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Can a £35 CD player be any good in van, boat & at home?

Muddy Water HiFi Club

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Today's ADVENTURES IN HIFI...

Taking a look at a cheap little CD player that costs only £35. It’s definitely not high-end hi-fi, but for the price, the functionality is brilliant. I wanted to see how it holds up in the real world, so I’ve been testing it at home, out in our old campervan, and even on the boat. Would I recommend it?

Also in this video, I spend some quiet time repairing a 45-year-old cassette tape that's got my own radio dedication on it, and I also share a few thoughts on the world of audio "snake oil", as well as taking another look at the LIVE Vs. RECORDED music debate.

I hope you enjoy today's video!

You can email me directly: morningneil@fmail.co.uk
Or if you want to contact Jane, it's: morningjane@fmail.co.uk

Thanks for watching, engaging, commenting and subscribing.

00:00 "Morning Jane"
01:40 Cassette tape repair Pt 1
02:40 Live Vs. Recorded
05:00 Inexpensive CD player test
06:00 (on campervan)
08:40 (at home on hifi system)
10:40 (S.M.S.L. PL150 comparison)
11:50 (on boat)
13:10 Album of the Day #1
14:50 Snake Oil
18:30 Album of the Day #2

#CDPlayer #VanLife #AudioRepair #HiFi

CD player on Amazon link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0GH5NT6Z...

13 Comments

@lesley4996 1 day ago

What fun - double Neil and Jane this evening! 🎉

@charlieseligman3176 1 day ago

Thanks for the history lesson!

@mauricewatton9130 1 day ago

Very interesting Neil. Keep
Making these video.
All the best.

@robmills537 1 day ago

Hi Neil & Jane loved the video thanks that Blood Sweat & tears album is fantastic every time I play I'm transported back to being 8 years old again and rembering the track you make me feel so very happy being played on Radio 1, also that Stanley Clarke album is very good, all the best to you both from Sunny Devon.

@tubespring 1 day ago

Very interesting video! And thank you for explaining the origins of the term 'snake oil'.

@simonhodgetts6530 1 day ago

I'd argue that amplified music can almost always sound better through hi-fi - a better recorded signal, better balance, no room delay or hall ambience, removal of spurious background noise. I've been to some rock concerts where the sound has been appalling, then listening to a recording from the same tour (concert even), and it sounds great. Different story altogether of course for other forms of music. Best live sound I've ever encountered was a Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia, with Jon Hiseman on drums. The sound mixing was incredible, albeit in a small venue. They used Bose 802s for the PA setup.

@RayM-h2i 1 day ago

Nobody’s shill, makes people easy to respect, great work and principles Neil

@rattlesnakeworkshop 7 hours ago

morning mr muddy :hand-pink-waving: i hope no snakes was harmed in the making of your video :face-blue-smiling::face-blue-smiling::face-blue-smiling: and i aways keep the cables up off the floor it makes the sound so much better and i found a massive improvement in the sound when the floor risers are 35 foot tall and direction cable sound fantastic mate but only when you put them the wrong way round LOL rattlesnake oil

@andredevries4987 1 day ago

Hi Neil and Jane.
Another wonderful video.
I am also in to fisical music just like your friend.
And for the snakeoil some things work and some don’t.
Gr André de vries.

@olbucky9413 1 day ago

Hi Neil how about a survey of favourite snake oils in hifi? I’ll start with plugging a digital clock into circuits to get electrons to flow more orderly. Cheers!

@Jeep_on_audio 1 day ago

That CD player seems like a great help for the vision impaired to play audiobooks. The design has that same look.

About live vs hifi: dynamics is key here. It's almost impossible to reproduce the real dynamics of a drumkit. The speed, impact and loudness is much more than a microphone can pick up. And then there's the temporal incoherence of transducers. Hifi can come close but it's never the same.

And then to the snake oil bit, something to ponder: the original snake oil worked! The fake copy did not. So the term snake oil is actually wrong.
Just like lifting cables off your floor actually makes sense when the concrete floor has thick steel rods just under the surface since cables create a magnetic field. The iron will interact with that if there's not enough distance.
👋🏻😉🇳🇱

@chuckmaddison2924 1 day ago

Live vs recorded yes / no i know the technical as to why . I have the luxury of being able to listen to live in the house and that's a no . But I have a vinyl Lp by Wallis and Matilda " Pioneers " I believe ( the red album) . There is one track that starts with a Salvation army band and that seriously sounds like you are there in the street with them.

@RaymondReeves-db8dr 1 day ago

Hi Neil it looks to be a bargain . Can you clarify this live music thing. You did question whether a home HIFI could match a live recording. Because playing a loud HIFI in a concert hall isn't quite the same as going to see The Rolling Stones at Madison Square Gardens and then listening to the same concert that was recorded on a CD or an LP on your home HIFI. Or are we getting what you meant wrong?