Home > Consumer Reviews > Onkyo DX7555 Audiophile Single Disc CD Player

5 years ago the choices in buying a single play CD deck were limited only by the balance in your checkbook. Today the worthy contenders are few and far between (sadly, the same is true of FM tuners). So when I stumbled across this offering from Onkyo I was immediately intrigued. After researching this puppy and examining one at a local "hi-fi" shop I placed an order with amazon...and very glad I did.

The unit is LARGE, attractively laid out and sonically the equal of anything else I've heard including outrageously overpriced Mark Levinson products. Build quality is excellent, the remote highly functional and with the right ancillary components capable of producing EVERYTHING on that little silver disc. A bargain at $500 and highly rrecommended.

Well I have had this unit for a couple of weeks now and I think it is a pretty good deal for the price paid, plus free shipping. I was looking to replace a non-working NAD 541i. I went thru two NAD players. I really liked how they sounded with the capability to play HDCDs. The problem is they both stopped working end of story. This unit seems to be built really well and has a Wolfson WM8740 24 bit/192 khz DAC that is used in other high end units. I looked at the Marantz and Cambridge units but was not able to compare them to the Onkyo. In doing further research on this DAC it has the capability to use the HDCD filter. I quess they were trying to keep the cost down. It would have been nice to have. I have this hooked up to a Rotel RA-972 60 watt integrated amp with B&W 300 bookshelf speakers. It is crisp, clear, quite and getting better all the time. I haven't seen many reviews on this unit. I was hoping to see more. I would have loved to had the chance to do an A/B comparison with the other units mentioned but that wasn't possible. I actually bought this sight unseen. So far so good. I don't think you will be disappointed.

I had a hard time dropping the 460 dollars on this player that would only play CDs. I have a Denon 5910 universal player that sounded amazing but wanted a separate player for only redbook CDs. Again as I said nearly 500 dollars seemed a little steep and I considered some of the Marantz CD players that were available along with a couple of Pioneer Elite players that were about the same price. Finally I decided to take a chance on this one and ordered it.
As has been stated by many this unit does need some break in time. I listened to a few CDs right off the bat and noticed that the sound was muddied and not real clear. So I put a disc in and ran the unit overnight on repeat mode. Music in the morning did sound substantially better, but I was still slightly disappointed. My Denon 5910 is an amazing CD player and I was wondering if I made a mistake. I again ran the unit overnight on repeat mode and the next day the sound difference was amazing. The midrange was no longer muddied, there was great detail in the music. I am a very varied music listener, from Metallica to Garth Brooks to Chicago to Beethoven.
I have several CDs that I use for demoing my audio equipment. One is Pearl Jams Yield. I find that this CD on certain less detailed systems will really sound lousy, the midrange will be too clouded, can't really recognize the different instruments, the clarity is not good. The Onkyo certainly was awesome to listen to on this CD, particularly the last track All Those Yesterdays. Soundstage was amazing and very airy. I even give the Onkyo the thumbs up over the Denon 5910, which cost me nearly 1500 dollars. I listended to some Creed and was amazed by the bass extension and good treble. Classical music sounded terrific, I felt like I was there at the concert hall when it was originally played. The sound was very warm but not real bright.
I did not try fooling too much with the options, I tried changing the filter from sharp to flat and didn't notice that much difference in sound. I did note however that the highs on this unit are not what I expected. This has been noted in other reviews, it just seems that treble lacks just a little bit of brightness that I kind of like having. I am pleased with this purchase, however and recommend it to others. It may take a while to break in, be patient with it and enjoy!

I know that CD players are kind of a forgotten product category these days, what with DVD players that do CD, and the growing popularity of server-based music systems. But if you have a two-channel audio-only system in your home, and want a great-sounding CD player that won't break your bank account, I don't know how you could beat this Onkyo. True, it's front fascia isn't half an inch thick, and it's chassis isn't milled from a solid chunk of billet aluminum, but it is well-made and sounds great. By the way, it actually does have an aluminum front panel...and a full-featured remote control, plus a good sounding, volume-controlled headphone output. But mainly, it just plays CD's real well and is quiet in operation and reliable. What more could you really want?

This player does exactly what it should do.It reproduces the recorded sound on a cd as recorded and without any coloration or background noise.I have this player coupled with an onkyo A-9555 amplifier.This combination is a great basis for a quality system at a good price