The CD player arrives

And it even matches the amp! It arrived yesterday from Amazon.com. I wanted a CD player that could handle MP3 discs and ended up going with a DVD player. It's a Malata DVD-806 Progressive-Scan DVD Player. I tested it out for kicks with my business projector and it looks pretty good. It was about $44 on Amazon and had a $20 rebate, which brings it down to just $24 - super price for a CD/MP3 deck! It's very slim and matches the amp pretty well.

It's a pretty nice DVD player, actually. For video, it has composite, s-video, and component outputs. For video, it has stereo RCA, coaxial digital, and optical digital outputs. Quite an array of option for less than $25. Since it will be the main music source for the hi-fi system, I'll just be using the stereo RCA audio jacks. It's the only DVD player I've seen that has a built-in volume control. I know this because when I first hooked it up to the amp, the sound was extremely distorted. I had to turn it waaaayyy down to get a clean signal. It resets the volume level everytime you power it off, which is annoying, so I think I'll just leave it on. Here's a pic:



It plays CDs and MP3s just fine, no problems there. Aside from the volume level, I do have two complaints. One is the tray. It's plastic, for one thing. The whole unit seems to be made of metal, which is suprising for the price. It's very thin and flimsy and easy to move up and down. Also, it doesn't come out all the way. It hides about a fifth of the CD tray inside the unit, so you kind of have to slide the CD in. It's no trouble at all, just strange. A disc on the tray is easy to slide off, too...there's no real catch for it like on most trays. Seems like it would be easy to break, but kids won't be playing with it so I'm not too worried. The second complaint is the remote. Button layout stinks. Heck, the buttons stink. The menu system is a bit different (I finally figured it out when I put in on screen) and you have to press the buttons weird to make it work - kind of hard, and you have to hold them for a second longer than regular remotes. Luckily the player has the basic controls on the face of the unit (unlike a lot of other players), so this isn't too much hassle. Oh well, I can't ask for too much for $24 :)

Oh, and I neglected to mention in earlier posts that the BR-1s came back in stock and I managed to snag a pair before they went out of stock again. I also ordered speaker wire and some other useful tools. Additionally, my fianceé has an iPod Shuffle, so I ordered a minijack-to-RCA cable from PE for a couple bucks as well so we can enjoy the iPod on the system. This project is coming along nicely!