Don't know if you still are active here but I came across your 10 year old post here after buying a CDP-307ESD for $120 on Ebay recently. I have a Sony CDP-605ESD which I still use to play my CDs as I haven't found any other CD player that sounds as good. Although it still works fine, I was getting a little worried about it because of it's age. So I was looking for a good back up player that uses similar chips to my CDP-605ESD. I found the 307ESD uses the TDA1541A and CDX1088A while the 605ESD uses the TDA 1541 and CDX1088 so I thought they should sound quite similar. The main difference between the two is the 307ESD uses the KSS-150A laser and the 605ESD uses the BU-1E. Even though they say the quality of the Chinese made laser replacements isn't very good and it is sort of a hit a miss if you are going to get a good one, at least there is one for the KSS-150A available for $25. There are no Chinese replacements for the BU-1E and the original Sony ones sell for around $300 on Ebay. But I agree with you about the sound quality of these old Sony CD players being the best I have heard; I have to admit I haven't listened to any new CD players that cost more than $500. Since the 307ESD uses the TDA1541A chip, perhaps it may sound even better than my 605ESD but I doubt if the difference will be enough to be noticeable. The 307ESD should be arriving tomorrow; I just wanted to get some input from others as to whether they were able to notice any differences in the sound quality between the TDA1541A and the TDA1541.
Here are shots of my two CD players, inside and out. The 950 is in my main system with Martin-Logan Aerius speakers and I now have a Sony CDP-490 with the dual mono Burr-Brown PCM56P DACs in my Man-Cave system with Mission 760i bookshelf speakers and a ProLinear PLSUB8MKII 8" sub. The BB DACs seem to be about the same quality as the TDA1543 DACs (2 stereo DACs) in my Philips CD614 that is now the backup in the Man-Cave. I keep the Philips because I want to keep a CDM4 somewhere. It was always my favourite laser assembly, because it plays discs that cause other assemblies problems (warps/scratches/etc.). Relative photos below.
P.S.: I should explain that I am now almost 77 years old and my hearing now only goes up to about 12kHz, so I am not exactly the best judge of a player's sound. However, for the range I can still enjoy (minus a lot of upper harmonics) I find no reason to upgrade the players I now use. I was thinking of auditioning a Cambridge Audio Topaz CD10, but I don't think spending another $400 will make an appreciable difference in my case. I actually spend much more time with the Man-Cave system as I like being isolated from the world while I listen. Was even thinking about moving the 950 there, but I hate to break up systems I carefully assembled over a long period of time.
P.P.S.: I H-A-T-E Sony's single bit converters, labelled as "High Density Linear Converter" on the drawers. Tried 3 different models: same conclusion. Quite un-musical. I have an older Sony changer in storage that used a Sanyo 16 bit DAC which sounded better (CDP-C70). Bought it to play Christmas background music continuously with 5 CDs, but never implemented it.
