CDP as source, sounds different

danger boy

Ok. this is in no way any kind of scientific expirement or anything like that.. just my recent findings.

I have three NAD CD players of different models and years of manufacture.

I was under the theory that if three differnet CDP's from the same maker would sound about the same.. for the most part. Well, that's not the case. Each of these three players sound different enough for me to notice it right away.

The older (C.1989) of the CDP's has great sound. but lacks bass. The middle one (C.1992) in age sounds like the older one, but the sound stage is not as good. Finally the newest one (C.1995-6) has good bass... almost to much bass. either that or the other two were SO lacking in bass. the this newer one is closer to real bass output that it just seems over producing bass.

Anyway, not sure why i even posted this.. of course any numbnuts would know that nearly each CDP has different sound. I was just suprised how much different in sound the three models from the same manufacture sounded.

FWIW

Dennis Gardner

Newspaper headlines:


Local man with 3 NADs claims each is different!!!

danger boy

Dennis Gardner wrote:

Newspaper headlines:


Local man with 3 NADs claims each is different!!!

:eek: Waaaaaaaaaaaaa! good one Dennis.

F1nut

DAC's

danger boy

yes, DAC's improved as technology advanced over the years.

it's somewhat tough to find the right CDP to fit a persons liking. since they don't all sound the same.

beardog03

how does a hairlip dog sound when it barks..?



























mark, mark, mark.....


cat with a hairball..?







dac, dac



thank you and good night....

organ

DAC's have really improved. I was blown away the first time I heard my NAD cd player. A dedicated cd player is that much better.

mldennison

danger boy wrote:

The older (C.1989) of the CDP's has great sound. but lacks bass. The middle one (C.1992) in age sounds like the older one, but the sound stage is not as good. Finally the newest one (C.1995-6) has good bass... almost to much bass. either that or the other two were SO lacking in bass. the this newer one is closer to real bass output that it just seems over producing bass.

okay, so i can definately see how different DAC's can produce a much different sound but i am a little confused as to how one DAC would produce more or less bass. i dont mean to pick on you, and i am sure that you actually are hearing this difference but it does not make much sense to me. if the job of a DAC is to change the digital signal to an analog signal which is the closest possible match, then that would mean that one of those DAC's is very of in amplitude of the analog signal in a wide range of low frequencies.

theoretically the only differences between DAC's should be the quantization error between 2 levels. since this error is so small, i would think that the differences in sound would be more along the lines of "one sounds more muddy than the other". but for the whole bass region to be louder or softer based on the DAC, i would think there would have to be something really wrong with one of them...

is there something that i am missing here?

madmax

mldennison wrote:

is there something that i am missing here?

I think so. I don't know what but I have found the further up the food chain in CD players the more authoritive and acurate the bass becomes. Other good things as well as you move up. The associated circuits can make a huge difference as can the power supply.
madmax

danger boy

mldennison wrote:

okay, so i can definately see how different DAC's can produce a much different sound but i am a little confused as to how one DAC would produce more or less bass. i dont mean to pick on you, and i am sure that you actually are hearing this difference but it does not make much sense to me. if the job of a DAC is to change the digital signal to an analog signal which is the closest possible match, then that would mean that one of those DAC's is very of in amplitude of the analog signal in a wide range of low frequencies.

theoretically the only differences between DAC's should be the quantization error between 2 levels. since this error is so small, i would think that the differences in sound would be more along the lines of "one sounds more muddy than the other". but for the whole bass region to be louder or softer based on the DAC, i would think there would have to be something really wrong with one of them...

is there something that i am missing here?

As not all receivers from different manufacturers would sound the same.. i'm sure the same can be said for DAC's too. DAC's from different companies will for the most part sound different then the next guys DAC's.

I'll let someone else with more knowledge tackle this one.

steveinaz

You also get into the area of "tonal character" of the piece. This involves the quality of parts, how robust the power supply is, quality/type of wire used, length of runs, stability of the transport, quality of the analog output side, etc, etc.

You can put identical DAC's in 2 different CD Players and have a completely different tonal character.

ND13

steveinaz wrote:

You also get into the area of "tonal character" of the piece. This involves the quality of parts, how robust the power supply is, quality/type of wire used, length of runs, stability of the transport, quality of the analog output side, etc, etc.

You can put identical DAC's in 2 different CD Players and have a completely different tonal character.

Yep, what he said ^^^^

mldennison

okay, that i guess i can believe. i can definately see the analog output circuitry as well as the internal wiring having a very tonal characteristic. it just strikes me as strange to say that the digital side of things can influance response.