makes you wonder boys...

[batman]

good news ... bought some cd,s today

bad news ..got home and the TAG cd 20r has decided to not read any cd,s ...

weird news ... remembered my cheap sony sacd/dvd player (£130 )was still wired up to my dpa preamp for my music dvd,s... so thought listen to my new cd,s through that until cd player fixed ... and guess what .... i sounded lush i mean LUSH not as analytical as the tag but very warm and analogue ... very very surprised ... my own theory has been that your amp and speeks are far more important than source and i delighted to say todays evidence only supports this..... might not even get the tag fixedthe 2nd stone roses album never sounded as good ...

[hifiwigwam]

Plmbed my old Cambridge Audio CDP in recently and there was a difference between it and the Naim, but not £1k difference. noo way.

Change the amp or speakers and you soon know about it though.

[earl of sodbury]

Found the same comparing the Cambridge Azur 640C with me MF X-Ray v3 - definitely different, but not £650... And, while slightly poorer overall and less engaging,the Azur edged ahead on detail...

[batman]

hifiwigwam wrote:

Plmbed my old Cambridge Audio CDP in recently and there was a difference between it and the Naim, but not £1k difference. noo way.

Change the amp or speakers and you soon know about it though.

agreed . try playing a naim cds3 through a midi system and lifestyle speeks and i doubt thay would sell many...

[batman]

i tend to think that cd players sound DIFFERENT as opposed to better, the sonydvd player sounds much fuller ... when i gets me tag fixed i will do an A-B test .. that should be interesting ... saying that would the dvd player go through the DPA,s on board 192/48 dacs or not using the analogue connections not the digital?

[Hawk]

Better amplification and speaks made a huge difference IMO and can really show up the differences between various CDPs. I agree with the CDS3 comment, played mine through my NAD cinema amp once and the difference between that and a DV2900 was very small. Both sounded crap.... but play both through the main system and the difference is huge..
Still not £5K huge though... definate law of diminishing returns...

Hawk

shocking thing happened to me a few years back, i borrowed a linn cd 12 from my mates at audio-t, i was not very impressed to say the least.

my son was playing his ps2 at the time, and it was running through the hifi so we compaired the cd12 to the ps2 and would you believe there was not a lot in it.

that's why i stick with the old vinyl, you cannot beat it.

[hifiwigwam]

One thing we are comming to agreement on then is that Cambridge Audio kit is HUGE VFM. And the CD players are wonderful. This is a good thing IMO.

i have just been downstairs and compairing the pioneer dv868 avi to the arcam cd92 ,and under blind testing my wife and her friend could not hear any difference at all between the two, now put a record on and it changes the whole ball game. most cd players sound very alike. well thats my opinion anyway.

[dudywoxer]

It's all a bit screwy with CDP's-DVD's etc. I have 4 CDP's kicking around at the moment, and I am trying out various combinations as I try and put a system together for the main family room. Some of them are getting on in years, however the differences between a technics/rotel/philips players are small, but there. The biggest difference is when I put a Rega Planet into any of the systems, there is a much bigger difference then. I have been listening to various bits of kits recently and am coming to the conclusion that you either pay £500 a box maximum, or move up to £1500.00 per box as in between it tends to be a touch different maybe, but not really better. 2 makers seem to break this rule, Cambridge and Rega, and they seem to be able to play well above the price bands.

[Dynamic Turtle]

I've personally found that upmarket/expensive cd players generally have very little to say for themselves against the budget spinner crowd. Hell, I even use a dvd player (sony NS900V) as my main cdp, its that good. Sounded warmer & more "liquid" than the Denon 2900 + Tag DAC20 combo I was using, at one-fifth the price!

I need another sacd/cd player and am very tempted to get another 900V. The Jungson Tube SACD (£500) looks like terrific value too and I might plump for one of those instead.

I too have been using a PS2 as a filip, but have to say its pretty damn awful via the analogue output!

I can fully understand a lot of audiophiles making do with spinnners like the CA 640C, Rotel RCD-02 &Arcam cd73etc. They sound so good, why pay more?The only thing that would sway me is a sexy remote or better build (which is just about the only thing upmarket cdp's seem to offer). NAD S500 or Audio Analogue Paganini for example - very sexy spinners!

DT

[earl of sodbury]

hifiwigwam wrote:

One thing we are comming to agreement on then is that Cambridge Audio kit is HUGE VFM. And the CD players are wonderful. This is a good thing IMO.

Totally - and there's a new version of the 640C out soon, not to mention the long-awaited 740C with 24/384 processor...

[hifikrazy]

A modern bang up to date quite expensive cd player will deliver all the hifi things, but it whether it sounds engaging or not is another matter, some will, some wont. I still have my old Rotel 965BX and it lacks detail and the bass is a bit ponderous etc etc- but it does make music (to my ears at least).

I wouldnt personally buy a brand new CD player these days i dont think, especially given that most modern transport mech seem to want to die after a relatively short time (for such an expensive item). Ive got a fairly cheap but quite well engineered dac that i plug into the Rotels coax digital out and it improves things a bit.

Ratherworringly my mothers cheap n'crappy old jvc micro (which makes awful noises whenever you insert a CD) really does know how to boogie. With some nice speakers on the end it would probably be even better