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Just because it was so cheap, I just bought a Cody DVD-207 for $29.95. I got it for my traveling kit and something to bang around with in the shop. I didn't have high expectation, but hey! It was cheap. My previous shop CD drive was a Panasonic Diskman. I used this drive for my demos a GPAF last year, and no one complained about playback quality. The only problem with the Panasonic was that it didn't produce a 2 volt output, so I was short some SPL. Well, the Cody sounds just like the little diskman. only it will drive an amp to clipping. This bring up an interesting point. At the consumer level, let's say below $1000, is there any difference in the sound quality of CD/DVD drives? It appears that low end DAC's and chip amps have reached a general pretty good quality level. Any improvement requires lots of money. Particularly speaking about SS amp, the general view stated is that there isn't a dime's difference between amps at the consumer (as opposed to the high-end audiophile) level. All you get for more money is more overall power and features,and the features are for HT. I've done a cursory comparison of the Cody, the Panny diskman and the Panny RP-62 I use in my entertainment center. Without spending hours listening to minutia, I don't hear a difference. Bob
I use a Panasonic SL 5470c portable Discman in the practice room. Someone gave it to me and I never thought about it in terms of quality until one night I needed a quick source player in my better system. Imagine my surprise when it sounded better in some small ways than my Rotel 991 CD player. Upon inspection I see it is built like a tank and uses MASH circuitry. It also has a remote. I don't know how to explain that except to considor the possibility that they all use similar DAC chips and that the analog circuitry just doesn't really count for much in under 1k units. I tried the little Panasonic in another system that uses a CEC deck that I like. While the CEC sounded smoother in some way it wasn't significant and shocked the owner I can tell you that. The Gainclones seem to have a nicer tone than some of the SS gear I am familiar with but that is a snap judgement without comparison. Puzzling.
My error -- the brand name is COBY, not Cody Bob