ChrisK Posted December 20, 2001 Share Posted December 20, 2001 I have an Arcam MCD cd player/changer. I gather from reading many posts here that most prefer single disc players. However, with the wife and kids also using my system and my preference for putting in 6 cd's and pushing "shuffle", I'd prefer staying with a multidisc player. That being said, how much sound improvement can I expect by adding an outboard DAC? What are some moderately priced options? Or am I just pissing up the proverbial rope by trying to improve a multidisc player? BTW, I'm a horns and tubes lover ('78Cornwalls,Decware Zen). Thanks, Chris ------------------ HT Klipsch KG2.5 (front & rear) Klipsch KV2 (center) Klipsch SW12 (sub) Marantz SR700 receiver Toshiba DTS DVD JVC SVHS VCR Sony Hi8 VCR 2 channel Klipsch Cornwalls (1976) Decware Zen SE84C amp Arcam Alpha MCD cd player Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted December 20, 2001 Share Posted December 20, 2001 Sometimes a little bit less is more. Driven by the unrelenting exposure of CD faults by my big old Cornwalls with their mid and high-range horns, I responded as quickly to a glowing www.soundstage.com review as a child offered ice cream. There was a low cost Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) for my Rotel 951 player. I jumped at the chance and ordered one from sensoryscience.com. Go to my review at: http://www.audioreview.com/reviews/DAC/product_4303.shtml I have since added a modest graphic equalizer to my front-end in order to minimize the 5 kHz glare that my speakers have. This seems to work quite well and I am now considering experiments with removing the DAC from the chain. I have not done it yet, though, because that means I have to get up off the couch! ------------------ Colin's Music System Cornwall 1s & Klipsch subs; lights out & tubes glowing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbobo Posted December 20, 2001 Share Posted December 20, 2001 I purchased the same D\A converter C talks about(CAL gamma) You can get it from sensory science.com for $99. The improvements in my system were: TREBLE: the top end was smoother, yet more detailed MIDRANGE: a little smoother, graininess gone BASS: sounded more "full". This was what improved most. IMAGING: instruments were easier to localize. This wasn't as much of an improvement as the others, though. ------------------ My bedroom system: YAMAHA CDC-575 CAL GAMMA D/A converter MONSTER IL400MkII ADCOM GTP-400 preamp Monster M350i ADCOM GFA-545 mK II amp Monster MCX 1s KLF 10 TOSHIBA CZ27V51 27" TV TOSHIBA SD2109 YAMAHA RX-V596 for surround KLIPSCH KSW 10 POLK R10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prana-Bindu Posted December 20, 2001 Share Posted December 20, 2001 Dude! You've got an excellent player!! The MCD is one of the two or three multi disc players out there that has ever been compared to single disc players. As I understand it, the DAC in your player is very high quality. In fact, some reviewers have contemplated the idea of using the MCD as an outboard DAC for other digital transports. In other words, it sounds to me like you'd have to make a huge upgrade to hear a difference big enough to justify giving up the convenience of multi-disc playback. Another warning: the addition of a separate DAC will likely result in some loss of quality from digital jitter (smeared transients, unstable soundstage, compromised imaging). A single-disc player doesn't suffer from the same source of jitter as digital separates, because the transfer of info from transport to DAC does not involve S/PDIF encoding. If your transport uses S/PDIF outputs (optical, coaxial, just about all currently popular outs) timing error will be introduced by the S/PDIF encoding that the transport does before sending off the data for the DAC to reconstruct. Some manufacturers have addressed the jitter problem with new interfaces that don't burn the clock info into the raw data (what happens in S/PDIF encoding). This way, the DAC can just calibrate it's clock to the transport clock without having to decode it from the S/PDIF signal (containing both sets of info with any transport timing error burned into the one signal). There are a few iterations of the I2S (I squared S) interface out there, and I think Muse may have developed it's own version of it, so the interface that resolves the separates jitter problem has not been universalized yet. Some are working for a better interface that allows the DAC's clock to be master to the transport clock by feeding its time info back into the transport to calibrate the transport's encoding processes (whatever those may be outside of S/PDIF encoding). I would wait until the interface issue was resolved before making such a necessarily huge upgrade. Like I said, you've got a great CD player. I won't be able to wait, because I learned about all this nonsense after I purchased my Perpetual Technologies P-3A DAC, in contemplation of ultimately incorporating a 5-pin I2S compatible transport and the P-1A Resolution Enhancement unit. I won't get the DAC's clock to act as master, but I'll have removed the biggest source of jitter inherent in running separates. Keep the Arcam, young bruh.... ------------------ May the bridges we burn light our way.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prana-Bindu Posted December 20, 2001 Share Posted December 20, 2001 In all my drivel, I forgot to mention that some manufacturers have attempted to resolve the S/PDIF jitter issue by synching up their DAC's and transport's clocks somehow, without the use of a unique interface. I don't know how successful they have been. ------------------ May the bridges we burn light our way.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Songer Posted December 20, 2001 Share Posted December 20, 2001 What are these "CD" things you guys keep writing about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundog Posted December 21, 2001 Share Posted December 21, 2001 You may want to check into some of the highly acclaimed and reasonably priced (for high end) digital processing devices (P1A & P3A)that turn "redbook" cds into close approximations of SACDs. www.perpetualtechnologies.com ------------------ Soundog's HT Systems Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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