High end CD Players?

[wsu99999]

Hey guys.

What is your opinion on high end CD Players? I see CD Players out there for 5 grand and I don't understand what the big fuss is.. I've owned about 10 players in my life (none of them over 200 bucks) and I've never heard much of a difference between any of them. Can any of you really say there is a big difference between players? If so, what is a good budget model that I should keep my eye out on, and will it really play cd's better than say a HD DVD Player or PS3 or Computer disc drive?

Thanks.

[RockOn4Klipsch]

I've wondered the same thing.Man ybuy expensive cd players only to use them as a transport (ie using toslink, spdif) which all it does is transfer information bit by bit for the reciever to decode, so the difference between a 5 grand cd player and a 200 dollar cd player could be DACs but if used as a transport, they'll sound about the same given there aren't too many error reads from the laser. I'm probably wrong and there's good reason to have a 5k cd player, jsut not a good enough reason for me.....

[mark1101]

I have a $200 Sony CD player and an $800 Jolida CD player. Very little difference. Nothing major. An arguement could made that the $200 one sounds better at times.

Nowadays I would surely look at the DACs out there before I would drop big bucks on a new CD player. What you need is a good way to D/A multiple media formats not just CDs anymore. A DAC is a great option.

Then, I would put more money into my speakers. They will make more of a difference than a new CD player.

[InnerTuber]

I'd buy a Macbook and a DAC! Changing CD's - Bah [D]

[kevinmi]

I just bought a (used) Shanling T-100 CD player with tubes in the output stage, and I can honestly say that there is a difference when comparing to my Pioneer Elite universal player. I was skeptical at first, and thought there wouldn't be any noticeable difference, but there actually is. I don't know if it's the tubes or the Burr-Brown DAC's, but it sounds better. I'm running this through McIntosh equipment into my K-horns, so I was thinking that if I wasn't using such hi end equipment, I might not notice a difference.

This unit has a list price of $2000.00, but you can buy them new on e-Bay for half that. I paid $750. so I guess it wasn't really high end. Now I'm curious what a really expensive player sounds like!

[fenderbender]

I was a big skeptic....like most owned 6-8 players in my life.....got a Mcintosh Cd and saw no difference at all except for obvious build quality....then went to a very High end Pro Tascam unit which is very good in that it does what it is supposed to do with out fail....

Then the bug bit and I tried a AH! Njoeb Troeb Super 4000 with 24/196 upscaling (about $2k new).......and Holy cow batman....it is amazing.....I could give all the flowery descriptives but you just simply have to hear it to believe .......Then once I switched to my BBX pre, which is super transparent, the difference is even more noticable......I have both the $600 tascam and the AH! hooked up and the difference is night and day

I'm slowly coming around to the camp of improving front end is the best improvement you can make to any system.......

[sootshe]

Like any component, I believe the better the quality the better the sound. Ivor Tefenbrun from Linn lead the way when he developed the Linn Sondek & proved all the skeptics wrong that the source was the most important link in the chain. Garbage in = garbage out. No use updating your speakers & other components if you're feeding them rubbish. Can I suggest you are correct that the difference between a $200 & an $800 player might not be that great, but the difference between a $200 player & a $5000 player should be night & day. Obviously we have the law of diminishing returns once you start comparing $5,000 players with $10,000 & $20,000 players & everyone has to decide if the difference is worth it. A lot of complaints regarding "in your face sound", "harshness", "honky bass sound" are all due to improper source components, including the start of the source. I still regret selling my Linn [] & have been trying to capture that sound since the day it left....but we won't go there. Surely your Khorns & La Scalas deserve the best chance they can get.

[seti]

I don't mind using yesterdays technology. Todays $1200 can be had for much less in a couple years. I don't mind buying used. I could tell a difference between my old Sony carousel and a Cambridge Azur 640C. I'd like the 840C so I could use it as a DAC for a music server as well.

[SWL]

I have a $200 Sony CD player and an $800 Jolida CD player. Very little difference. Nothing major. An arguement could made that the $200 one sounds better at times.

I'm having the same exact experience ith a $200 Cambridge and a $950 Jolida.

Then, I would put more money into my speakers. They will make more of a difference than a new CD player.

I agree and would also add.........treating the the room is big.

[russ69]

Good players do sound better, no question. Most 200 buck players do sound similar. I don't know about $5000 players but you do get diminishing returns at some point. From where I sit, the steps are $200, $600 and $1500 after that I have no clue.

It's not all hype, the market for real hi-end gear exists because they are worth the extra bucks (perhaps not to us but for people buying in that price range).

Thanx, Russ

[BLSamuel]

Build quality. Mechanical noises. Smoothness of operation. No experience other than inexpensive CD players. Used to put on some mellow music using a portable CD player in the bedroom to assist in getting to sleep... was fine and I'd be pretty much in dreamland before it was over and then the noise it made shutting off would wake me up ... much worse than the sound of a cheap simple semi auto turntable lifting the needle out of the groove...That was quite a few years ago when the portable CD players were going fo $200 a pop and I made my own headphone to RCA adaptors as they weren't easy to find. Not sure I ever found one when made a couple to plug a Walkman type portable cassette player into a receiver.

[Islander]

Oppo makes universal players that get good reviews and are not expensive. A buddy of mine who has a high-end system bought an Oppo player for his home theater and plugged it into his 2-channel system for curiousity. When he found that he could hardly hear the difference between the Oppo and his $3000 Meridian CD player, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Then he bought a second Oppo for the 2-channel setup.

His thinking is that much more advanced DACs are becoming quite cheap, so modern mid-range CD players are now better than old high-end players.

[seti]

Oppo makes universal players that get good reviews and are not expensive. A buddy of mine who has a high-end system bought an Oppo player for his home theater and plugged it into his 2-channel system for curiousity. When he found that he could hardly hear the difference between the Oppo and his $3000 Meridian CD player, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Then he bought a second Oppo for the 2-channel setup.

His thinking is that much more advanced DACs are becoming quite cheap, so modern mid-range CD players are now better than old high-end players.

That does make sense to me.

[Don Richard]

Oppo makes universal players that get good reviews and are not expensive. A buddy of mine who has a high-end system bought an Oppo player for his home theater and plugged it into his 2-channel system for curiousity. When he found that he could hardly hear the difference between the Oppo and his $3000 Meridian CD player, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Then he bought a second Oppo for the 2-channel setup.

His thinking is that much more advanced DACs are becoming quite cheap, so modern mid-range CD players are now better than old high-end players.

High quality audio op-amps are getting cheaper also. The higher priced players will outlast the less expensive models, giving good performance for a longer time. If and when the high end player does fail it will be repairable and spare parts are more likely to be available.

[IB Slammin]

I was a big skeptic....like most owned 6-8 players in my life.....got a Mcintosh Cd and saw no difference at all except for obvious build quality....then went to a very High end Pro Tascam unit which is very good in that it does what it is supposed to do with out fail....

Then the bug bit and I tried a AH! Njoeb Troeb Super 4000 with 24/196 upscaling (about $2k new).......and Holy cow batman....it is amazing.....I could give all the flowery descriptives but you just simply have to hear it to believe .......Then once I switched to my BBX pre, which is super transparent, the difference is even more noticable......I have both the $600 tascam and the AH! hooked up and the difference is night and day

I'm slowly coming around to the camp of improving front end is the best improvement you can make to any system.......

Bender,

Love my AH! Super!! What tubes do you run?

tc

[JJkizak]

Ibslammin:

I have a very hard time believing there is a difference of that much. Usually high end stuff is only about .9% better than the normal cheapo stuff we buy and most of that is mechanical quality of transport.

JJK

[tommyboy]

I paid around 400 for my Marantz when I bought it a couple years ago. At first, I thought 400 was HIGH, but I didn't regret buying after. I really like the sound of it, but have nothing to really compare it to. I always used my dvd player for cd's......... It's hooked up via optical cable, which may have a slight advantage over regular stereo hook ups. I don't see ever paying more than that though. All in all it's a great player [Y]

[psg]

It's hooked up via optical cable, which may have a slight advantage over regular stereo hook ups.

Not really. Usually people use analog outs with primo expensive players. Otherwise you are simply using the player as 'transport', it is getting the bits off the CD and giving them to your receivers. The receiver's DACs are doing the conversion.

[tommyboy]

Ya, I figured it wouldn't make much of a difference. That's why I said "may have a slight advantage". Next time I move it or need to hook it up somewhere else, I just might use the analog outs..... I have like 3 extra pairs of them

[tigerwoodKhorns]

I went from a Denon DCD 1400 (cost me $400 back in 1989 - ouch) to a Philips 963 SA that I did the Blackgate capacitor modification to. Big jump up. Then I went with an AH! player. The tubes and upsampler made a difference. Then I tried a Benchamrk DAC1 and it was actually very sililar to teh AH!

I now have a Musical Fidelity A308CR CD player and it has more detail and all of the other audiophile stuff. I really noticed it when I put a $600 player back in my system for a few days.