To improve 2 channel - Best $500 CD player?

byteme

New, used, whatever, what's the best out there right now for $400-500 or so.

I'm not into SACD so that's not a concern. I've either got or had the following:

Sherwood Newcastle CD980 - current champ and a bargain too
Rega Planet '99 - jury still out, so far I don't like it
Rotel RCD-950 - eh, very average

Rest of the system is:
Sherwood Newcastle AM9080 5 channel amp
Sonic Frontiers SFL-1 hybrid tube preamp
Polk RTA11t mains
Zu Cable Julian
Z cable live V3
Zu cable warmouth

Thanks!

HBombToo

try this link...

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?dgtlplay&1047338978&class&3&4&

I have the Cal Audio CL 20 and it is a great transport.

Good Luck
HBomb

shack

NAD C541i

tryrrthg

used arcam CD72

organ

You may be able to find the NADC541 cheap because it was just replaced by the C541i. I have the 541 and I'm extremely impressed by it's performance.


*edit* I forgot to mention both models decode HDCD.


Maurice

phuz

I've had a Rotel RCD-1070 for over a week now, and I'm lovin it.

jrausch

You should look into a nice used DAC for that much and just use the digital out from your player. The DAC mostly determins how the player will sound anyway. If you have a large CD collection this would be an excellent move. Your music will sound like music and not some grainy, harsh and hacked up digital POS. Feed your system a clean analog wave and you'll be able to get more from your amps and speakers. Check out the DAC deals on Audiogon, all of the yuppies are selling their Multi-grand DAC's for hundreds to get some cash to move to SACD.

byteme

Originally posted by jrausch
You should look into a nice used DAC for that much and just use the digital out from your player. The DAC mostly determins how the player will sound anyway. If you have a large CD collection this would be an excellent move. Your music will sound like music and not some grainy, harsh and hacked up digital POS. Feed your system a clean analog wave and you'll be able to get more from your amps and speakers. Check out the DAC deals on Audiogon, all of the yuppies are selling their Multi-grand DAC's for hundreds to get some cash to move to SACD.

I've been looking into that too! That's actually my first choice right now. Any suggestions along those lines??

HBombToo

I'm sold on the Pioneer DV 47a or ai...

jrausch

I can't recommend any particular DAC, but I just bought a Parasound Ultra DAC 2000. This uses a pair of UltraAnalog 20bit DAC's and receiver. I just converted my 2/ch rig to a Parasoud PL/D 2000 Line drive pre. Once I did this I could hear just how bad my DVD player was. This DAC was just the ticket. Every problem I was having was eliminated. The sound is very smooth and transparent. Before I could only listen to 2-3 CD's in my collection without having to turn down volume, due to harsh digital jitter from my DVD. Now I can't find anything in my collection that I can't keep from turning up and the "Music" just keeps getting better with more volume. My amp is kicking out 475 watts per into my Lsi15's 250watt rating, so I have to be careful with the volume. Man, talk about instruments and vocals coming from dead quiet space and all the more dynamic. I say read some of Sterophiles reviews on bargain DAC's and choose one that sounds like your taste and what you expect from it. SACD is better, but not a standard as of yet. Having to go out and buy another version of everything in your collection can only add up to some serious cash. Make the most of what you have now with this simple upgrade.

dsc

I got away from all of it and went MP3. Look at your CDs, no matter how you handle them they get damaged. Then there is the whole problem of accessing the music you want.

I purchased a 40 GB Nomad Jukebox 3 and encoded my 350 CDs at 320KB constant bitrate. Sounds good enough to me through my Yamaha 1200 w/ Polk Monitor 10s; Cs400, PSW650, etc. I got the docking station that is permanently attached to my system.

Now, I have playlists for piano sonatas to Heart conerts, w/ New Age and Jazz to boot. I can easily pick music by genre, artist or album.

Given that I grew up on reel to reel amd LPs w/ a Thorens turntable (and discwashers and tonearm lifts) this is a REAL treat.

My guess is that sometime this year we will see a receiver sized cabinet with one or two 120 GB drives in it, a simple OS running something like MS MediaPlayer 9; with digital outs and a simple display (w/ output to your video screen as well). There is even now a lossless WMA compression sheme that may well out run MP3. (Gotta rip all those cds <again>?)

Anyway, I would hold out to spring to see what pops up.

Regards,

Dewey

dholmes

I am using the Toshiba sd9200, it has received high ratings for its dvda and cd sound. It also makes a good dvd player ( it has the chroma bug ) but I dont think its that bad

byteme

I ended up selling my Rega Planet and sticking with the Sherwood Newcastle CD980 for now. Also Picked up a Channel Islands Audio VDA-1 DAC and outboard power supply VAC-1. They should be here Thursday (1/23). All the reviews pointed to going this way - great price, great product. I was able to find them slightly used so got even a better price. Now all that's left to do is get the parts and do the crossover tweak on my RTA11t's!! Well, that and maybe get a dedicated transport and sell the Sherwood!!

Thanks!

tonyv1

Get an external DAC. I'm using a Rotel RCD 951 connected via an MSB Link DAC III w/ 24/132 upsampling. I conned Canare to send me some "sample digital cables".

madmax

Originally posted by HBombToo
I'm sold on the Pioneer DV 47a or ai...

I'm with Hbomb at the moment.
madmax

Apex

what the heck is the "Chroma bug"?.

shack

BEWARE - IGNORANCE IS BLISS - ONCE YOU KNOW WHAT THE CHROMA BUG IS YOU WILL START TO SEE IT IF YOUR DVD PLAYER HAS IT - PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!

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This is the chroma bug HERE is an article form the folks that first brought it to attention.