rating.

Very nice sound, crisp and full of detail. And cheap, very cheap... :)

Tray mechanism could have been just a little stronger.

I picked up this new cd player last week. I was in the market for a +/- 200$ cd player and I came across the Marantz CD5000 at Richer Sounds in Utrecht, The Netherlands. They're selling it for $149,-, which is nothing for a player this good.
I'm not a audiophile like some, I've read some reviews saying the bass isn't nice and very un-marantz. But as a beginning audio enthusiast who is slowly creating a decent audio setup, this thing is just great!

On my set, which isn't high end, I could inmediately hear the difference between this player and a standard Sony (EX330) I was used to. The CD5000 just sounds clear, crisp, with a nice, not too heavy bass (I'm not particularly a bass-lover). Furthermore, it has nice features, such as CD-RW playback, CD-Text and optical and coaxial digital outputs.

Anyway, for the price I paid this is a great choice!

Similar Products Used:

Cambridge Audio cd5, Sony CDP-XE330

good soundstage for the price

unmarantz like bass lines,rough,slapdash or untidy in presentation.

Marant needs no introduction,they have made good cd players over the years,and have gained comments like"there players just seem to take complete controll over the music,and have good bass lines too"
Unfortunatley this player is categorized buy professional reviewers as having totaly untypical marantz charecteristics,with bass lines lacking punch,and the player
bieng to untidy in presentation,several reviews i have read,have stated this.
To the casiual listener this player seems to produce a nice open sound stage,bass seems tight,and its a fairly nice sounding player,with cd text and cdr capability but in my view does not outdress the 4000 enough for the price difference.
In comparison both players have the same philips transport mechs,with the 5000 having a different dac and out put stage.The 5000 keeps its cool,and slightly presents the music less woffled when you crank it up,also has slightly more depth in comparison to the 4000,but to the casiual listener id rather go for the 4000,which represents a still well produced soundstage,although containing philips cheapest millenium dac.

A welcome thing in our budget is digital out,in this player.
Although to make in considerable difference in sound,using a external dac will set you back atleast as much as the player its self,after all the player still has the same transport mech,digital clock,and output stage,with a fairly good chassis that doesnt resonate much,but a welcome to tweakers might be new feet.

The sound of a player is greatly impared by poor chassis,so this is one of the first things id tweak,not that it has such a poor chassis to start with.
If you want to upgrade this player id recomend a new digital clock and transformer for the most noticable results.But who buys this player to upgrade,i guess.

How does this player sound to me ,and most of us?Lets cut out the audio philes diseption.Well nice midrange to start off with,bass is a little lacking though,and depth of soundstage aswell,but to most people it sounds very acceptable.my conclucion is this player is not all ideal for a transport,especialy considering the price of good external dacs now adays.If i were you i would save a a bit more to buy the cd 6000 wich claimed best buy by a fair bit of sites.It has a totaly new out put stage,chassis stability,and more importantly two new dacs run in differential configuration,and separate active low pass filter.Unfortunatley the cd 5000 does not quite stick out for its price like the 4000 or 6000 and seems to be the "missing link".Although its a fair player it doesnt quite get a recomindation from me,especialy after the proffesinal reviews if read,but if you have the money and are looking for a fair player with cdr and text,and digital out and a soundstage that cant be complained to much about,and if the 4000 doesnt quite do it for you,then id buy this player,after all the consumer reviews arent too bad at all.
ps im only 16 years old,i dont want this to detract from my reviews importance because most people think i therfore know nothing,but after reading my review you got to get some sense of my knowledge.I have the cd 6000 and after extensive listening find it more aplicable especialy for the price difference between the two.But if the proffesinal reviews dont detract from what you think of this player,and it sings to you,go out and buy it.