2 players :
MARANTZ CD-63se
and also a regular CD-63

This is a legendary player - one of the all times best-sellers. Cheap but sounding like high end. After lampization it really shines. It has raw, dynamic, energetic, if maybe not most refined sound. Many companies used to tweak it and mod it, because it is such great base unit.
It has simple NPC SM5872 dac (Nippon Precision Circuits). Datasheet quotes: "CMOS LSI (Digital D/A Converters with Built-in Digital Filters
The Σ DECO SM5872A/B D/A converters are high-speed converters for digital audio systems. They are fabricated in Molybdenum-gate CMOS. They incorporate a two-channel, 16-bit D/A converter and a digital eight-times oversampling filter, making them ideal for use in PCM and CD players and digital amplifiers. The Σ DECO SM5872A/B operate at 32, 44.1 and 48kHz sampling frequencies and incorporate deemphasis, attenuation and soft mute functions. " End of quotation...

Oh yeah, molybdenium my ass..

Anyway, CD63 was one of the first Marantzes using a non-Philips DAC. Still a philips mechanism althouh it is a very very cheap and flimsy application of CDM12.  The CD player has few op-amps, all elements are placed on one huge PCB, the output stage is minimalistic with tin-can- protected elements which may even be discrete. That would be  the simplest CD player with discrete output - but - wait a minute - the op-amps are still in the path or so it seems.
The lampization, despite tight space, is internal and concealed. The signal legs would be 18 th and 25th legs of the dac, or - leg 2 of respective op-amps. If thats not good enough - alternatively you may try leg 1 of the op-amps. That signal should be rock solid. It may contain DC component so caps are necessary before the lampizator input.

The owner of this player claims, that he is on love with it, he does not want anything better, and that when confronted with regular high-end players of his buddies - it mopped the floor with them. After hearing it - I believe this guy. He has no reason to lie to me. Mopping the floor for sure.



Since this player has voltage type outputs, I could use the long tubes 6H6P which are a great match for this kind of DAC.


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