Good CD sound on a tight budget?

[The Vinyl Adventure]

yeah man, them wierd spinny silver things are dead... move on, move on!

[horace]

I know this is not quite what you had in mind and the budget may be a bit over, but why not retire the CD and start the process to build a computer based music server? Assuming you already have a computer, your initial investment could be an Apple Airport Express, a decent optical cable, and perhaps a Beresford TC-7520. Those two devices and the cable to connect them are the basic building blocks to get you started. You'd be surprised at how good it can sound.

What I like about the airport express is that;

1. It operates over the network, so the computer can be located away from the stereo.
2. The airport express is a completely silent device.
3. iTunes is free and hooks up to the airport.
4. Using the Airport express and its optical out, you can get some really good audio quality. Even Stereophile agrees;

http://www.stereophile.com/digitalpr...ple/index.html

Lastly, the idea of having your entire music collection at your finger tips, does that not sound appealing?

CDs are so, um , yesterday

CD

You may be right - I already have quite a collection of FLAC files on my hard drive (I'm not a fan of MP3, so use FLAC on my Sansa Fuze in the car) and have thought about a squeezebox in the past (will the Apple alternative do FLAC btw?), so I could investigate that.

Cheers

Martin

[Barry]

Hi Martin,

Here's an excellent Sony CDP at a bargain price:

http://www.usedhifishop.co.uk/index....roducts_id=898

Dave, who runs the business, is a member here and I can personally vouch for the quality of the equipment he sells (all fully inspected and guaranteed), which makes the purchase risk-free, and also the superb service he offers his customers, especially members of AOS

You'll also have a fiver left over for a bottle of wine (or a few beers) to toast your good fortune!

Marco.

That player is a better version of the one that I use: the Sony CDP XB720E QS. I bought mine for about £150 three years ago as a 'stop gap' but kept it as I am quite happy with the performance. I hope to try out a separate DAC soon.

£95 for the CDP XB930E QS is a bargain indeed.

Regards

[Codifus]

You may be right - I already have quite a collection of FLAC files on my hard drive (I'm not a fan of MP3, so use FLAC on my Sansa Fuze in the car) and have thought about a squeezebox in the past (will the Apple alternative do FLAC btw?), so I could investigate that.

Cheers

Martin

Unfortunately, Apple does not do FLAC. Rather, they have their own version;ALAC

Since you already have a FLAC collection, the Squeezebox and a decent DAC may be the right path for you.

CD

[Ali Tait]

Should be a few Squeezeboxes coming on to ebay from people upgrading to the Touch.

[ReggieB]

I'm very pleased with my Musical Fidelity VDAC. It replaced an Arcam black box 5. It also has a USB in so good for playing back from your PC too! Excellent value.

[lovejoy]

Another vote for the Marantz players here.

I picked up a CD53 from a car boot sale for £7 a few weeks ago and wasn't sure at the time whether this was one of the players that could be tweaked, but a quick google when I got home turned up not only a fully tweakable player but a bonus over even the CD63 in that I didn't have to cut out the HDAM circuit as it didn't have one anyway.

So far I've spent about £25 on top of my initial £7 outlay and quite sickeningly it's giving me music in ways my Densen B-410 never did.

I've performed every single mod one by one so I know which ones improved things and which ones needed to be reverted - That could be for another thread though if anyone's interested...

[Rare Bird]

How good is a machine like the one you mention Marco? I could do with a spare and also for upstairs duties..

Dave i have the 'XB930E' QS UK Special Edition player it's a stonker... which looks the same at first glimpse.

[UV101]

yeah man, them wierd spinny silver things are dead... move on, move on!

Got to say that my heavily modded SB (although very good) is a million miles off my disk spinner! (night and day difference)

The problem is the DAC. I think the SB will be awesome as a transport (replacing cd's) but the fact is its a budget dac. It sounds awesome don't get me wrong but thus far its not going to compete with a proper high end cdp.

I will however stick my neck on the line and say with a decent split psu, a few caps and a clock, it WILL wipe the floor with most players up to about £1500! Thats a bold statement!!! dont ask me to qualify other than its better than the MF A5.5 I had here for a while by some distance! (when playing lossless of course!)

[chrism]

Yes Ian's modded SB really deserves a great DAC. On this basis I think that it will deliver the goods very well indeed.

Back to the drawing board I am afraid Ian and design us a world beating DAC!

Regards

Chris