jacksonbart Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 Along similar lines I spent some time listening between Denon 3910 and an Olive music server to see if I could hear any differences. The Olive is set up to store music in FLAC and to be honest I think the Denon present the music with slightly increased emphasis on the mid bass. I doubt I could call it in a blind test. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenderbender Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 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 I'm running some nice siemens tubes that came with the unit....I have others but am so happy that I've just let well enough alone.... to everyone else...I agree that not all expensive equipment is better or even any good at all.......there are plenty of $10K speakers that sound like crap...as well as 200# mono blocks that cost $15K a piece.......they look pretty but when you look under the hood, there's cheap components, poor design, etc. then you find some companies that do indeed charge a premium, but the components are well worth it..... diminishing returns,? no doubt...I don't think I'll be able to tell the difference between a $1000 dollar cartridge and a $5000 one....then some may.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turntable3 Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 I am running a Teac Vrds 25x into a RME ADI-2 D/A converter which does upsampling up to 176,4/24 or 192/24 depending on the source. Comparing the sound I can say the RME-D/A sounds more crispy and fresh while the old Teac sounds a little bit too laid back meanwhile. The RME sounds better than a Denon DVD 2200. A Sony CDP 270 sounds a liitle bit harsh compared with the Teac. You won`t hear this on your scalas. Jack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommyboy Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 So basically from what I've read, it doesn't really matter then. I mean unless you use a discman as your system's player............. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IB Slammin Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 I'm running some nice siemens tubes that came with the unit....I have others but am so happy that I've just let well enough alone.... Siemens? Well I guess you are happy with them! $$$$$$$[:'(] Mine came with JAN's. Did you have Kevin load the Siemens when you bought it? "I'm slowly coming around to the camp of improving front end is the best improvement you can make to any system......." (other than speakers) Absolutely, I agree. And when running nasty old SS power amps, a total tube front is very nice. tc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenderbender Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 Actually I bought mine second hand for a price that will make you vomit, considering it had every upgrade possible and was hardly used...it wasn't even broken in when I got it. I'm a serious vinyl junkie.....BBX with cream, VPI scout (new lyra cart coming on monday).....but I have to say that even though I still love my vinyl...the AH! has really closed the gap......I am enjoying cd's that I had given up hope on and have actually bought some cd's for the first time in a long while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted December 6, 2008 Share Posted December 6, 2008 A friend gave me some old equipment from a local radio station. 2 tascam tape players that have worn out motors and a Gemini DJ CDP. The Gemini CDP looks really cheesey. This is a cheapo. The first thing I noticed was that it is much louder than my cambridge audio 640c. It will be fun to do cheapo vs mid-fi cdp. SPECIFICATIONS CDX-601/CDX-602 GENERAL: Type...........................................................................Compact Disc Player Disc Type.................................Standard Compact discs (12 cm & 8 cm) Time Display.....................Track Elapsed, Track Remain, or Total remain Variable Pitch.........................................± 12% Slider with Resume Switch Pitch Bend.....................................................................± 16% Maximum Instant Start.............................................................Within 0.03 seconds Track Selection.....................................................................1 to 99 Tracks AUDIO SECTION: Quantization....................................1 Bit Linear/Channel, 3 Beam Laser Oversampling Rate........................................................................8 Times Sampling Frequency.......................................................................44.1 kHz Frequency Response..........................................20 Hz to 20 kHz Digital Output..............................................................................IEC958 Total Harmonic Distortion...............................................Less Than 0.05% Signal to Noise Ratio......................................................................104 dB Dynamic Range............................................................................98 dB Channel Separation............................................................90 dB (1 KHz) Output Level...................................................................1.9 Volts R.M.S. Power Supply............................................AC 115/230V, 60/50 Hz Cambridge Audio 640C V2.0 Frequency Response: 10Hz to 20KHz +/- 1dB THD: 0.001% D/A Conversion: 24-bit/192kHz x 2-dual Dynamic Range: > 100dB Channel Separation: > 90dB Correlated Jitter: < 160ps Digital Outputs: Optical and Coaxial Max. Power Consumption: 17 Watts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest David H Posted December 7, 2008 Share Posted December 7, 2008 This thread is a good read. Some time ago I read reviews about the original sony playstation being used in HiFi application and people charging hundreds of dollars for them, Hogwash???? Well I found one at a yard sale for $5 and said what the heck. I hooked it up and compared to my Elite SACD player Burr Brown DAC's etc, then to My California Audio Labs Icon MKII with Sigma Tube DAC. Surprising enough to me the PS-ONE really sounded fantastic It was easily as good as the Icon MKII and bested the Elite in bass. Needless to say I was pleasnatly surprised. Currently I am using a $160 Fubar USB DAC from Firestone Audio with ITunes lossless encoding and find it to be the best of the bunch, not by leaps and bounds but very good overall. Its true, you dont have to spend alot of green for excellent quality. Then again Klipsch is the perfect example. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundbound Posted December 7, 2008 Share Posted December 7, 2008 A friend and I compared his small portable CD player to my Rotel RCD-971. The 971 is a very nice unit! I used his portable's volume output to match the 971's output. We had two copies of the same CD. One in each unit. I matched them both up to be playing in the same spot. All we had to do then was to switch back and forth. The 971 did sound better, but we were surprised that it wasn't by more. I'd still bet the higher end CD players do sound better, but to what degree would have to be heard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tillerman Posted December 7, 2008 Share Posted December 7, 2008 My CD players are collecting dust. I bought a Squeezebox Duet a couple of months ago. The SB receiver's digital output is fed into an external DAC. I rip my discs using EAC into lossless FLAC files. Having access to my music, with cover art, track listings, etc., in the palm of my hand via the SB Duet remote is so much nicer than rummaging through 1000+ discs. All the noise of the computer is gone, due to a wireless connection. Plus there is no noise (or personal effort) from the CD player changing discs, especially with multi discs sets. Sound quality is excellent, and seems to be limited only by the quality of the external DAC. Create playlists, store favorites, access internet radio, play multiple file formats - this piece of equipment has made more difference in my system than most - probably because I listen to more music now. MSRP for the Duet is $399, but you can get them for less. The Duet also has analog outputs, if you do not have an external DAC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommyboy Posted December 7, 2008 Share Posted December 7, 2008 I did a little test. I used my Pioneer DVD player, my Blu ray player, and my cd player; all with the same song. I didn't really notice any difference at all between the three........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arash Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 (edited) I use a Western Digital Live Streaming* to play FLAC file from HDD and 0s and 1s go out from optical output to a Shanling DAC-50. It's far better than any CD player I used to have. there is also a Panasonic SV-3800 which I use as a DAC. it sounds very good indeed. this is the Playstation-based CD Player I built some other years ago. Playstation 100X series sounds good as hell. I separated the PSU and build two chassis and a tube buffer and a remote control. it sounded very good but it's collecting dust in my living room just as a decorative. one can use Foobar2000 media player with MathAudio EQ plugin to correct the environment acoustic response is a DAC is connected to a PC. * Apple TV is also OK Edited January 6, 2015 by Arash Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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