Why expensive CDP..?

[budkor]

Hi All

I just joined this interesting forum. Great!

I would like to put a question which recently sprung to me. It is when I change amps or speakers or turntables... I can hear huge difference in sounds quality - such as previous one was very thick and heavy and dark and deep sounding. The new one could sound bright, sharp and fast...etc. Not necessarily bad or good but you know different.

But but but... when I change CD Players from one to the other, I could not tell much difference, if no difference at all in sound.

If this is the case, then I wonder, why buy expensive CDP? I have about 4 or 5 different CDPs from budget SONY to high end Mission and Arcam and Sherwood.

What do you think?

cheers

[TheSeekerr]

Better Digital to Analogue stages, basically. Of course, around here most would say that you should use a separate DAC anyway.

[pilli]

Originally posted by budkor

But but but... when I change CD Players from one to the other, I could not tell much difference, if no difference at all in sound.

I had the same feeling "at the beginning".
Either the rest of your chain isn't revealing enough,
or the players you compared are not that different.

Doing modifications/circuits yourself gives you easier access to more variations (besides other returns - fun, learning, I-did-it syndrome, etc.)

In my (humble) experience, on CD players the output stage (op-amp vs. discrete vs. passive) gave huge differences, that are audible in my "not-very-discriminating" quick-test-chain (like a Creek amplifier to Sennehiser 495 headphones).

Other things, like replacing output caps, I can only hear through Stax headphones. So I call them "second order".


I can't tell for sure, but the players you mention probably all have op-amp based output stages, i.e. "they're not that different among each other".

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[justblair]

Originally posted by budkor
Hi All

I just joined this interesting forum. Great!

Welcome to the forum... Nice to see another Scot on the premises.

I'm with Pilli. Would you care to elaborate as to what you have in the rest of your system?

I personally moved out of CD players a while back and into PC based playback. But I find it hard to think that even similar players in the same price bracket dont sound different...

Blair

[budkor]

Originally posted by justblair


Welcome to the forum... Nice to see another Scot on the premises.

I'm with Pilli. Would you care to elaborate as to what you have in the rest of your system?

I personally moved out of CD players a while back and into PC based playback. But I find it hard to think that even similar players in the same price bracket dont sound different...

Blair

Thanks. I used to have an old Yamaha Amps (AX-590), Musical Fidelity Elektra 500 Tuner, Systemdek IIx and 4 or 5 CD players (Sony, Sherwood, Arcam, Mission). Speaker wise I have KEF C45 and EPOS ES11 and Celestion Ditton 200. Recently I added a Music Angel KT88 Amp to the system.

I should have said that CD players does not seem to give that much of sound quality difference than other factors such as amps and speakers to my ears.

cheers
Jay

[Rare Bird]

Hi Budkor
I find buying the basic CD player such as the ARCAM & using it as a transport, spend the rest of your cash on an outboard DAC, at least you can changed the DAC when some new fangled fashion comes along, without forking out on a new player.

DAC's such as the benchmark 'DAC-1' for example, you will hear a difference.

[schumpe]

Hello,

just so you know: there's also people here who think that neither CD players nor amps nor cables have an audible influence that is worth mentioning.

That is as long as they don't have any measurable abnormalities and that they are fit for the job (e.g. amp has enough power to drive given speakers at given impedance).

Regardless of how "revealing" your system is.


If I were you, I'd just stick with my CD player and if you want to spend money buy some more CDs or upgrade your speakers.

Just stating the other camp's opinion, I don't want to start that discussion again, cause it leads to nowhere.

[pilli]

Originally posted by schumpe

just so you know: there's also people here who think that neither CD players nor amps nor cables have an audible influence that is worth mentioning.

That is as long as they don't have any measurable abnormalities and that they are fit for the job (e.g. amp has enough power to drive given speakers at given impedance).

Regardless of how "revealing" your system is.


If I were you, I'd just stick with my CD player and if you want to spend money buy some more CDs or upgrade your speakers.

Just stating the other camp's opinion, I don't want to start that discussion again, cause it leads to nowhere.

Hi Schumpe,

I certainly don't want to feed that everlasting discussion either, I don't want to show off "my revealing system" (it isn't really ) and I'm saying these things in the most humble and constructive way.

My intention was to suggest that comparisons with "more radical" contenders can be more accessible in a DIY approach.

Like, a DAC or CDP with an excellent, say, clock, or output stage:
you could go and buy two or three of those jewels to compare, or just tweak some cheapos and see where improvements are. Or where they are not, as you point out.

Or a class-A amplifier compared with... well, you get the idea.

(I don't have the courage to build speakers yet...
and the little I saw, is that they do make probably the biggest difference )

And yes: no cable differences were ever audible to me either, so why would I bother with that.

So I'm not pushing any "boutique exoterism".
Just wanted to encourage experimenting, learning and "touching with hand", so that choices are then more "educated".

But of course any excess is dangerous.

Cheers,
pilli

_

[schumpe]

sounds good, pilli.

i didn't mean my statement as a criticism of your's or any other's post, sorry if it came across like that.

[pilli]

Originally posted by schumpe
sounds good, pilli.

i didn't mean my statement as a criticism of your's or any other's post, sorry if it came across like that.

hey, no problem!

debates are debates, right?

thanks, cheers

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