Back in March, we learned that revenue from CD sales in the USA rose for the first time in over 15 years. The shiny, affordable and less intrusive physical format is far from done yet. Seeing the CD’s ongoing potential, even as an archive format, is Marantz who has this week announced a new CD player in the CD 60 — outwardly styled as a potential partner for its 40n streaming amplifier.

And despite the CD 60 being a more affordable model, it still features Marantz’s HDAMs (Hyper Dynamic Amplifier Modules) that, according to the Japanese company, deliver lower noise and distortion than comparable IC op-amps. They can be found in CD 60 in the twin-RCA analogue output stage and the onboard headphone amplifier that comes equipped with three gain settings.

Under the hood, we note a ‘Reference’ DAC circuit capable of decoding PCM up to 24bit/192kHz and DSD up to DSD128. Why so when any Redbook CD inserted into the CD 60’s tray will only supply a 16bit/44.kHz signal to the DAC? The answer comes in the form of USB access. Not a PC/Mac-compatible USB-B socket on the back panel but a front-panel USB-A socket that can playback content from a connected storage device. The burning question from this commentator: do those USB sources playback gaplessly?

The Marantz CD 60 will go on sale in the coming weeks for €899. Your choice of black or silver.

John currently lives in Berlin where he creates videos and podcasts and pens written pieces for Darko.Audio. He has previously contributed to 6moons, TONEAudio, AudioStream and Stereophile.

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