Not Happy:Ordered unit from the states becouse of price and my sister lives there, and she was coming for christmas, Opened the box hooked it up and then the skipping began, Left it plugged in for five days to see if that would help (nope)
I will say it sounds half decent when it works. I called the store and they will be getting back the player. I've decided to buy locally and go with the Rega Planet whitch is now on order

I purchased my CDP-1000 almost a year ago. It appeared that the build quality of the unit was first rate (for the money) and I was impressed with the sound during the several day home audition I gave the product prior to purchasing. I used the unit as a transport for a first generation Proceed D/A processor and now have the latest Proceed D/A.
Quality: Looks (and feel) can be deceiving. This unit has displayed a number of flaws. After the first month it started skipping on the introductory tracks of selected CDs, even new CDs. For instance my entire JVC XRCD collection was unplayable for about a month, WHAT THE?!? Then, just as I was about to return it for service, the unit fixed itself. For the past seven months I have experienced no unusual skipping problems. However, the unit is not particularly resistant to vibration, skipping whenever heavy footsteps hit the floor. It is not usable in a party situation where people are dancing in the same room as the player. Not that this happens all of the time, but any time someone spends lavishly on a stereo system, has company over, can't play dance music, must take time out of preparing dinner to move stereo, they open themselves up for ridicule from people who happily own a SANSUCHI modular system bought at Sears. Fortunately, I own a turntable which was able to spin LPs without mistracking under house party circumstances (can you sense my sarcasm?) Technology has evolved, and I am sure that vibration isolation hasn't devolved. But, that is not all. The drawer on the player stopped closing properly about three months ago. It appears to have sagged and sometimes needs to be helped closed. In fact, it must be helped every time due to the fact that if the door sticks partially open, it locks up control circuitry in the unit and it must be power cycled by unplugging it from the wall. I have plugged it into an accessible spot so that it may easily be reset. Only recently have I been able to teach myself to always help it closed, but I yearn for a simpler time when CD drawers were fully automated! And here is the last quality complaint. If you place a CD in the tray (without closing it) and head back to the sofa, press play, it should close the drawer and spin up the CD and begin to play. Unfortunately, the logic circuit doesn't appear to be able to handle that. It locks the unit up, requiring the aforementioned power cycling via the wall outlet! One must first push the close button on the front of the CD player, then push the play button (remembering to help the drawer closed.) This problem has existed since I purchased the unit and appears to be due to bad design of the logic circuit that controls the transport mechanism and is unrelated to the drawer closing issue. I can accept one of these problems, but all of them? It appears that Parasound has attempted too much at this $500 price point in terms of features appearance. Maybe sacrificing some of the weight designed into the chassis would free up some dollars for a better control circuit or a good drawer.

Sound: My initial impression of the sound quality was not correct. The forward presentation of the music which I initially liked, became shrill after a month or two. My Vandersteen IIce and Vandersteen 2w subwoofer is fairly laid back as far as speakers go, but with the Parasound, they produce a notably nasally midrange and fairly hard edged upper octaves. Just not as pleasing as my old Pioneer PD-75 (which was stolen.) I do not normally consider a transport as responsible for sound quality as a processor, but in this case it appears that the Parasound is contributing in a very negative way to my hi-fi. I have recently auditioned new speakers in anticipation of replacing the 'steens, most notably a pair of B+W 802 Nautilus. I had to borrow my friend's Meridian transport to make the system listenable. The 802s, with all of their midrange power and clarity, hurt my ears. Blaring, icy, nasally, strident, fatiguing. All of these words come to mind. Insertion of the Meridian got rid of the 'sinus infection' afflicting my system. Indeed, tests with other transports reveal that:

1) There is something wrong with the way my unit recovers the digital signal off of the disk. Whether listening to the outboard processor or to the CDP-1000 analog outputs, the sound is not acceptable. It sounds so much worse than any other transport I have put into my system that I can only attribute it to the Parasound. Indeed while other transports (including a ten year old Adcom GCD-555) all exhibit good to excellent sound, the CDP-100 stinks up the room. It must be the transport.

2) The transport is unusually sensitive to vibration, only equaled by the ancient Adcom.

3) Even the more arcane transports from Meridian and Cal Audio have a reasonable transport control circuit, they don't lock and need to be power cycled at the slightest hint of a problem. They also do not need to have the CD drawer closed prior to pressing the play button.

4) I am embarrassed that I have lived with this unit for so long considering the problems with the sound. I do think that there are problems. The sound quality cannot be indicative of the production run. As I mentioned earlier, to be so far outperformed (as a transport!!!) by other units including ancient mid-fi units like the Adcom is weird. I am either deaf or the CDP-1000 is making me deaf. I should have noticed these things earlier. It wasn't until I began auditioning other gear that I lost my complacency and. I also should have sent it back due to the skipping problem right away.

5) Due to all of the above, I have been listening to analog lately.

So what started out as me looking for an inexpensive transport to last until a suitable DVD-CD transport hit the market was a waste of $500. The CDP-1000 is a hack job by a company that appears to build high end products. There are many players in the sub $1000 range which do have had good reliability records. My initial lack of confidence in the product due to the fact that it was a little off of the beaten track (as compared to a Marantz, ferinstunce) did not overwhelm the fact that the Parasound felt better in my hand. It was heavier, and therefore will make a better boat anchor. The only realistic sound that the unit seems able to produce is a sucking noise.

How come there isn't a zero on this rating scale?

If you read down these reviews you will see that I posted a review last June. I just wanted to say that I still have my 1000 and it's still great! Since then I have added a Monarchy DIP and a Parasound 2000 D/A converter. The only thing that skips at my house is my 7 year old girl!Steve Haynes

The Parasound CDP-1000 is a well built player for the price. At least they used some kind of voltage regulation. (I use with a Transparent PowerLink Super power cord, for filtration, and ground isolation). Thought, it's sonics suck as a player, it offers extremely well as a transport. This most likely in part of the C.E.C. transport mechanism and laser assembly. The digital sections excells for the price point ($500); it's also upgradable to AES/EBU, ST-glass digital outputs with the ADAM module for an additional $225 from Parasound. The cool thing is that it's very easy to install. Used with a Monarchy Super DIP, the PLL of the DIP relocks the bitstream of the poorly clocked Parasound (thought the digital output in the Parasound is transformer isolated, something very rare in this price range); then is sent to the D/A conversion. My DAC is a Monarchy 22A (balanced) upgraded and modified by Monarchy Audio. The reclocking device (DIP) is linked to my DAC via. Transparent HDL digital cable. The output of the Super DIP use the SPDIF BNC interface, the input if the DAC uses BNC as well. This digital front end is second to none. Offering the performance of something costing much more. I plan to upgrade the reclocking the the Camalot Dragon, for the use of resolution enhancement. Just remember: Transport: good, CD Player BAD!!!! Oh, take those cheasy gold feet off the bottom and use EAR rubber feet. I recommend 5 stars, just because it's a great transport for the price. 2 stars for it's player's sonics.................ouch!!

Great sound stage,excellent imaging,very clear.

The unit Will skip if your a moron.

I bought one about a year ago and have had no mechanical problems.I am very pleased with the sound quality.

Similar Products Used:

none

Excellent piece of equipment for the money you pay. At a street price of about $400, you get a quality tough to surpass. With some shortcomings in the user interface (one needs a remote control to perform some of the functions) you get a CD player that performs its main task, playing CDs, extremely well. The sound this player produces is crystal clear (which is not surprising when you look at its signal/noise ratio spec of 110dB). At the same time, the sound is very much alive and does not leave an impression of artificiality.
I use this player with Parasounds P/HP-850 preamp and HCA-750A power amp driving CSW’s Ensemble speakers.

Considering the review of Christian Chen above, my C/DP-1000 does not seem to skip. Maybe I am lucky, or maybe this problem has been fixed by Parasound engineers in the time frame between the previous review and this one.

Balanced, believable sound, not obviously "digital"

Before mod - bass could be more defined, a little bit veiled
overall

Get it used. Free from ususal digital nasties - harshness, hiped treble etc. Installed LCaudio clock XO, very efective on this machine - the mod do not change character of the player, but make everything more transparent and easyflowing, add bass extension/definition. Even in original shape highly recomended - nothing at 200$ will come close. Oh, and it will not play dirty or scratched CD..

Similar Products Used:

MFX24K/PSU, Denon 1650AR, Sony X5000ES

Solid build, nice look, good sound

Not Really

I don't know what people are complaining about this machine. Mine I guess is a revised model so I have not had any problems whatsoever. This machine looks fantastic, sound pretty good, pretty clean and detailed. It has all common features and quick reaction times. For around $200 from online, nothing I mean nothing can beat this baby. 5 stars period.

The Parasound C/DP-1000 has performed flawlessly in the two months I've owned the unit. Its performance (via the analog outputs) is exceptional for the money--smooth, clean, detailed, and quiet. The imaging, too, is well above the norm. I preferred it to the Marantz 67SE (too bright in the upper midrange); California Audio Labs DX-2 (audibly grainy in the midrange); and Sony XA1ES (swallowed CDs in two units I tried!). The build quality is unusually solid, the ergonomics are intuitive, and the remote operates without fuss. This is a superb CD player. I doubt you could find a better one unless you spend at least twice as much.

I've had this cd player for about half a year now. My initial impressions were that it was too bright for my taste. However, after an extensive burn-in period (about 48 hrs), I'm glad to say that the brightness has been tamed. I would say that the brightness is no longer an annoyance, but rather a characteristic that describes this player. I would try to pair this cd player with "warm" sounding electronics nonetheless. This cd player has amazing detail, especially when comparing it to any other cd player under $400. It nearly matches the great midrange on the Arcam Alpha 7, while adding a more solid bass. I feel that the CD/P-1000 is a much better value ($400 vs. $650). The Rega Planet has a much more laid back quality, but I still prefer the CD/P-1000 (especially because it is slighy more than half the cost of the Planet).
Pro's: Great detail, solid bass, extended highs

Con's: Not enough weight to the sound

Overall, I'm extremely pleased with the player. If you don't like the bright character of this player, I would recommend trying the Rega Planet. This player has excellent detail and decent imaging/soundstaging. Great for warm sounding electronics - highly recommended.