Customer Reviews

Marantz CD5003 Single Disc CD Player

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a skeptic when it comes to most audio equipment advertising, which is often hype, in my opinion. I spend my money on the best speakers I can afford, and try to conserve on the rest. But I bought the Marantz after some glowing reviews, and because I wanted to see if is a quiet machine. So many off the shelf DVD players have noisy internal mechanics -- and I've heard quite a few that are that way. I listen to a fair amount of music with very quiet passages -- classical, guitar, ambient -- and hearing a clicking sound is not fun. (There are many reasons for noise during playback, but you can eliminate a lot of theorizing about the source of it if you find a machine that plays every disc silently.)

The Marantz 5003 is the most silent CD player I've heard (or not heard, I guess I can say).

But how about the musicality? After we purchased the Marantz, I had forgotten about the purchase (that's a good thing -- like a good umpire you should not be aware of them). After a few weeks had passed, I asked my wife if she had done anything to the setup, because our NHT speakers (we use a four speaker setup) were sounding gorgeous. She reminded me we had a few weeks before purchased the Marantz. So that's my "objective" evaluation of their musicality.

I am very pleased with it. It is very bare bones in features, which is good. I like the fact that there is very little delay when you push a button.

I wanted to buy a decent player that was solely dedicated to CDs. After looking around for awhile, I found this Marantz to be most agreeable to my budget. This desktop CD player is by far the best player I've ever bought. My opinion of it now is the same as when I first took it out of the box a year ago. Here are all of the things I like about it:

1) LIGHTNING SPEED LOAD UP TIME: Usually CD players take a while to power up, and maybe a few more seconds until the CD tray opens. The Marantz takes less than 2 seconds!

2) CHANGING TRACKS IS EQUALLY FAST: If you let the CD player start on the first track, and then randomly jump to a bunch of other tracks, the CD player has absolutely no trouble keeping up with you! I've had CD players in the past crap out and turn off, as a result of me stress testing it the very same way. I don't know anything about the mechanical parts inside a CD player, but whatever it is, Marantz got it right!

3) IT'S BUILT LIKE A TANK: Everything is sturdy. The case makes the player look a lot more expensive than $350. The buttons are clean and pronounced-- you won't accidentally press the wrong button.

3) ANALOG MODE: This is probably overkill, but if you choose to hook it up through the analog out, you can turn off all of the digital outs. I suppose this is so that they don't add unnecessary distortion or noise. You can even turn off the front LED display while it's playing!!! This feature was what won me over when I demoed it in the store.

5) NO-FRILLS REMOTE LAYOUT: The buttons are big and wide enough apart from each other so that you can actually clean it when dust gets in between.


There are plenty of other reasons why this player is a great investment for a noob audiophile (that would be me)... but those are all details.

I've had this Marantz CD player for about 14 months now. It was a replacement for an Onkyo DX 1800 player that I had had for about 18 years, before it began to develop intermittent problems with tracking and sound quality. That was obviously a very serviceable machine and I hoped to get something as good. Because I had not purchased a CD player for a very long time, I looked around quite a bit and read reviews of quite a number of players, and found the variety and choice in CD players had diminished since I bought the Onkyo. I ended up selecting this model because of the reputation for good sound quality, build quality and durability, and ease of use as well as the 3-year warranty that came with it. I like to keep things simple and am not interested in ipod or storing my recording in digital files on a computer. I also like to keep things as mechanically simple as possible so I wasn't looking for a CD changer or multidisc player, just a single-disc CD player. After all, I only listen to one disc at a time.

I have not been disappointed. This is an excellent CD player. I have had no problems with it and usually play anywhere from 1 to 4 CD's a day, so this player gets a fair amount of use. Mostly I listen to classical music and opera but also to some country, traditional folk music and some pop. The sound reproduction is quite good and there is excellent definition among the different instruments in a classical orchestra or chamber ensemble. The tenor and pitch of the instruments is reproduced quite well.The treble, bass and midrange are all well balanced with no weakness at either end (or in the middle!). Stereo separation is very good. At first, the sound seemed a bit dryer than my old Onkyo, but my ears soon adjusted and the Marantz does have much better sound, the product of advanced digital-to-analog converters and other electronics. Voices, whether opera, country or pop, men's or women's, are reproduced just beautifully. As another reviewer has discussed, this player makes very little machanical noise while in use. Tracking is excellent and this player has no problems with CD's that have some fingerprints, minor smudges or minor scratches.

The features on the Marantz are quite easy to use. Mostly I just play an entire CD or just start at some track in the middle, but sometimes I'll program the tracks - programming tracks is very easy with this player. There are other functions that I have not investigated. The remote is set up in a very straightforward manner. One can easily operate the basic play functions from the control panel on the player if so desired.

This CD player and its remote seem to have a very solid and robust build. Hopefully it will give me many good years of service.

In summary, this is an excellent CD player. Build quality is excellent and it is easy to use. Sound reproduction is excellent. I suppose one could move up to a higher level Marantz and get better sound, but the CD 5003 model suites me just fine and the price is very acceptable.

I'm not going get into the jargon that the audiophiles like to use. For my ears this player has a very open and natural warm sound that's easy on the ears. Smooth operation and built solid. For $350.00 this is a great deal.

I have owned the Marantz CD 5003 player for about one month now and it is a fantastic piece of equipment!! Very solidly constructed and operates wonderfully, and is completely silent. It is a single CD player which is, by the way, hands down better than using your DVD player or a multi-disc player to play audio CDs. Excellent for audiophile purposes. For the cost, one will be extremely hard pressed to find something better than this player.

I replaced a Sony CD changer that sounded OK (thru a Sony receiver/amp) but that was scratching CD's because the loading mechanism wasn't right. After some research on the internet including Amazon, I decided to give the CD5003 a try. The main reasons were the headphone out with volume control on the front panel, the decent chips used in it, and the ability to play mp3 and wma files. Other players from Onkyo and Denon at a similar price didn't seem to have all these features.

It really does sound very good. With ATH-40fs headphones, I can hear everything. A friend who is an audiophile and electrical engineer agrees that the combo is nice. To me at first it sounded a little bright, but I'm getting used to it. The main thing is I have to limit the volume a bit. Probably better for my hearing anyway.

The only thing I would like is some equalization capability, for some CD's. I could hook it up to the amp and get some EQ when needed, but the sound is better directly from the player, less hiss for example.

It's a little pricey compared to the mass-market brands, but I think it qualifies as an entry-level audiophile component. And for that it is a good value.

Prior to first purchasing Marantz, I had always used Yamaha products. My speaker of choice was the Advent Heritage [the successor to my original Advent Loudspeakers].

I initially purchased a Marantz CD5001 with a Marantz SR4021 receiver. I have always preferred a single CD carrier. I really liked the Marantz receiver, but I grew to dislike the CD5001!! It was set up so that the CD tray automatically closed after about 15 seconds. This was irritating because it meant that I had to have the new CD in hand when I removed the previously played one, or I had to re-open it!! After about 18 months, the CD player failed. It was still under warranty. Unfortunately, the nearest repair center was 180 miles away. I had to have it locally repaired at my own cost!!! I had "never" before owned a piece of stereo equipment that required a repair!

I read that Marantz had utilized technology in the new CD5003 that was previously used only on more expensive Marantz models. I decided to take a chance. I purchased a Marantz SR4023 receiver with a Marantz CD5003. They are both truly great! The CD5003 is a major improvement over the CD5001. I continue to use my faithful Advent Heritage speakers, lovingly cared for - still with the original foam. It is a wonderful system! I was so impressed with the Marantz CD5003 that I got rid of the CD5001 and replaced it with another CD5003, for use with the Marantz SR4021 receivor. This system is in my smaller family room. I use Polk Monitor 60 speakers there. Again, I love the performance of this Marantz system.