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DownGrader

Member

• Mar 6, 2015

• #1

I am strangely interested in CD playing functionality of pre-PS2 home consoles (from LaserActive to Dreamcast) and CD addons (Sega CD etc). Which one had better playback quality, and which one had the neatest additional functionality (A-B repeat, EQ and so on)? The support of additional

Spoiler

obsolete

formats like VCD, CD+G and others are also interesting for me.

So, is there a single best CD player in a 3rd- to 5th-gen console space, or some machines were better in playback quality while others provided more functions?

 

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GavinGT

Banned

• Mar 6, 2015

• #2

Playstation was rumored to have excellent CD audio quality.

 

Laws00

Member

• Mar 6, 2015

• #3

I always liked my sega saturn playback

It was cool messing around with the different speeds and relatively making sounds and songs sound different.
Got males to sound like females and vice versea. Could change the temp of a song and it made it seem cool to me/.

 

P

Portman

Member

• Mar 6, 2015

• #4

GavinGT said:

Playstation was rumored to have excellent CD audio quality.

Click to expand...

I always saw this online when researching a Playstation purchase. I'm wanting to recall seeing people say that the original model with the RCA jacks on the back was the best for CD audio but I can't give any sources. Also want to recall that one being prone to overheating according to the internet. I have that model but I never used it for CD audio playback so I can't speak on that regard but mine hasn't had any overheating issues.

 

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evilromero

Member

• Mar 6, 2015

• #5

One thing I seem to remember with the Saturn was a cool visualizer while playing music. I loved that feature. I also used the DC playback quite a bit thanks to the friendly interface.

 

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lazygecko

Member

• Mar 6, 2015

• #6

Laws00 said:

I always liked my sega saturn playback

It was cool messing around with the different speeds and relatively making sounds and songs sound different.
Got males to sound like females and vice versea. Could change the temp of a song and it made it seem cool to me/.

Click to expand...

The Saturn's CD Audio UI was king.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjQnjRhVj2Q

 

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Aesnath

Member

• Mar 6, 2015

• #7

I really liked the visualizer for the Atari Jaguar CD--it seemed a bit rougher than other visualizers in some ways, but also kinda vibrant and raw. Just an opinion though.

 

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hellocld

Member

• Mar 6, 2015

• #8

The audio quality of the JVC X'Eye is pretty great, and it's even got a 1/4" mic input on the side for Karaoke mode if that's your thing.

 

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Venture

Member

• Mar 6, 2015

• #9

Commodore's CDTV was nice. It could play CD+G, had the CD controls right on the front as well as the remote, and looks like a quality piece of AV equipment. The only big downside was you had to put the CDs in a caddy.

 

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gelf

Member

• Mar 6, 2015

• #10

The Sega Saturn one is the only one I ever actually used to play CDs. Great UI, and the full screen spaceship never got old.

 

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I am Christina Aguilera

Member

• Mar 6, 2015

• #11

PS1 was pretty great all around, I used it way more than I ever used my Sega CD, which had a somewhat cluttered interface, and I preferred it to what I used of the Saturn's CD interface as well. Having big buttons shaped like play and stop right on the controller never hurt.

I owned both an original release model PS1 with the RCA jacks (which at this point is no longer functional for anything BUT audio CDs) and the later DualShock version, and the RCA version having better audio always sounded like a reasonable assessment to me, but it did also lack the CD visualizer from the later PS1 BIOS. That was pretty much my favorite music visualizer until I downloaded MilkDrop for Winamp.

 

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erawsd

Member

• Mar 6, 2015

• #12

The only time I ever saw the CD Player Ui for any console is when the system didnt read my game disc. So I hate them all.

 

RowdyReverb

Member

• Mar 6, 2015

• #13

Didn't the PS1 have issues with its motor wearing down prematurely though? Idk if that's enough to affect its rank if the quality is good.
Also, I'd like to cast my vote for Dreamcast if that's not too modern. I liked the UI and the 3D spinning disc visual. Can't speak for quality though because I only ever used it with built in TV speakers.

 

Z

Zombie James

Banned

• Mar 6, 2015

• #14

http://www.destructoid.com/playstation-1-the-audiophile-s-dream--32269.phtml

 

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DownGrader

Member

• Mar 6, 2015

• #15

RowdyReverb said:

Also, I'd like to cast my vote for Dreamcast if that's not too modern. I liked the UI and the 3D spinning disc visual. Can't speak for quality though because I only ever used it with built in TV speakers.

Click to expand...

Aw, Dreamcast slipped off my mind. Yes, it used high-density disks too, but it didn't have neither DVD support nor DVD playback, and that's what was important for me. So yes, it does count, I will correct the OT.