killie99
11-10-2011, 10:43
Bored at the weekend, peeing down with rain outside and the wife and kids are out for the day. Hmmm, wonder if my blu-ray player is any good at playing cd's?
So, system currently set up as follows:
Meridian 508 connected balanced to a Meridian 502, connected balanced to a Meridian 557 to Impulse H2's.
2 year old Panasonic Blu ray player connected optically to Eastern Electric Minimax dac connected to 502 with rca's.
Several cd's copied on my computer so that I have the same material in both players. 502 input gains adjusted to ensure both inputs are at the same level.
Started both players playing at the same time on the same track and switched between the 502 inputs from the remote so that I didn't need to get out of my chair.
What did I hear? I couldn't tell the difference. I occasionally thought I was hearing a difference but when I listened again I wasn't sure. Swaped the cd's about so that each player had the copies and the original played through it. Made adjustments to the gain to check I had them level matched. Still no difference.
I was surprised and I wasn't. The 508 is a great CD player and the EE minimax is a great DAC but I was surprised that I coudln't tell the difference. I was sure I'd at least be able to tell them apart.
Next I took the coax out from the 508 to the DAC and switched the DAC between optical and coax inputs. Still the same.
Conclusion 1 - the 508 dac and EE dac sound as near as damn it the same.
Conclusion 2 - The panasonic bluray transport is just as good as the 508's transport.
Conclusion 3 - if you have a good dac you don't need an expensive transport.
If I get bored this weekend I'll swap out the 502/557 for the Puresound A30 and see if I still think they sound the same.
Note: all the above is true for me listening to my system in my room :sofa:
So, system currently set up as follows:
Meridian 508 connected balanced to a Meridian 502, connected balanced to a Meridian 557 to Impulse H2's.
2 year old Panasonic Blu ray player connected optically to Eastern Electric Minimax dac connected to 502 with rca's.
Several cd's copied on my computer so that I have the same material in both players. 502 input gains adjusted to ensure both inputs are at the same level.
Started both players playing at the same time on the same track and switched between the 502 inputs from the remote so that I didn't need to get out of my chair.
What did I hear? I couldn't tell the difference. I occasionally thought I was hearing a difference but when I listened again I wasn't sure. Swaped the cd's about so that each player had the copies and the original played through it. Made adjustments to the gain to check I had them level matched. Still no difference.
I was surprised and I wasn't. The 508 is a great CD player and the EE minimax is a great DAC but I was surprised that I coudln't tell the difference. I was sure I'd at least be able to tell them apart.
Next I took the coax out from the 508 to the DAC and switched the DAC between optical and coax inputs. Still the same.
Conclusion 1 - the 508 dac and EE dac sound as near as damn it the same.
Conclusion 2 - The panasonic bluray transport is just as good as the 508's transport.
Conclusion 3 - if you have a good dac you don't need an expensive transport.
If I get bored this weekend I'll swap out the 502/557 for the Puresound A30 and see if I still think they sound the same.
Note: all the above is true for me listening to my system in my room :sofa: