Hardhitter Posted October 15, 2004 Share Posted October 15, 2004 I need to pick up a new CD player. I have looked at several options, Disc changers, cd recorders, SACD player (but I will get that with the new DVD player my wife is going to get from me for Christmas, always thinking of others!) Does anyone love or hate their disc changers, and why. And do you have any recomended brand and models? I dont want to fight a changer, but we have run out of storage area for all of the music. I was thinking it might solve my problem. I looked at the Pioneer Elite and the Sony (400 cds). But just want some feed back, Thanks!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicholtl Posted October 15, 2004 Share Posted October 15, 2004 I have the Sony ES 400 CD changer, and it is surprisingly, SURPRISINGLY good as a CD transport. It's loading and scanning mechanism is fleety and quiet, the LED lights are elegant but unobtrusive, and the overall build-quality is most excellent. It does not retail for very much, and despite it's space-hogging size (no more so than 400 CD's though!), I highly recommend it. If you a real music buff with the collection to prove it, I'd suggest you get a megachanger for sheer convinience factor, but a dedicated CD player (or a high quality DVD player) to use for your critical listening. My Denon 3800 DVD player wipes my Sony ES changer's a$$ clean, and my Classe CD player is a lawnmower, and the Denon's a$$ is grass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksdad Posted October 15, 2004 Share Posted October 15, 2004 i agree with nicholtl to a degree, i dont know if he is refering to the sony sound or the multi changer itself, but when you use multi changers you always give up on sound, and the other matter is sony sounds like a boom box, it sounds just like its manufacture, mass produced, adequate if all you want is adequate. but the denons or better are the way you want to go if you want good solid sound reproduction, pioneer elite also sounds very good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicholtl Posted October 15, 2004 Share Posted October 15, 2004 Marksdad, assuming he does go for a CD changer, there isn't a single one, to my knowledge, that has high-quality enough DAC's that are worthwhile to use. As such, he will be using a digital coax or toslink cable to connect to his receiver or preamp. This automatically makes the CD changer a transport, which means regardless of brand, make, or model, the sound between units (whether they be Kenwood, Sony, Pioneer, Denon doesn't even make CD changers) will be very much the same. Not entirely the same, as I have myself pointed out in a previous thread. Power supply, transport mechanism, etc., all makes the slightest of slight differences. But a difference, nontheless. Anyway, my point is there isn't a "high end" CD changer, so any CD changer he goes with will basically sound the same. It's features such as artist name input, artist name search, cd text, digital filters, loading mechanism speed, cd tray capacity, and things like that, that will affect the decision making process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted October 15, 2004 Share Posted October 15, 2004 I dunno about SACD, but I definitely don't think that the setups for CD and DVD are THAT compatible that one unit can do both optimally. I have an older Yamaha CDC775 5 disc tray-type unit that I love! It's best feature is a memory bank where you can edit out certain tracks from your discs so they never play. I put 5 lite-jazz or mixed discs in with the editing feature, put it in infinite disc-shuffle mode and use it all the time for office background music, but it's good enough for everyday listening. Another good 'party' feature is that it will keep playing one disc when you open the drawer and change the other 4. There is probably a compatible unit to this out these days. I do not recommend the 50+ 'jukebox' changers, there's just too many working parts. If you need that big a library, use a PC or Mac computer as a music 'server' or go to one of the dedicated products. Right now I've got about 20 Gig on my iMac (out of 80) with 2250 songs at 160bps (better quality) so it would run for 7 days never repeating! Good shopping! Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oscarsear Posted October 15, 2004 Share Posted October 15, 2004 A problem I faced and not so sure dealt well with. Chose the Jolida 100A CD with level 2 mods from Underwood. It was "tinny". Then I replaced the Jolidas tubes with vintage Sylvania product and it was like the audio drapes were opened. Then I added an external DAC (MF 21 TRIVISTA) and voila had the reproduction where I wanted it. Now the JD 100 is a fairly expensive transport and its Sylvania tubes are totally out of the sound processing loop. So...I suggest investing in a good DAC and find a solid CD transport and connect them with a well made cable. This seems to focus the $ on the individual function of each component. Keep in mind however that NO DACs can upsample SACD players at this time. So your soon to be SACD/DVD unit will connect direct to your amps. etc.... Ain't life swell? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksdad Posted October 16, 2004 Share Posted October 16, 2004 all of the parts you mentioned make a huge difference in final performance. there are so many different manufacturers, so many different price ranges, different levels of engeneering,all machines are not created equal! if so they would all cost around the same price, plus the optical outs seem to bring about more of the machines weaknesses, that is if the dacs on your processor are good dacs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.4knee Posted October 16, 2004 Share Posted October 16, 2004 "Denon doesn't even make CD changers" What do you call the Denon DCD 380? It is also HDCD capable but only holds 5 disc's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnysal Posted October 16, 2004 Share Posted October 16, 2004 I have posted in the past about some of the "shoot outs" hosted at my house. One of these matched my Sony jukeboxes + MSB upsampling DAC with some high-end players, NO ONE could decern a difference (at least not one we could depend on). however, in the same shoot out we heard significant differences when swapping amps and/or preamps. I concluded that the transport has a very small effect on the sound and that the DAC is the primary determinant of the sound from CDs...so I say use whatever is conveinient (for me the juke boxes) and spend the money on the best DAC you can get. regards, tony BTW: In some of thes shoot outs I have also tried swapping Toslink for 75ohm Coax and we could never hear reliably any difference between the two. edit: here is one shoot out report of a very high end player I am still looking for the other mentions but I remember a cary player, an arcam and a mark levinson rig have been in my house... http://forums.klipsch.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=51863&forumID=68&catID=19&search=1&searchstring=&sessionID={D1D08490-B4D2-4431-9F22-C96D34913297} Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardhitter Posted October 16, 2004 Author Share Posted October 16, 2004 Hey, you guys have pretty much answered my question! I am not looking to spend a ton of money on a CD player. I am looking for a way to kill two birds with one stone. My CD player is very old, and I have over 300 CD's that get shuffled around the room, it's quite a mess. Both the Sony 400 and the Pioneer Elite have great features, I was most concerned about load time and overall operation. Sounds like those who are using them love them, so it's off to the store for me. Thanks a bunch!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicholtl Posted October 16, 2004 Share Posted October 16, 2004 ---------------- On 10/16/2004 9:54:17 AM J.4knee wrote: "Denon doesn't even make CD changers" What do you call the Denon DCD 380? It is also HDCD capable but only holds 5 disc's. ---------------- Since our original poster was concerned with megachangers, I figured other members here would understand when I said "changers" I was not referring to 5 disc carousels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicholtl Posted October 16, 2004 Share Posted October 16, 2004 ---------------- On 10/16/2004 9:49:07 AM marksdad wrote: all of the parts you mentioned make a huge difference in final performance. there are so many different manufacturers, so many different price ranges, different levels of engeneering,all machines are not created equal! if so they would all cost around the same price, plus the optical outs seem to bring about more of the machines weaknesses, that is if the dacs on your processor are good dacs? ---------------- The point is, it's the DAC of your preamp/receiver that gets the final word. I think you'd be very hard pressed to tell the difference between players (reasonably speaking, no sub $200 players here) connected with a high quality connection to a good DAC. Not like it matters now...he's off to the store already! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q-Man Posted October 16, 2004 Share Posted October 16, 2004 Everyone needs a CD Mega changer. Do any of you watch a TV without a remote control? Do you still get up to change the channels? I doubt it. A mega changer is even more important to have then remote controled TV. I only like about three songs on every CD that I own. If I wasn't able to switch tracks and CD's from my seat, I wouldn't even listen to them. Storage is another factor, I couldn't imagine what it would be like to keep 300 CD's in caces, and have to look for the one that you want. Put the CD's in a mega changer and throw the cases away. I use a Pioneer Elite PD-F27 300 disc changer. I also use a Marantz DV6400 for DVD's, DVD-Audio, and SACD's. I can recommend both of them to anyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnysal Posted October 16, 2004 Share Posted October 16, 2004 not to mention all those smudges and scratches from handling disks while enebriated! LOL! seriously, since I have two kids (and a wife) I could not stand that my CDs were deteriorating with usage (they are not as careful as I am while handling those precious little things) so a juke box was the only solution, one that I am very happy I chose. warm regards, tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdfan Posted October 16, 2004 Share Posted October 16, 2004 I've had a sony 400 for about 5 years now. It gets used about 2 hrs a day on average. So far, no problems sound or mechanism-wise. The only regret I have is that I should have gotten the one with the lcd display on the remote that gives you the disc list. It gets a little difficult seeing the display from 15 ft. away. Once you get past the initial loading and programming of disc info., you'll wonder why you didn't throw out all those cd cases years ago. good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted October 16, 2004 Share Posted October 16, 2004 For what it is worth: In about 1970 there were mechanically complex record changers. Set up a stack of records and it would play for a long time. You paid for that changer mechanism. At about the same time, the record pick ups (cartridges and eliptical diamond needles) were advancing and becoming more more expensive. So, for an audiophile, it made sense to put the money into a manual TT of the most simlistic form, with good specs, and also buy the better cartridge the budget would allow. So the AR manual TT and Pickering or Empire made sense. Please also recall Rek-0-Nut TTs. (?) At one time considered very good. This way of thinking has held sway to these days. I.e. if you buy a changer, there must be a compromise of the laser reader and DAC and this compromise results in a compromise of musical quality. It is a zero sum game in performance. You pay for convenience. True? I'm not sure. I wonder if these are not the prejudices of times past. Also a misconception of what goes on in the Orient, where our goods are designed and manufactured. It is a new world. My thought is that much of the CD reader stuff and transports have been perfected to a point where there are no sonic (data) benefits to be gained. That is why our computers work so well. Our hi fi digital is not suffering from poor implementation. On the other hand, there is much to be said for the benefits of protection of CD's from handling. And we have multichannel sound, etc. Gil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted October 17, 2004 Share Posted October 17, 2004 Ah, Gil, you take me back once again. It was the Chicago at Carnegie Hall 4 LP set, I believe that was manufactured with sides 1 and 4 back to back and 2 and 3 back to back. That was you could consecutively listen to sides 1 and 2, flip the stack over and hear 3 and 4. Now THAT was convenience! ps, yes, I had to diagram it to make sure that was the platter order! Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.