Philips CD 723

- For how long have you been using it?
I had this for about 8 years.

- What thing do you like most/least about it?
It's plain & simple, and very fast at reading/playing a cd when inserted...unlike the brand new Sony SACD player i just bought damn it (SCD-XE597), which doesn't even have a volume setting on the remote, which the Philips CD723 did!!
Can read CD-RW too in theory but not all models did in practice...mine did, though.
Had a coaxial digital output, which i prefer to optical...again, the Sony XE597 has optical...aargh...
Also, i think the design is quite ok, even now...again, better than the pointlessly bulky Sony SACD i just got...

- Did you try many other models before getting this one?
None, saw a review in an audiophile magazine and they actually liked the CD723, which is amazing for a £100 player. So i got it.

- What is your opinion about the value for the price?
Obviously, the player must have cost virtually nothing to make, i mean there is nothing inside...but compared to other players i'd say it was good value.

- Knowing what you know now, would you make the same choice?...
Yes, however i would have sold it sooner...i had a 5 year warranty and just before the end of that the drawer started to come out slowly...so i got that fixed under warranty. Then about 3 or 4 years later it started doing it again. Sometimes it wouldn't open, sometimes it would work fine. I sold it for 50€ (£30) and bought this slow Sony SACD player (the cheapest i could find) that doesn't even have a volume setting...what a rip off. That'll be my next review, and it won't be all good, i tell you! ;-D

Had the CD723 had CD-text then it might have deserved a 10.

I use it for 5 years with much more happiness for the tweak!

I tried a lot of platinum, they sound all digital except at prices inaccessible to ordinary mortals.

Most of this plate is the return once tweakée with "aop audio-gd" and a box called by veudeur on ebay "Passive Preamp Platinum CD" all for a ridiculous amount compared to the improvement.

The price / quality ratio is offline contributes what makes cringe quite a lot of sellers.

With experience, I would buy a philips cd 723 and I would start to tweak the NRDS while putting "aop audio-gd" and "Passive Preamp made in Ebay Platinum CD" ca me avoid wasting time because time is the music!