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Thread: Outstanding digital components

  1. #191
    Join Date: Jan 2013

    Location: Carlisle - UK

    Posts: 1,956
    I'm Ken.

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    I think with the NAD, some of the firmware changes were to compensate for slight component changes. So using these firmware versions will alter the sound on earlier marks and maybe not always for the better. Having said that, mine sounds best with the latest version.

  2. #192
    Join Date: Mar 2018

    Location: puerto rico

    Posts: 24
    I'm manny.

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    Well , the best Ive heard ? Mmm...Wadia is one of them but hey , for the price it better sound good . For us humans with limited pockets . musically speaking the Musical Fidelity A5 . As dacs go the most musically satisfying was a Sonic Frontier top of the line dac . I was a tube dac and it sounded wonderful , very liquid with no grain from top to bottom , dynamic with excellenf low level detail . The owner was selling it for 800 and I didn't buy it because I love my wife and didn't want to get divorced , you get my drift . But I do admit having been kicking myself ever since , thats how good it sounded . On the low price level a used Cambridge Audio 640 c version 2 is also a great buy . It has to be the second version . I have had both and the second version is superior in all to the first , so much so that I have always wonder why they did not give it a new model designation . The cd player is so good that I have if connected with IC more expensive then the unit and it doesn't ashame itself in the loftier company . If your wondering they are JPS superconductors IC and JPS digital.power cable .

    Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk

  3. #193
    Join Date: Jun 2015

    Location: London/Durham

    Posts: 6,861
    I'm Lawrence.

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    Quote Originally Posted by mannypr551 View Post
    Well , the best Ive heard ? Mmm...Wadia is one of them but hey , for the price it better sound good . For us humans with limited pockets . musically speaking the Musical Fidelity A5 . As dacs go the most musically satisfying was a Sonic Frontier top of the line dac . I was a tube dac and it sounded wonderful , very liquid with no grain from top to bottom , dynamic with excellenf low level detail . The owner was selling it for 800 and I didn't buy it because I love my wife and didn't want to get divorced , you get my drift . But I do admit having been kicking myself ever since , thats how good it sounded . On the low price level a used Cambridge Audio 640 c version 2 is also a great buy . It has to be the second version . I have had both and the second version is superior in all to the first , so much so that I have always wonder why they did not give it a new model designation . The cd player is so good that I have if connected with IC more expensive then the unit and it doesn't ashame itself in the loftier company . If your wondering they are JPS superconductors IC and JPS digital.power cable .

    Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk
    Which A5 was that, there wasn't a dac so I presume you mean the cdp? Didn't that have a valve in the output stage, might explain why you liked it.

    Sent from my BLN-L21 using Tapatalk

  4. #194
    Join Date: Mar 2018

    Location: puerto rico

    Posts: 24
    I'm manny.

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    Yes it did , or rather it does . The model designation is the A5 . Latter on Musical fidelity came out with a A5 ll which I"ve never heard but knowing MF track record it should sound good . And yes , it's a cd player .The Dac was a Sonic Frontier . There was a two designation which was the top of the line and it had tubes in it . It's built was beautiful a la Audible Illusions full of high grade components . No remote control , no upsampling , no 24/ 192 , but believe me when I say it was extremely musical with great neutrality . I was just hearing David Benoit on the Cambridge Audio 640 ll and ever since it broke in it has me mezmorized with its pure musicality . All types of music makes sense in this machine . Cds which didn't move me much now all of a sudden I have to hear them completely . The guy who modifies Cd Player with modification called Lampazitor swears by this Cd player and says of all the cd players he has modified the best sonically after the modifications was the Cambridge Audio 640 C .
    Quote Originally Posted by Lawrence001 View Post
    Which A5 was that, there wasn't a dac so I presume you mean the cdp? Didn't that have a valve in the output stage, might explain why you liked it.

    Sent from my BLN-L21 using Tapatalk
    Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk

  5. #195
    Join Date: Mar 2018

    Location: puerto rico

    Posts: 24
    I'm manny.

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    Just forgot , even though I believe cd players have come a long way there are some old school cd players capable of holding their own when compared with cost no object modern machines plus many of them when modified are true music machines.
    Quote Originally Posted by mannypr551 View Post
    Yes it did , or rather it does . The model designation is the A5 . Latter on Musical fidelity came out with a A5 ll which I"ve never heard but knowing MF track record it should sound good . And yes , it's a cd player .The Dac was a Sonic Frontier . There was a two designation which was the top of the line and it had tubes in it . It's built was beautiful a la Audible Illusions full of high grade components . No remote control , no upsampling , no 24/ 192 , but believe me when I say it was extremely musical with great neutrality . I was just hearing David Benoit on the Cambridge Audio 640 ll and ever since it broke in it has me mezmorized with its pure musicality . All types of music makes sense in this machine . Cds which didn't move me much now all of a sudden I have to hear them completely . The guy who modifies Cd Player with modification called Lampazitor swears by this Cd player and says of all the cd players he has modified the best sonically after the modifications was the Cambridge Audio 640 C .

    Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk
    Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk

  6. #196
    Join Date: Jun 2015

    Location: London/Durham

    Posts: 6,861
    I'm Lawrence.

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    Quote Originally Posted by mannypr551 View Post
    Just forgot , even though I believe cd players have come a long way there are some old school cd players capable of holding their own when compared with cost no object modern machines plus many of them when modified are true music machines.


    Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk
    As I'm just trying a vintage model out myself, I'd be interested to know which ones you mean, early high end ones or the TDA1540 models at CD's infancy?

    Sent from my BLN-L21 using Tapatalk

  7. #197
    Join Date: Mar 2018

    Location: puerto rico

    Posts: 24
    I'm manny.

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    Now that you mentioned it one of the best dacs ever built by concensus is the phillips dacs , they are even used today in some not to cheap machines . The 1540 is a great dac but you have to remember that a dac is not alone . The circuits working around the dac must be well implemented with decent quality parts . The best dac made by Phillips was the 1541 . What vintage player do you have ?
    Quote Originally Posted by Lawrence001 View Post
    As I'm just trying a vintage model out myself, I'd be interested to know which ones you mean, early high end ones or the TDA1540 models at CD's infancy?

    Sent from my BLN-L21 using Tapatalk
    Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk

  8. #198
    Join Date: Jun 2015

    Location: London/Durham

    Posts: 6,861
    I'm Lawrence.

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    It's a Marantz CD54, wasn't expecting too much but it's so musical, the music just flows. My favourite stand alone cdp was a CD94mkii , Ihad to sell it to raise funds but it was sooo nice.

    Sent from my BLN-L21 using Tapatalk

  9. #199
    Join Date: Nov 2018

    Location: Cape Town, South Africa

    Posts: 15
    I'm Jozua.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Reid Malenfant View Post
    My vote goes to the Krell DT10 CD transport, it left me absolutely gobsmacked upon first powering it up. Previous to this i was using a Theta Data Basic, which is not a cheap & nasty transport. However there was such a difference between the Krell & Theta that it'd honestly make you think that the Theta had something wrong with it Except it didn't, i had a new CDM9 Pro drive fitted to the Theta less than a year before When i first bought the Theta (secondhand) it had a slight problem with certain CDs though it played 99% of my collection perfectly, with the new laser assembly it played everything perfectly....

    I know that there really shouldn't be a lot of difference between something costing 5 times as much new when the cheap transport is already a couple of thousand pounds when new. Yet the difference was night & day All my friends simply couldn't believe the difference compared to the Theta either, it was just as obvious to them Maybe subtle differences, but not what was being heard...

    Like anyone i'd seriously hate paying out 5 figures for a CD player or transport as i'm not exactly rich, however, i can see or should i say hear why people do so Attachment 2338

    Ooh- I love to have one of these !!!
    Super collectible now.

  10. #200
    Join Date: May 2017

    Location: Bellevue, WA

    Posts: 7
    I'm Chad.

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    My two favorite DACs are old as far as technology is concerned. The Timbre TT-1 and McIntosh MDA-1000 are my favorite. The Timbre sounded very smooth with a large soundstage and had exceptional build quality.
    The McIntosh MDA-1000 employs 8 Burr Brown 1704 DAC chips. The PCM1704 DAC chip was the "State of the Art" chip concerning DAC development for it's time, and it was the last "Multi-Bit" chip before the big manufacturers switched
    to developing the cheaper to produce "Delta Sigma" designs that dominate today. Big advantages of this "Multi Chip" design are that they are less sensitive to jitter than delta-sigma designs and also that they have none HF noise
    additions says some chip makers. The disadvantage is that they are more expensive and that they are very hard to match. The MDA is fully balanced with a volume potentiometer which is nice to run direct to amps. Both units sound very musically engaging to me.

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