Help me select a new (used) cd player

bklynNupe

Hi, I?m looking to buy a cd player to be used as a transport for my W4S dac2. I?ve read that some cd players are capable of upsampling to 192k? I?ve been looking at some older Sony and Philips SACD players for under $300. At present, I only own redbook. I'm not too sure if If plan to buy any SACD's. I do use HD Tracks for digital downloads.

Any suggestions on a new(used) player?

Thanks.

bklynNupe

anyone?

tonyb

Why do you need a cdp to upsample when your using the W4S dac ? The W4S is doing all the conversion. Since you already are doing digital downloads, why not hit up a Squeezebox, throw all your cd's on the 'puter and be done with it ? Other than that, as just a transport for redbook, any decently built cdp will do.

soundfreak1

+1 tonyb as a tramsport all u need is a decent lasar and a quiet motor and digital outs everything else is hamdled by tje DAC. Oh also get remote amd multi disc if u want.

Face

You have a PM.

erniejade

I have a denon 2910, and a pioneer pd-d9 and a w4s dac2. Using them both as a transport, I heard a difference between them. I have heard people say a cd player using the coax or digital out to a dac should not have any difference on the sound so, I had to do my own test. Thank you to newrival for confirming I am not crazy and he also heard a difference in the sound as well.

Using the coax out on both units to the w4s dac2, to me, the pioneer dp-d9 was cleaner in the mids, and the bass, at first i thought was lacking on the pioneer vs the denon but after listening to it more, it wasnt lacking but it was more controlled. I think sometimes we mistake less bass for a morcontrolleded bass even though there is nothing missing. The highs were a bit closer but, i think the pioneer edged it out. Not saying the denon did bad, it actually sounded quite good and if I didnt have the pioneer to do a fast direccompareir, I would have never known there was a difference.

Anyway, a transport I have found out is not just a transport but does have some differences on the sound quality.

Now it could be that because the pioneer is like 10 years newer that the transport is just stronger? or transfers the data faster? using the same cable, w4s dac2, legacy focus speakers, newrival and I both heard the difference in sound.

Again big thank you to newrival for stopping over to let me know the differences were there and not just in my mind because i wanted a difference to be there. We both heard differences, and we both heard different differences but, both agreed a transport is not a transport.

nspindel

It's out of your budget, but I just got a Marantz SA8004. I love it. It's an SACD player with a phenomanal 24-bit DAC that takes digital inputs from other transports. So I have all my redbook and hdtracks stuff coming through my Squeezebox and into the Marantz, and I can also play SACD. It doesn't do 5.1, it's purely 2-channel, but that's how I roll so I'm fine with that. Full list price is a grand, though. I saw an open-box one on OneCall for $799.