Philips CD-880 very quick review

gshisme
gshisme Posts: 1,038
edited May 2005 in 2 Channel Audio
Well I have the Philips CD-880 cdp that I grabbed from Warlocks1 hooked up and running.

I'll keep this review short and simple...my social skills are very limited.

Anyway this unit is remarkable. Manufactured circa 1990, this unit is built like a tank..at least 20 lbs. It has both digital and analogue outputs so I hooked up both to my H/K 320 to do a comparison via input switching through the H/K. Warlocks mentioned that he had not used the digital outputs of this unit which is a shame. Using the H/K's dac's the mids and lows were much, much more detailed and and natural sounding then the analogues. The highs just sounded..well cleaner..crisper. Using the analogue outputs, it sounded muddled in comparison. I am very impressed with the sound of the Philips and although I have an outboard Adcom dac unit coming, I'm not so sure that there can be much of an improvement sonically. We'll see.

Only annoyance so far is that the player is a little quick once in a while when selecting tracks from the remote...it has a tendency to clip the beginning of the selected track. It doesn't clip when playing a whole CD through and I can live with that. Overall, I am very pleasently surprised with the Philips.

By the way. For the comparison I used Cobalt interconnects and digital coax cable. The brand of coax I'm not sure of but it is silver color braided and looks to be of quality. I purchased it here on the forum a year or so ago.

Greg

Forgot to mention..using the H/K as a pre/pro. The Adcom 5400 is doing all the amplification.
suds, suds and more suds!
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Comments

  • 2+2
    2+2 Posts: 546
    edited May 2005
    Hi Greg....good to hear your success....HK DACs do sound real nice. As to the split second gap, that is not the CD player, its the processor in the HK locking onto the signal and starting decoding....one of the curses of HK's products. My HK...as well as the whole x30 line does this on many, but not all, cds. You may take comfort in knowing that Rotel receivers do this as well....
    Peace
    Daniel
    System 1: Martin Logan Vantage, Rotel RC 1070, B&K Reference 200.2, Music Hall DAC 15.2, Yamaha 2300

    System 2: LSi15 w/db840, Marantz SR8400, Rotel 1080, RM6800 (C&S), Sony X2020ES

    System 3: LSi7, Yamaha SW215, Music Hall Maven, Music Hall MMF CD25 w/627opamps

    System 4: RTi100, Harman Kardon AVR 230, Panasonic DVD
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  • polkatese
    polkatese Posts: 6,767
    edited May 2005
    cool, Greg! sounded like it's a fun journey for you.
    I am sorry, I have no opinion on the matter. I am sure you do. So, don't mind me, I just want to talk audio and pie.
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  • gshisme
    gshisme Posts: 1,038
    edited May 2005
    Originally posted by 2+2
    As to the split second gap, that is not the CD player, its the processor in the HK locking onto the signal and starting decoding....one of the curses of HK's products. My HK...as well as the whole x30 line does this on many, but not all, cds. You may take comfort in knowing that Rotel receivers do this as well....
    Peace
    Daniel

    I assumed it to be the cdp as I haven't experienced this with my Yammy...er.. your Yammy or the H/K 25. Had a Sony hooked up for a bit also and now that you mentioned................

    Thanks Daniel for the info.


    And Polkatese, yup, were having fun. But sometimes I think I should be spending more time in front of the component rack instead of behind the damn thing. Just glad I have casters on 'er.


    OH, and kudos to warlocks for the great deal. Only in Polk-land.
    suds, suds and more suds!
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