Is a cd player necessary?

[gagelle]

I have an Oppo Blu-ray player that also plays Cds in every conceivable variety of format. Lately, I have been reading advertisments for high end CD players that make all kinds of claims--ex. "you will hear instruments you've never heard before." The picture and sound on my blu-ray player is excellent. Are the claims made for these high end cd players just marketing hype or is there something to this? In other words, will a separate good cd player improve the sound quality of my music cds?

[Quiet_Hollow]

Hype. But a good standalone CD player can improve load times and usability. I used to have an older Sony that was faster than greased lightning at startup (on, loaded, and ready to play in under 4 seconds) and allowed me to program and store playlists for each disc. Now I've got a Panasonic Blu-ray player with gorgeous picture and sound, but is slower than turtle crap and has no CD playback features beyond the usual play,pause,stop, and cue. Only reason I don't go back to owning a component CD player is because it's 2011 and time for a Squeezebox or something along those lines.

[gagelle]

Thanks--confirms what I was thinking.

[chisoxpurdue]

I do not know your player but may have a suggestion. It may just be my Marantz DVD (CD, SACD, and DVD-Audio) player, but it has an audio only setting. I use this when playing CDs or SACDs, and think it sounds better (with no video hardware working). This may be in my mind, but it is a suggestion to check if your player has this. Other than that, I think the higher-end universal players do a very good job with audio. I use the optical connection for CDs though as well (over the HDMI). I do hook up the NAD CD player from time to time to "make sure" that the Marantz is doing as well.

[pzannucci]

Thanks--confirms what I was thinking.

Depending on the level of the rest of your equipment and your oppo, it may be a noticable upgrade. That said, you have to figure out if the sound is worth the dollars but it doesn't mean a new cd player won't be a revelation. Also, if you have the oppo, you probably have digital outputs, a good outboard DAC may make a fair amount of difference if you don't want another player around. The DacMagic is inexpensive and the Wyred4sound's new DAC got excellent reviews for the ~$1500 category.

[Chris A]

The DacMagic is inexpensive and the Wyred4sound's new DAC got excellent reviews for the ~$1500 category.

What a deal! [:^)]

I use the Burr-Brown DAC inside my AVP...my whole AVP cost less than the dollar amount quoted above.

Chris [:|]

[pzannucci]

The DacMagic is inexpensive and the Wyred4sound's new DAC got excellent reviews for the ~$1500 category.

What a deal!

I use the Burr-Brown DAC inside my AVP...my whole AVP cost less than the dollar amount quoted above.

Chris

Chris,

The question was referring to "High End" [] The $429 DacMagic can hardly be called high dollar compared to other equipment in this category though the sound is very good and a very reasonable deal compared to other items on the market. The Wyred is possibly a different story.

The real question is the law of diminishing returns. The higher we go in the food chain, the steeper the costs and the lower the return. Buy used or build it yourself. If you're happy with where you are, stay there. Don't have four sets of HUGE speakers in your family room like I do along with tons of duplicate types of electronics. [:S] The other half hasn't kicked me out yet though.

[Chris A]

Thanks for your response Peter.

Actually, my comments were directed toward the person (Seth/gagelle) that asked the original question. I believe that it is he that hasn't yet made up his mind on this subject.

Chris

[gagelle]

That's an interesting idea. I don't think my Oppo has an "audio only" setting but I'll check into it. I'm pretty sure it automatically detects the type of media being played. I may also plug in my son's old Yamaha cd player into my system to see if there is any difference in sound quality. It already produces very good sound played through an old Harman Kardon 2 channel receiver and Epic cf3 speakers.

[gagelle]

chisoxpurdue: you're a genius. I just checked the Oppo Manual and there's a "pure audio" mode button that should be pressed on the remote before playing cds. "This produces higher quality audio because it turns off the video processing which can reduce the audio sound quality." -something simple that I overlooked.

Things were so much easier in the days when a good stereo music system was the goal.

[oscarsear]

I posed this ? on a separate thread and did not get much of a reply. Oppo just released what it calls it's "audiophile" version enumerated as the Oppo-95. It too is a multifunction device but it has additional DACs specifically to enhance 2 channel audio and it offers balanced connections. I own a Sony ES 777 that I use for 2 channel, but I need a new DVD/blue ray player and was wondering about the new Oppo 95. It certainly costs more than a typical dvd rig. But I have heard so much about the Oppo product line that I'd consider the costs if the overall playback is as good as they tout. But so far I have not been able to gather many reviews or feedback on the new unit. As I said, I asked here and nary a peep. Do you all know anything about the Oppo 95?

[jhoak]

I keep a CD player attached to my system for what I call "casual" listening. It's an ES series Sony 5-disc carousel player that is attached by optical to my Emotiva DAC. It's nice to drop in 5 CDs by a particular artist or a particular genre, press "shuffle all" and go about my day with the music playing.

Now that said... I do have all of my music (~500 CDs) ripped to good quality MP3 or FLAC and can do the same thing through my Oppo 93. The catch is it requires a bit of futzing to make that happen where using the CDs is just quick and convenient.

Will I ever get where my "casual" listening is all done by way of streaming through the Oppo? Probably. But for now anyway the old 5-disc Sony just works for me.

[pzannucci]

I posed this ? on a separate thread and did not get much of a reply. Oppo just released what it calls it's "audiophile" version enumerated as the Oppo-95. It too is a multifunction device but it has additional DACs specifically to enhance 2 channel audio and it offers balanced connections. I own a Sony ES 777 that I use for 2 channel, but I need a new DVD/blue ray player and was wondering about the new Oppo 95. It certainly costs more than a typical dvd rig. But I have heard so much about the Oppo product line that I'd consider the costs if the overall playback is as good as they tout. But so far I have not been able to gather many reviews or feedback on the new unit. As I said, I asked here and nary a peep. Do you all know anything about the Oppo 95?

Here's a peep http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/digital/messages/15/157217.html

As Chris was pointing out referencing my post, how much is the upgrade worth and will it make you happier than what you currently have.

Technology is moving fast and you might be able to get something that will sound better but you must be careful. Too many items are sideways moves vs a better sounding upgrade. Once you get up to the price of these toys you better listen before you buy. Each component may sound different but maybe not better.

A dedicated CD player would be nice but a computer/server based music system, probably less expensive than a really good player, can sound just as good and replace most of these components. Mine has both a DVD and Blu-ray drive along with tons of storage for FLAC files and movies. Does everything and then some.

If you are looking for high quality digital, you will need a service such as HDTracks. The CD player won't play those files though the Oppo 95 may.

[willland]

Gagelle,

I do think many high end CD players will considerably improve performance. I also believe that a few midfi players will also do the trick.

Here is a high end performing midfi player that is a "giant killer". If you can't hear much improvement, you should have no problem reselling it.

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlplay&1302738904&/Onkyo-DX-7555-CD-Player

http://www.stereophile.com/cdplayers/108onk

Bill

[gnatnoop]

quality of sound differences generally come from the DAC and the DAC's in CD players do vary.

so yes, you can get better sound on better players. but you also can use your existing player as the transport and add a DAC, could be a lot cheaper.

[gagelle]

No I don't but I usually look at the Amazon reviews. I've been buying Oppo players for about 5 years and have always been impressed by their quality and performance.

[gagelle]

I also noticed that any Dolby process should be turned off when playing music cds. It may work for movies, but it made my music sound dull and lifeless.

I'll look into the Oppo 95. Now I want one but probably shouldn't spend the money. The unit I have is the BDP-80. It was cheaper than their top of the line player when I bought it. It still is an impressive unit, and produces rich colors and perfect sound, especially on blu-ray. Last week, I played a restored blu-ray version of Kubrick's 2001 and was simply blown away by the experience.

[gagelle]

Willand, thanks for the link.

[gagelle]

Just my opinion, but if you can wait until it gets to Amazon, you may see a significant price discount. I purchased all my Oppos from Amazon at a discount from the Oppo list price. Plus you get 30 day any reason return policy.

[gagelle]

Thanks again for the Onkyo link because it gave me a good idea. I just purchased their new model of this CD player which also has SACD. I couldn't resist the discount Amazon price of $359 with free shipping. Plus I get 30 days to return it if I don't like the unit. This is actually cheaper than the total price for the used unit (unless I could have gotten about $100 off) because of shipping costs, the cost of joining AudiogoN to make a bid and the 3% the seller wants to cover his PayPal fee.