This last week my SL1200 has been idle as I have been mostly listening to CD players. As you can see:
The contenders are the Cambridge 840 Azure, Technics SL-P770, Sony XB930E and Sony CDP761E. Interconnect used was the Belkin pure AV 'truly amazed'.
As you'd expect all of these players have their own sound. The Tecchy is from the late 80s, multibit oversampling. The Sonys are both bitstream but the XB930E has the fancy fixed laser mech built into the draw. The Cambridge is an upsampling jobbie using Wolfson DAC.
Well folks, my system, my room and my ears and all that but I have to say the 761E is so far and away the best of them it is really hard to fathom why. Indeed I have spent the last week trying to work out exactly what it is about this player that makes it so awesome sounding. Okay it does deep bass like none of the others - it does put a bit of heft behind bass guitar but when there are real deep bass effects like synth bass lines it really stands out from the others. They just suggest those really low notes, the 761 actually reproduces the fundemental of the note giving it tangible prescence and energizing the room - and it is not a small room.
If that was not enough the mid is super open and clear, snares sound like they should with sharp attack and realistic decay. Soundstaging is pin sharp, like the instruments are painted onto a black background and not emerging from some haze of digital hash. The top end goes right up and whilst it may sound a little rough with some recordings through some systems it does not through mine.
If I had to guess I would say that there are two main factors at work here. I have not seen a frequency response trace of this player but I suspect it has a slight bass lift from 40HZ down and no roll off up top i.e flat to 20Khz whereas a lot of players are flat in the bass and roll off the top before 20Khz to soften the sound for those unfortunates using modern squawky WAF tower speakers.
My theory is that the roll off has a deleterious effect down in the mid range as well - maybe someone who knows about these things might like to comment?
Anyhows, this was a relatively cheap CDP back in the day, retailing at around £250 in '95. I bought my original one discounted for £110 back in 1997. For £32 delivered I am one happy camper. Plus I also have my old one as a doner and additional spare laser should anything fail. My 3 years in the digital wilderness are over