Teac's CD/DAB+ combo gets a thumbs up.
In this video I’m looking at a compact CD player from Teac. It turned out to be a great little radio too. It also made me realise what we’ve lost over the last couple of decades when it comes to decent honest simple products made by companies who take pride in their work.
https://youtu.be/YkukwhHrQLQ
I initially had my concerns as to whether this device was worth a review. I’d forgotten what my thinking was behind buying it in the first place, so it’s been sitting on the back burner (under the desk) for a while. When I finally found the time to get around to it though I was reminded what I initially liked about this and why I thought it was something worth featuring.
Unfortunately once I sat down and watched back the first edit all the way through in realtime, I realised it was really very slow going. My second edit was better and by the sixth it's become quite watchable.
That old saying about what you leave out being as important as what you leave in, couldn’t be more apt. I managed to snip out sufficient individual seconds here and there throughout the length of the video to completely change its overall tempo.
If there’s anything missing though - it’ll most likely be amongst those snips, but it’s for the greater good.
Have a good weekend, take care.
Comments (72)
Only thing missing (other than a full width version) is the VFD. I don't really like the blue LCD display. Reminds me of DIY electronics, not a HIFI component.
A bit late to the party here. I think a techmoan certified sticker/seal could be an amazing way to create a new income source! (only half joking) Gapless playback is one of those things that no one can get right in the digital world. Every other apple update it breaks in one way or another. Really does make me want to buy a larger apartment and buy all the digital media from the point where my physical collection ended due to space considerations.. Thanks for sharing as always
Awesome review. I bought one of these directly from TEAC USA (without the DAB of course) a few months ago and love it. I don’t even mind the display—it has a sort of retro charm in my eyes.
Quite nice but that external power supply is a bit of a let down
Do you know when your model was manufactured? Given the age of it being released I wonder if they’ve been hanging around in some warehouse for years or if they’re still actively being manufactured to the same specs as when new.
I don’t know but I’d be surprised if there were still a factory making these today.
Good to know that someone still thinks of / about „vintage“ design and functionality. Thx for the review.
Goodness, I thought the slow-moving display on my Cambridge Audio CD player was bad enough. I have a handful of 8cm CDs that come with a plastic adapter, so I guess it would take them then? I see you have the newer Dark Side Of The Moon CD. The 1994 issue is one track number out all the way down the tracklisting! Abbey Road is usually my go-to disc when testing gapless playback (and several players have indeed failed the test recently!)
It's an SACD, but I'm guessing they figured out the track numbers on this too.
The Denon M41DAB is another device (though its a mini system - with an Amp) with a quality DAB+ receiver (and CD player) it also has a better display than this. I've had it a few years and can't complain at its performance. (I got it to replace an older M35DAB that didn't have DAB+)
There are amps from Denon/Marantz/Cambridge/Yamaha with DAB+ and kitchen and car radios but they all deviate from the stand alone HiFi tuner I was searching for.
i suppose one could argue Sony's UHD players are still CD players (and SACD players), but I doubt that's what an audiophile is looking for. interestingly, Disney has a deal with Sony Home Pictures Entertainment to produce their DVDs and Blu-Rays. wonder how much longer that deal will last.
They sell one UHD player but it doesn’t have line out over RCA.
Here in the U.S. we get the PD-301X, with an analog FM tuner only -- no HD Radio (our much less useful semi-equivalent of DAB) or AM.
I'm actually in the market for a solid CD player - and Sony is absolutely not on my list :D
For Sony HiFi you Need tò go on the used market Is such a shame that Sony nowdays does so Little the HiFi components frome the 90s and 2000 were great
You can get some fantastic second-hand Teac hi-fi components from the usual sources. I picked up a Teac Reference 750 system, comprising of a CE player (CD-H750) and a receiver (NP-H750) with class AB amplification, a decent built-in Burr Brown DAC (PCM1795), air play (not tested that) and a phono stage. It would originally have had internet radio, but that has ceased to be supported (hence why people are now selling them). There appears to be no other radio on it, no FM and no DAB, so these days it's an amplifier only. The sound quality is really good. The only annoyance is that you cannot operate the CD player with the Amp's remote control, you have to use the the CD player's remote control as there is no logic connection between the two components. They're available in black and silver (I chose silver), both with blue LEDs and display text, don't pay the silly asking prices that some people want though, I won my set up of amp & CD player on an eBay auction for £200 - I was the first and only bidder and it was the third time that the seller had listed it!
You're like a jazz musician... It's the notes you don't play that make a masterpiece.
Onkyo had a DAB+ Tuner, which is looking very nice I think. But I think it sold very poorly because there was not much demand. https://www.hifi-wiki.de/index.php/Onkyo_T-4030
I’ll add it to my list of eBay saved searches, thanks.
FiiO has a desktop CD player (DP 11) launching this year. https://www.hifihub.com.br/en/general/fiio-2026-desktop-players-preview It doesn’t have any radio features, but it’s nice to see someone launching a decent affordable CD player in 2026.
It's starting to feel like there's a conspiracy to get rid of the entire idea of ownership and physical media. Why have you pay once when they can force you to subscribe forever to songs they can arbitrarily remove from your library? Feels like I should get a backup CD player now and keep it in box just to have a decent one in a decade!
Interesting to see your recent videos on these newer digital components that you've added to your classic Hi-Fi system. Even these newer devices are becoming obsolete--how long before the only way to listen to music will be with a phone with maybe a Victrola as an alternate.
I picked up a Teac 4 piece h500 system during Covid. Cheap off facebook marketplace. Absolutely love the quality of it, even if the tuner if FM only. It **feels** lovely.
The H500 (Reference 500 range) was excellent, by far the best sounding small separates of their era. They used full sized components in a smaller case, they sounded fantastic and had really good build quality. They're still sought after today, but you can sometimes get a bargain.
I tried doing an image search on the white boombox on 19:42, but nothing really came up (iHome2go did but was not a proper match). Too bad, that's a really nice unit- if it ever existed.
Doesn’t sell with dab now. Says so on TEAC website
If you want to buy one, here’s a link. https://www.electricshop.com/products/teac-pd-301dab-x-cd-player-and-dab-dab-fm-tuner-silver
Nice video and great to see Teac still producing good product. Some years back I was looking for a DAB+ hi-fi tuner and bought the Yamaha T-D500 which was a lovely unit with a very sensitive tuner. It's only failing was often adding a SCMS no copy flag into the digital out which my Minidisc didn't like. I upgraded to an Audiolab 8200T which does indeed sound a little better, has a good digital out and matches my amp. I can still recommend the Yamaha T-D500 if a good one is found used. It is sad to see Sony doing so little. I saw that they are soon getting out of TV manufacturing, setting up a Joint Venture with TCL.
I had no idea about either of those, I’ve added them to my shopping list of things I may buy if I find them cheap.
End of an era, shame about that awful display though.
Considering the price of this thing the display is terrible. Seems like they desinged this 20 years ago and never change a thing about it ever since.
Well that’s pretty much what the video is about, but it was ten years rather than twenty.
Mat. It wasn’t clear that the new radio was using the included antenna, but I suspect it was connected to the roof antenna. I only mention as the video starts with the proposition that you will use the included one but then say nothing about this.
I did show it in a different location and say that ‘it’s all wired up now’ but if I need to add anything else I’ll write an overlay on screen.
Not to be a weirdo, but that is a very nice shirt on you! Great color.
I always like maroon it’s a good half way house on the colour spectrum.
In Norway at least, you could buy a Tandberg TD20SE (Special Equalization) in 1994. It was cost 31 990NOK and the headline ; you can still buy the world best reel to reel machine.
I can beat that - in 2020 I got this https://youtu.be/Ac3cXu27M-M
This seems to be a standard HD44780 compatible display which all have this ghosting. However I've seen and bought a bunch of compatible OLED and even VFD displays off AliExpress in the past — I wonder if it would be a mod worth investing in? A VFD would give it a much more retro vibe too.
It’s not worth the effort for me, it’s still usable so that’s good enough. Much better having a poor screen on a good device than a good screen on a poor device.
For me sony qs components fron the late 90s Is Better than teac stuff and im a big Sony fan so i Say that yes Sony nowdays Is a Little letdown but i use a Xperia 1V phone and i love It i use alpha 77II and a qs HiFi late 90s and i love It in mobilità so y wh1000mx5 (Sony Is the leader nowdays of headphones ) and at home bravia TV and ps5
Sony QS stuff was great. My SACD and MD come from this range and era, but they never made a DAB+ HiFi component tuner.
Did you get much reception with the indoor aerial for dab? Looks like a great little device. Dab+ is only available mostly in capital city areas in Australia. So you still need AM/FM radio, what is annoying most dab radios don't have an AM band once you leave the city you need another radio to cover AM. It is sad how radio sections of electrical stores are getting smaller and smaller (the range) . It was my favourite part of the shop growing up. My regret not buying an AM stereo radio , I was a kid and the receivers were too pricey.
It was rather hit and miss, plus the wire was in the way hanging across the room like a washing line.
Just Another Excellent Video, Mat. Bravo on finding a good tuner!
Nice to see a good old 16x2 LCD display.
That display choice is kind of interesting. It's the same Hitachi HD44780 character LCD display what you see in industrial devices since the 80s, eg. my Prusa i3 3D printer behind me has a 4 row version of the same kind, even the backlight color match :) Those are dirt cheap to produce and very reliable. It has it's own charm, but yeah, refresh rate is not one of it's strengths. They even took advantage of the custom character set capability, the file/folder icon you have shown in the mp3 playing mode is defined as such. Wonder why they haven't added more such icons for the radio part.
Probably they didn't want to bother with replacing the character set dynamically or didn't have the ROM space. You can even do animations by swapping out a character that's already on screen so it's quite underused. That being said I think on some displays the file icon was a standard one.
For HiFi DAB+ what about this https://www.cambridgeaudio.com/row/en/products/hi-fi/ax/axr100d A local Australian retailer has it for $1049, and we only have DAB+ in Australia
It’s an amp and I don’t need another amp. Yamaha do one of these too.
The LCD is abysmal. The giant black bezel makes you think the display is larger than it actually is. Once it's turned on, the LCD isn't even centered within the bezel.
Although I live in Australia, I can only locate the PD-301-X which is the FM tuner variant. However I also stumbled across the TEAC AD-850-SE which is a cassette deck and CD player combo plus USB and recording is possible between to tape and to MP3 (but the cd player doesn’t record). I also saw the W-1200 dual cassette deck
Nice to see a TEAC review! Love the form factor. I still use their UD-H01 DAC/Amp for my computer. It's old, even to TEAC. It has its quirks but it still sounds good and sits pretty in silver on my desk.
I’m enthused about the idea of building an old school ‘stack’ of components with TEAC to see how it performs. I’ve always liked the brand.
If I had the need and the budget I’d definitely want to try that as well.
Nice little unit! That screen is a ridiculously common "jelly bean" part by the way. You can get lots of different backlight colours too. The type they are using in that one is inverted (lighter text on darker background) compared to normal LCDs, which might be part of the reason the refresh is so slow and ugly. If I got one, I'd swap it out for a nice calm black on green instead. Not a massive fan of blue LEDs.
I wonder how easy it is to swap. I suspect it’s soldered in.
• Nicely done video (and after six edits it better be). I appreciate you bringing attention to the dwindling supply of HiFi physical media equipment that is still on the market. • Your backdrop is really nice with the purple glow, and it features all of your dazzle-lites very well. • Nicely done reference to the Scott T-33S at 18:10 👍🏼... for anyone that absentmindedly missed that one. • The packaging is enormous compared to the item - they've definitely put safe delivery in mind, as you said. Although they require a large box for that hefty manual (how many languages are in it?). • My grammar-conscious mind was taken aback when I read the thumbnail. You'll probably know why by the time I copy/paste this comment to Patreon. • Blue-backlit LCD displays are always disappointing, IMO, although I don't understand why that is. It's especially off-putting on this one. • Mat's FAQ - Q: Why are you putting an antenna on your roof? A: Because I can. It's always a pleasure to stop anything else I probably should be doing and take the time to enjoy your video. Have a good weekend and take care 🤍.
The grammar issue is a reference to an old Sega Does what Nintendon’t campaign from a hundred years ago. Edit 7 is incoming soon.
What a cool thing. Very TEAC! I don't really know if they use DAB+ here in the Netherlands. My mother has one of those ugly menu ones and she loves it.. After I set it up she showed her how it worked.. Good old TEAC.. It's a bit weird though. Buying a CD player to get DAB+.. I still use an ancient Marantz CD11LE from 1991. Very expensive in the day I think. I like it because it looks the age and just plays everything.. That means also the scratched up ones, not mp3 obviously. But a modern one is pretty interesting. One that actually just works..
It’s seems you missed out on the ‘most successful DAB+ launch ever’ ;-) https://www.worlddab.org/countries/netherlands
Very small nit at 19:42. MP3 isn't the third generation of MPEG. It's a audio codec "layer" on the first and second video formats - e.g. MPEG1 Layer 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3 has a bunch of details and I learned it was supported in MPEG2 as well as MPEG1.
I’ll edit it out.
I like like that, nice easy and simple, I got a majority one recently, was a right pain, was a slot loading one like this, but you couldn't just put a cd in, first you had to select cd from a menu, then press eject, wait a moment for it to get ready to take the cd, then finaly it took the disk in, then it faffed about for ages before finally deciding it was a cd disk, terrible.
Yes that’s exactly the experience I was thinking about. I think some people must now believe that this is just how things work, but we’ve fallen far.
On the Teac website it says this model is discontinued? It seems they are only making more high end stuff nowadays.
Even more reason to get one while you can.
That is good - I am glad it work so well. I am completely shocked at how Sony have just given up. Is it now run by accountants? Something horrible has happened to the company - which used to develop new things (I mean in many ways - it was annoying - remember there insistence on Memory Stick rather than SD cards (that cost me lots of my pennies!)). Sigh! Come back engineers - the **ing accounts have screwed your company.
I'm afraid the answer is yes
You mentioned the MD-70CD player that was made up until 2020, would you do a video trying to get your hands on one of them? Or as you have something similar is there any point?
I ruled it out back when it was available as I seem to recall it was quite basic and used an older version of ATRAC, but if I see a cheap one I’ll pick it up. I wouldn’t hold your breath though, I doubt there are many out there.