What CD player?

jfb4548

Ok, it's time to get serious about a new player for my 2 channel and after shopping around and reading all your great posts I'm still unsure as to what direction to go! My current player is a first gen. McIntosh MCD7000. It's been playing away since I bought it new way back in the 80's! So what should I look at today? Money is tight so I'm on a budget but at the same time I need my music! Any input as to what formats I need to be able to play? SACD or DVD-A or others. It has to play good old fashion CD and Cd-R but that part seems to be easy to find! So far I've look at pictures and read on-line about the Jolida JD-700 and 100 as well as the Marantz SD-11. The Marantz is really pushing the budget way out of the comfort zone but is it worth it? Keep in mind this is for 2 channel use so player needs to have good old fashion R & L outputs! My current system is all the same vintage as the cd player. It's all what I like to call 'Low' Hi-End! My pre is a Mac 34V, CD is MCD7000 and power amp is Mac 7270. Speakers are SDA-SRS. Thanks for your input!!

audiobliss

Wow, that sounds like a nice system. I'll be paying attention to the advice you get, as I could use a CDP, too.

Early B.

Look into the Onix...

http://www.av123.com/products_product.php?section=processors&product=25.1

steveinaz

Some of my favorites, all under a grand:

1. Cambridge AZUR 640C
2. Rega Planet 2000
3. Music Hall CD-25
4. Marantz SA-8260
5. Rotel RCD-1072
6. Ah! Toeb
7. NAD C54Xi series
8. Vintage Revox B225/B226

Emlyn

My suggestion would be no new CD player, but get an external DAC and use it with any transport, even a cheap DVD player, or the current CD player you have now if it has a digital output. Parasound DAC-2000 Ultra's can be found used for $600 or less. Benchmark DACs like Steve's are a good choice at under $1000. The Musical Fidelity X component set can be bought new for $1200, including the DAC, power supply, and tube output buffer. There are other great choices too.

tryrrthg

A DAC would be a good option if you think your current CD player is a decent transport. However, my NAD C521 CD player when used as a transport does not sound near as good as my McCormack transport.

Good DACS in the 400-600 price range would be: Musical Fidelity A3.24 or X-DACv3, MSB Link DAC III, Bel Canto DAC 1.1 would all be good choices.

Good CD player options in the 400-600 price range would be

Arcam CD 72, 73, or 92, Rotel 1072, or Rega Planet 2000.

steveinaz

Emlyn wrote:

My suggestion would be no new CD player, but get an external DAC and use it with any transport, even a cheap DVD player, or the current CD player you have now if it has a digital output.

VERY good point.

danger boy

it's up to you of course. but if it were me.. i would ditch the idea of SACD and DVD-A and just get the best CD player you can find.

I recently got a used NAD 5340 and added it to my 2 ch music only rig. I'm quite impressed with the high sound quality from the NAD player. Granted this is an older player.. it still sounds wonderful. plus is plays CDR's too.

madmax

danger boy wrote:

i would ditch the idea of SACD and DVD-A and just get the best CD player you can find.

I totally agree. The higer resolution means nothing if the unit is not capable of doing its best with standard CD.
madmax

steveinaz

Roger that. I would stay redbook. IMHO SACD/DVD-A is one of the biggest audio debacles of all time.

madmax

I like the SACD/DVD-A and don't mind collecting them but lets face it, to get the sound out of it you need $$$

F1nut

Ah no, 8 track tape was the biggest debacle. DVD-A and DualDisc never got off the ground and are dead. SACD is going strong, but at this time is a niche market, much like vinyl. SACD software leans heavily toward classical music, but there are many good rock, blues and jazz releases, so one needs to consider if the format offerings fit their taste in music. I'll take the limited rock and blues offerings because the SACD sound quality is fantastic and hell, if all else fails, the CD playback of my unit is top notch, so no worries.

Did you mean the Marantz SD-11? I can't find anything about a SA-11. I haven't heard the Marantz, but it appears to get good reviews on both formats. Some other choices might be a used Sony SCD-1 or the Cary 306 SACD. The Music Hall Maverick and the Shanling SCD-T200 are worth looking at too.

W WALDECKER

steveinaz wrote:

Roger that. I would stay redbook. IMHO SACD/DVD-A is one of the biggest audio debacles of all time.

Ten Four! remember the vhs vs beta wars ?i would not invest in a technology that may wither on the vine. redbook is most likely here to stay. there are a lot of great players on the market.Cambridge audio is coming out with a 24 bit upsampling cd player so if you can wait i little longer a lot of newer and better cd players are just around the bend.

audiobliss

Oooh, a new CA unit. I don't know why (and I've never actually even seen any of their stuff), I'm really drawn to their line-up. Where did you hear that they're coming out with a new CDP? Just curious.

Their Azur series uses a Meridian lossless DAC (I believe), and I also thought that it was a 24-bit DAC. (I was going to look it up on their site, but I can't get their site to come up. Has it changed?) If I am indeed correct, what's the benefit of the new one over the older ones?

W WALDECKER

hey, audiobliss i saw this player on a website. it was at a audioshow in Japan. they were showcasing new models that will soon be on the market. they actually had the new player on display. the current models have 24 bit wolfson dac,s but they will only play 24 bit if the cd is encoded in 24 bit. a upsampling player has a additional chip that takes standard 16 bit cd,s and upsamples the digital information on the disc and converts it to 24 bit.

audiobliss

Ooh, ok. I understand that now. Thanks for the clarification. What kind of player was I thinking about that uses Meridian lossless DACs? Now I'm stumped. I know I've read of something using those.....

W WALDECKER

how about the Cambridge audio Azur 540 D dvd player? it uses Meridians lossless technology and also does DVD-A.

Emlyn

audiobliss wrote:

Ooh, ok. I understand that now. Thanks for the clarification. What kind of player was I thinking about that uses Meridian lossless DACs? Now I'm stumped. I know I've read of something using those.....

You may be thinking of "Meridian Lossless Packaging", the encoding protocol developed by Meridian and selected as the standard for encoding DVD-Audio. It's a form of lossless compression that can be decoded by DVD players that are set up for it. It's related to CD technology, just at a higher resolution (at most 192kHz or 24 bit, but usually at a lower sampling rate in real world application).

audiobliss

Ahh, that's probably it. I was thinking about the Meridian stuff in CA's DVD players. Ok, that's it. Thanks!

P.S. Can anyone get CA's website to work (www.cambridgeaudio.com)? I still can't get it.

Early B.

W WALDECKER wrote:

how about the Cambridge audio Azur 540 D dvd player? it uses Meridians lossless technology and also does DVD-A.

At one point, I had both the 540D and the 640C, so I did a quick & dirty A/B test for music. The sound is virtually identical. The only difference was the 640C offered a slight improvement in bass.

beardog03

My .02..

I have an AH! Njoeb Tjoeb 4000 (modded), and a Jolida-100...
Both are better than anything else I have had or heard before..

still trying to decide the better of the two, but the Jolida is a nice piece...

....as is the Ah! 4000

The Ah! can be had for a few hundred cheaper though...

Remember......I/C`s make a HUGE difference ...


IMO

W WALDECKER

does the AH! njoeb tjoeb have the upsampling module?

beardog03

yes...I put the upsampler board in it...I posted pic`s of the project here on the forum

W WALDECKER

does the jolida upsample also?

beardog03

I`m not sure..F1NUT probably does though..
I just got it a week or so ago

I know there are three stages of mods...

you can see them here..
http://www.soundodyssey.com/Jolida/JD100PS1.html

F1nut

W WALDECKER wrote:

Ten Four! remember the vhs vs beta wars ?i would not invest in a technology that may wither on the vine. redbook is most likely here to stay. there are a lot of great players on the market.Cambridge audio is coming out with a 24 bit upsampling cd player so if you can wait i little longer a lot of newer and better cd players are just around the bend.

I can't understand your position on hi-rez. SACD has been around for many years now and shows no signs of going away, so why deny yourself the benefits? Comparing two video formats from many years ago to hi-rez audio is apples and oranges, there is no correlation.

Edit: Let me add that CD's took about 7 years to fully catch on, SACD hasn't been around that long yet.

Why wait for Cambridge to catch up, 24 bit upsampling cdp's have been out for years. For example, both the Ah! (24/192) and the Jolida (24/96) are already here, not to mention a host of others. Still, none of them can beat a good SACD player.

VR3

:::Look into the Onix...

http://www.av123.com/products_produ...rs&product=25.1 - Early B:::

The Onix, mentioned at the top of this page is 24/96 as well.

Great CD player, I highly recomend it

+1

jfb4548

Wow! Thanks for all the input and choices. It seems as if this is a touchy topic! My old Mac player seems pretty solidly built and sounds really good on some cd. My issues are that voices seem small and not as up front as I remember - maybe my ears are going away? I tried a tube buffer v10x3 and it did improve as expected but still I think there is an issue. Is it possiable that vocal quality can be going away while the instruments sound great? My other issue is with the players brightness. It's not so much an issue with the SDA's but with my old Altec A7's you need ear plugs! Now I know these guys are not your typical home speaker and maybe they need to live on a diet of LPs only, but it's hard to give up CD and go back!

steveinaz

audiobliss wrote:

Ahh, that's probably it. I was thinking about the Meridian stuff in CA's DVD players. Ok, that's it. Thanks!

P.S. Can anyone get CA's website to work (www.cambridgeaudio.com)? I still can't get it.

Check www.audioadvisor.com

All the info you need is there.

audiobliss

steveinaz wrote:

Check www.audioadvisor.com

All the info you need is there.

Good idea. Thanks.

W WALDECKER

F1nut wrote:

I can't understand your position on hi-rez. SACD has been around for many years now and shows no signs of going away, so why deny yourself the benefits? Comparing two video formats from many years ago to hi-rez audio is apples and oranges, there is no correlation.

Edit: Let me add that CD's took about 7 years to fully catch on, SACD hasn't been around that long yet.

Why wait for Cambridge to catch up, 24 bit upsampling cdp's have been out for years. For example, both the Ah! (24/192) and the Jolida (24/96) are already here, not to mention a host of others. Still, none of them can beat a good SACD player.

dont misunderstand the reason for my opinion. i own a sacd player but most people own 16 bit cd.s. a upsampling player allows people to improve the sound of thier collections instead of investing in a new medium and a new collection of discs that has a more expensive retail cost and a much more limited selection. i would not compare the sound of the two mediums side by side as this is a apples and oranges comparison at best.thanks p.s there is a valid reason to compare cd vs sacd to vhs vs beta. the large music and electronics companies dont give a damn what looks better or sounds better all they pay attention to is thier bottom line. profits are all that matters to them!