Can you still buy new CD players?
Absolutely! While CD sales understandably dropped as the popularity of music downloads and streaming increased, physical music sales have never gone away completely. For that reason, many manufacturers have always kept a CD player in their range, and now – with CD sales up in 2024 for the first time in 20 years – even those who did ditch the format have added one again more recently.
That means choice is as strong as ever, but many of them come as part of an allinone player or microsystem with lots of other ways to listen to music too. For most people, that’s great, but separate CD players are still available for a more audiophilefocused performance. Ultimately, there is a design and price point to suit everyone.
Are CDs better than vinyl?
The analogue vs digital debate is one that will rage until the end of time, and the answer you get will depend on who you speak to. The safest way to put it is that they sound different, but what constitutes better is all a matter of perspective – and ultimately preference.
From a sound perspective, objective, technical measurements would suggest that CDs are capable of producing a more accurate sound than the best record players across a number of parameters. However, vinyl purists will claim that the process of changing a continuous analogue waveform into a digital one will always result in the loss of some musical information – making digital music flawed from the getgo.
The way they sound during playback is quite different too. You’ll often hear vinyl described as sounding “warm”, while CDs might sound cleaner and brighter – with none of that nostalgic vinyl crackle that is so loved (but is actually just dust in the record grooves). This means CD is sometimes dismissed as sounding cold or clinical by analogue fans, but CD lovers might describe the sound as more dynamic and detailed. Which sound you prefer comes down to taste, but there are some practicalities to consider too.
For example, vinyl is much larger to keep, is more expensive to buy new and is fussier about how it is stored to ensure it stays sounding its best, while CD is more affordable, is slightly more durable and is ultimately more compact to keep if you’re short on space.
Do CDs sound better than digital music?
CDs are digital music in much the same way that songs on streaming services are, but there are some key differences to consider between the two – particularly when it comes to sound quality.
Without getting into too much technical nitty gritty, digital music is ultimately trying to reproduce the original analogue waveform as closely as possible, and the more information a digital file holds, the closer it can get to that. The closer it gets then, generally, the better it sounds.
One way of looking at how much information a digital file contains is to consider its bitrate. CDs have a bit rate of 1,411kbps, while by comparison, the very best you’ll get on Spotify is 320kbps. That means CDs carry almost 4.5 times more data than Spotify’s very best files, and its free subscription tier maxes out even lower, at around 160 kbps.
However, streaming services including Tidal, Qobuz, Apple Music and Amazon Music Unlimited are starting to offer much better quality music, some of which is known as “highres”, and that surpasses even CD quality in terms of the information it holds. You might see this written out something like “24bit/96kHz”, and the higher both of those numbers, the better quality the file is (the CD equivalent is 16bit/44.1kHz).
Of course, it then depends on how you play it back – via Bluetooth, for example – as to how much of that quality is retained, but that’s a whole other story.
Perhaps what’s more important here is to consider how you listen to your music. Do you listen a lot on the go or more at home? Do you like discovering new music, or do you tend to stick to old favourites?
Streaming is hugely convenient but requires a monthly subscription commitment and means you never truly own your music, while with CDs you obviously do.
Things to consider when buying a CD player
CD players come in a few different forms, so first of all, you’ll want to decide what you’re looking for. If you want something compact and easy to operate, perhaps with additional features like Bluetooth playback and DAB or FM radio, then an allinone design will suit your needs most. Largely plug and play, this format needs no additional equipment so can be up and running within minutes of getting it out of the box – and they usually look pretty nice too.
The step up from this are the micro systems, which still have amplification builtin, and often a lot of the same features you’ll find in an allinone, but they need separate speakers. Sometimes, brands will offer matching speakers in a bundle, but if you already have some, then they will work just fine and save you some money too.
It’s with these micro systems and some of the more premium allinones that you might also find additional inputs and outputs for hooking up other kit like headphones or a USB drive, a turntable or even a TV. If this appeals, check it has the right connections for your needs – common digital connections are optical or coaxial inputs, but you’ll need an analogue connection for a turntable.
Look for an input labelled line in or aux in if your turntable has builtin preamplification (or you’re using an external phono preamp), but you’ll need a phono connection if not, which you’re more likely to find on higherend kit.
Finally, there are the hifi separates, which usually offer very little by way of additional features, and focus on CD playback and sound quality. With these, you’ll need a separate amplifier and speakers, so do bear in mind the cost of these too if you’re starting from scratch.
It’s here that you will get the very best performance from your CDs, if that is important or of interest to you, and it will also allow you the best way to grow and improve your system over time. There will be a bit of a learning curve if you’re new to it, but that’s all part of the fun.
Once you’ve decided what design is going to work for you, all that’s left to consider is your budget, and we’ve tried to cover different bases in this list so you have an option to suit. CD players are available into their thousands of pounds, but we’ve tried to keep the models we recommend under £700, and the majority come in way under £500. The cheapest model we recommend is just over £100 (at the time of writing), which feels like a solid place to start, particularly considering the extra features it includes.
Can you get anything cheaper? Almost definitely, but the models you’ll find in this list are tried and tested to offer good sound quality, solid features, and are built to last from brands we trust, which we think are all strong considerations when making a good purchase.
