Floyddroid
09-08-2015, 18:10
I recently borrowed my colleagues DCS P8i CD player whilst he was on holiday. It has been on my mind for some time now just how much better than my aging Arcam CD23 is especially has they share similar ring DAC's though i would imagine the one on board the DCS would be more elaborate. The DCS supports SACD whilst my Arcam is merely a CD player. I found the DCS fiddly to use and fairly unattractive to look at and wired into my system side by side with my vintage FMJ CD23 started to play some music. Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa live in Amsterdam sounded pretty good on both of the machines though i preferred the Arcam due to it's HF performance whilst the DCS seemed dull in comparison. Bonobo's Black Sand seemed less atmospheric on the DCS and even after a couple of cable changes i found myself content with my old CD player and didn't mourn when the DCS had to be returned to it's rightful owner. It taught me that sometimes price simply doesn't follow Quality. Sometimes merely being high end don't make for a better musical performance. As far as digital devices go i honestly believe that there are some real bargains to be had and high end devices like DCS are the BMW's of the Hi-Fi world. I'll get me coat!