I was looking around for a 5 disc unit. I have the opportunity to pick up a Marantz cc-3000 for $70. I havent heard their CD players
has anyone?

Will you be using the analog or the digital connections to connect the CD player to your receiver or pre-amp?

I will use the digital out

In that case, as long as the player isn't too old, there should be no difference in sound between one or the other. When you use the digital outs, the CD player basically just spins the CD, reads the digital data, and sends it to the pre-amp's D/A converter. The Marantz for $70 sounds like a good deal.

Its about 14 months old. I have been using my panasonic dvd player that isnt that great and was looking at other 5 disc units hoping for better sound quality

If you're using digital outs, replacing the CD player isn't going to make a big difference -- ones and zeros are ones and zeros.

What other equipment do you have in the chain?

Well I could just as easily use analog outs. What difference will the two make?
Im using a yamaha receiver with M22's

not sure about the difference, but there's more likely to be one. have you tried using the analog outs on your DVD player to see if you like the sound better, just for fun?

Ya I have. Ill tell you I didnt really notice a difference. Maybe thats a real newbie type response, but I just didnt really hear it. With higher end cd players am I really going to hear a difference, I am certainly do not have an audiophile ear

Let's try a different angle. What are you hearing now that you don't like or would like to improve?

Basically I am looking for a 5 disc unit. I have heard other cd units, like NAD that just sounded better to me than what I have. (using same speakers, different amp and different room). But I was more or less assuming that since some cd players cost in the thousands that there was some difference that could be heard. I wanted to move up somewhat to a better player
am I off base thinking there would be improvements?

There will be improvements (aside from build quality, I mean audible improvements) with the higher price units, if they have better DACs/processing than your current player or reciever, and you use the analog out so you take advantage of that ability. What reciever are you using? When you say different amp, was the NAD run straight to a seperate amp via analog output?

It was just the NAD t742 I believe one of their newer A?V receivers

Was the CD player a 521 or a 541? I heard the 521i through the NAD (I believe) 320BEE integrated amp through some PSB image 1B's and 5T's and the sound was awesome.
If you uprgade your cd player I would definitely recommend using the analog inputs.

It was the 521 using the t742 receiver I think
-OK I just assumed the digital was a better so analog it is