TEAC VRDS-701

EXPENSIVE, YES. BUT YOU KNOW YOU WANT THEM

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While we enjoy the benefits of streaming as much as anyone, there is a certain hands-on appeal to CD players that we can’t ignore. More than that, we like to own our music and be able to play it any time we want. Given the relatively fickle nature of streaming rights and the slightly erratic stability of an internet connection, we still see a place for a high-quality CD player in our systems.

Of course, this far into the age of streaming, new CD player launches are thin on the ground, and what was once a raging river of new products has slowed to a mere trickle. So, when TEAC launches a premium player like the VRDS-701 we can’t wait to have a go.

Those initials – VRDS – will mean a lot to hi-fi fans of a certain vintage and are more than some random letters that make up a product name. They stand for Vibration-free Rigid Disc-clamping System and indicate the use of TEAC’s proprietary CD transport design. There have been numerous versions of this mechanism found in products that range in cost from premium to ultra high-end but the basic idea is always the same, and that’s to minimise rotational vibration and other disturbances by clamping the entire surface of the CD rather than just in the middle, as pretty much every alternative does. The idea is that reducing these unwanted outside influences allows the laser to read the disc more easily and the result should be a better sound. We have heard enough TEAC VRDS-equipped CD players and transports over the years to find that is usually the case.