I require the best portable CD player money can buy.

[mhouston]

I take my spare valve amps and a set of book shelf speakers to different locations to demonstrate the amps – with the hope of another order or sale. Most of the time I’m invited for amusement. Part of the demonstration is to bestow the qualities of genuine HI-FI - through equipment which can really deliver the music – or I think so. Every time my audience is stunned. The general comment is they cannot believe how much they have been missing all these years. All good for Hi-Fi.

I’m sick of ripping my NAD C542 and Transparent coupling cables from main system to take them on tour. So I figure if I can get a high-end portable CD player and another set of good couple acbles I do not have to touch my main system. As stated above I have a couple of spare amps and a set of book shelf speakers which I put together just for the demos.

Can any give me some makes and models to consider? Good if I can get them in Australia. I ONLY play CDs so poor MP3 handling is OK. I would never demonstrate this equipment using ripped music. Are systems with MASH 1 Bit D/A what I should be looking for or is there a better technology in a portable?

[dsavitsk]

Originally posted by mhouston
I would never demonstrate this equipment using ripped music.

Why not? Everybody has a computer, so rip lossless, or just put some songs on a cd, and make a small usb dac. Here's mine in a 5"x5" case with lots of extra room (http://www.ecp.cc/NOS-USB-DAC.html), and I'd put it up against any portable cd player you can find.

[Cloth Ears]

Panasonic SL-SX429C, Sony DFJ200 & TEAC PDP350M are all quite good, but for the purposes of a demo item, you should probably go for what they call a MP3 player.

Don't be fooled, you can copy tracks from your CDs to your own player, with no compression or loss (David Wilson used one when demonstrating the Grand Slamms to TAS reviewers in December(?) 2004). And they don't suffer the problems of the portable CD players, which have to have very high revving motors (geared down to provide an accurate spin for the CD) and the subsequent breakages that occur. A flashcard player has no moving parts and should thus not have any motor problems while playing.

Otherwise, there's generally a number of good (and quite cheap) "full-size" players that come up on eBay - then you wouldn't have to pull it out of your current system.

Edit: dsavitsk, you stole my thunder (serves my right for working while posting)...! That looks like a nice set-up.

[mhouston]

I uderstood the even copying a CD on a computer cannot reproduce the quality of the original due to jitter etc. from a cheap burner. That there was always going to be some quality loss. Is this not correct?

Also MP3 can never equal the quality of the origianl CD. Is this so even when you rip on the highest quality??

Also do you have any of the players you have suggested and can recommend them. I'm told good CD transports start around the $700 price point. And $1500 will buy you a good one and DVD players cannot play CDs to their fullest capabilities?

happy listening.

[dsavitsk]

Originally posted by Cloth Ears
That looks like a nice set-up.

Thanks, I am working on an updated version as we speak.

Originally posted by mhouston
I uderstood the even copying a CD on a computer cannot reproduce the quality of the original due to jitter etc. from a cheap burner. That there was always going to be some quality loss. Is this not correct?

Even if this were true, which it is not, it could not possibly reduce the sound quality as much as using a portable player.

Originally posted by mhouston
Also MP3 can never equal the quality of the origianl CD. Is this so even when you rip on the highest quality??

That is true, but you can use flac, or windows lossless, or something similar which is cd quality.

Originally posted by mhouston
Also do you have any of the players you have suggested and can recommend them. I'm told good CD transports start around the $700 price point. And $1500 will buy you a good one and DVD players cannot play CDs to their fullest capabilities?

I think you can do pretty well for quite a bit less.

[Cloth Ears]

dsavitsk has answered the questions the way I would have. I actually have a $250 DVD (non-portable) that plays CDs better (or at least as well as) my $600 (10 years ago) unit.

Transports are one thing, and DACs are another, but with the knowledge now available in the software sides, these hve become less important (I speak heresy to some).

The advantage of the lossless MP3 (it's not really MP3 then, I guess) is that you now have the 'perfect' transport and all you've got to worry about is the DAC. There would be no jitter or problems with transport speed, as it's all coming from solid state.

Next best thing would be a hard-drive player, but I'm not sure that there are many of those (except for everyone's PC).

IMHO, portable CD players are about as good as compressed MP3 files - sometimes better, sometimes worse - and the 'transport' should be much more reliable.

dsavitsk - if I was any good at soldering I'd have a go at creating one of those little things. When are you going to start marketing them ?

[rfbrw]

If money really is no object, I'd suggest a portable hard disk recorder like the 24/96 Cantor-X.

[dsavitsk]

Originally posted by Cloth Ears
dsavitsk - if I was any good at soldering I'd have a go at creating one of those little things. When are you going to start marketing them ?

Probably not going commercial any time soon, but if you are interested in one, email me.