I'd like to buy a dedicated CD player and PDM320 (partsexpress.com) is quite tempted, but I don't know if this one play CDR or CDRW. CC4300 plays CDR and CDRW as well, but how is its sound quality compare to PDM320?

any hints, suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
thanks.

will you be using the player's internal DAC?

I'm not sure yet. My receiver is Sony and it's 4 years old. So I don't know if receiver DAC is any better that internal dac from the player. I'd probably use digital out which in turn uses receiver dac.

Keep in mind that if you plan to use a DAC external to the player then any reviews of how a CD player "sounds" are pretty much irrelevant.

As i mention, i don't know yet since my receiver is really old If PDM320 or CC4300 has better DAC then i'll use it. The whole point is that I want a cd player for music only. I don't need dvd player for it.

I think all Peter is saying is, when you get into the higher priced cd players, you're paying for build quality, formats read, and DACs pretty much. So if you don't plan on upgrading the receiver at any point in time and will be using the analog outs, then it's worth it. But if you might upgrade the receiver soon to something high end, and/or if you plan to use the digital out, then you can probably get by with a lesser brand cd player and never notice a difference.

yeah, what he said.

Can I ask why so many people use the digital out of their recievers instead of the analog? I never once considered using the digital out. I would only do so if I had to use some ultra cheap DVD player for a CD player. Logically, wouldn't in two similar quality recievers and CD players, the DAC's in the dedicated CD player sound better?

Not necessarily. Define similar quality, though. A Denon recevier's DAC vs. a Denon CD-player?

In fact, if all things were even (or very similar), I think I'd want to go with a digital connection as there should be less opportunity for signal degradation than using an analog connection.

(disclaimer - I don't believe there will be any noticeable difference)

My sony receiver is not the best one, but also not the worst one. Since I already have denon receiver in my dedicated home theater, the Sony will be moving to my bedroom and i will use it for a while. I don't know the difference in DAC quality between Sony and PDM320, but PDM320 is described as a pro-cd player and the price is not too expensive. Well, I think i'll get a cheap dvd player in stead and use digital out. I'm thinking of Pioneer 536a or denon dvd-910.

thanks for all comments.