Digital help please...

[Haselsh1]

I am a hardcore vinyl fan but would love some help to get to understand more about CD. I have a Chinese Original 2008F HDCD player modified for UK mains which uses a PCM 1792 and PCM 1732. It also uses an OPA2604 and an OPA627. What does this all mean and how does this stack up against the competition...? Keep it simple please, I'm used to counterweights and tracking force...!

[Haselsh1]

OK so I've been doing a bit of investigating on the 'net and it would appear that the previously mentioned digital components are way up there with the very finest available today. If that's the case then CD is very definitely inferior to vinyl as my CD replay is still very coarse and grainy compared to my vinyl system. I guess this proves what I always thought was the case.

[Stratmangler]

OK so I've been doing a bit of investigating on the 'net and it would appear that the previously mentioned digital components are way up there with the very finest available today. If that's the case then CD is very definitely inferior to vinyl as my CD replay is still very coarse and grainy compared to my vinyl system. I guess this proves what I always thought was the case.

If your CDP sounds coarse and grainy then I suggest that you look at the output stage first as being the most likely culprit.

Perhaps Leo or UV101 could give you some pointers ?

Chris

[Haselsh1]

I guess it's possible that there is a serious mismatch between the output of the CD player at 1.9V and the input of my preamp at 125mV. Maybe I should go back to some inline attenuators.

[Primalsea]

In line attenuators should help tame the brash sound you are getting but at the end of the day if your CDP was designed to sound that way you're stuck unless you want to undertake major modifications.

[Haselsh1]

Hmmm... yes, I've just substituted a £120 Sony CD/SACD player for the Chinese Original and although the Sony is thick and congested in comparison, it has none of the horrible graininess and coarseness of the Original. Also, the Sony is much much quieter than the Original and a much better match for the level of my vinyl. I guess I now have to look at using the digital output of the Sony into a separate DAC although I could use the digital output of the Original as I would stand to lose a lot of money on that unit if I sold it.

[DSJR]

Have a word with Audiocom. it may just be a little that needs to be done, such as clocks etc, to turn your CD player into something rather good...

Other than that, look out for a good used Rega Planet, Apollo or even the Jupiter/IO and Saturn players. very musical, they get the fundamentals right and apparently there isn't a huge amount to do on the Planet as the basic design was so good.....

[Primalsea]

My perception of the Chinese CD players (and quite a lot of other CDP's too for that matter) is that many of them are nothing more than implementations the D/A chip manufacturers evaluation board circuits. ie, nothing special, just a series of modules bolted together. The ones you pay a bit more for are the ones that use more bespoke components.

Quite often if you put one of these next to something that has actually been designed ground up from scratch........................................

But saying all that buying a separate DAC could well give you a result you are happy with.

[Stratmangler]

You might find that the Sony has rather better implementation of the S/PDIF and Toslink interfaces.

Chris

[Haselsh1]

I've just done a bit of an experiment after making sure the Croft pre/power was well warmed up. The Original CD player is 24/192 and has two switchable filters built in so rather than use the soft filter as I always do, I selected the sharp filter. On playing the first Paloma Faith CD the louder and more telling passages now have much more clarity and are nowhere near as confused and coarse. Even playing the Seal track Vision there is much more clarity to his voice and sibilants.
I hope I haven't been making a complete cockup of this for the last three years but it would appear so. I always thought a more rounded sound using the soft filter would be better than an overly sharp sound but I guess there is much more precision and clarity using the sharp filter. As I do not understand the mechanics behind any of this I cannot really comment any further than what I have just said but for me, vinyl is just so much easier...lol