Whoo Hoo. My Naim CDI is back and working perfectly :)

[mwahahaha]

Les Wolstenholme of Avondale Audio I'm sure shares your enthusiasm for the TDA1541 Marco, both the CD-Players he mods (Naim CD3 and Arcam Alpha 5) are 1541(a) machines.

My Avondale modded Arcam is probably the best source I've ever owned and I regularly regret selling it... From what I understand an improperly implemented 1541 can give a muffled top end and wooly bass - of course correctly implemented and as I heard it sings beautifully!

If I had more confidence in the future of CD I may even buy another one or splash out on one of his Naim CD3 conversions. I'm put off investing money into CD though as I do get the feeling that at least 16/44 lossless downloads if not 24/96 can't be far off from the major record labels.

[Marco]

I agree. Spending significant amounts of money on a CD player now is a complete waste of money, given what can be achieved with computer audio. The secret though is in the quality of the DAC used, and that is still where the venerable old TDA 1541 can reveal its magic

Marco.

[pjdowns]

Latest update:

I have been listening to the CDI today and am hearing things that I had forgotten were there on certain albums the detail is that great

Have been listening to:

Simply Red - Home
Nitin Sawhney - Prophesy
James Taylor - October Road.

One thing this machine is so good at is acoustic guitar... the detail is stunning

Paul.

[pjdowns]

Les Wolstenholme of Avondale Audio I'm sure shares your enthusiasm for the TDA1541 Marco, both the CD-Players he mods (Naim CD3 and Arcam Alpha 5) are 1541(a) machines.

My Avondale modded Arcam is probably the best source I've ever owned and I regularly regret selling it... From what I understand an improperly implemented 1541 can give a muffled top end and wooly bass - of course correctly implemented and as I heard it sings beautifully!

If I had more confidence in the future of CD I may even buy another one or splash out on one of his Naim CD3 conversions. I'm put off investing money into CD though as I do get the feeling that at least 16/44 lossless downloads if not 24/96 can't be far off from the major record labels.

Now that is interesting as I had considered buying a CD3 from Les had I not been able to get the CDI repaired, didn't realise that they used the same DAC.

[mwahahaha]

Maybe the moral of the story is that the latest and greatest isn't always so. A piece of equipment - even though it has technologically been superseded still has that certain something that makes it very special indeed. The Avondale Arcam I owned was the same - I didn't care what bitrate / upsampling was going on - just put the disc in and hit play

Enjoy

[pjdowns]

Totally agree mate

I don't even mind getting up and putting a CD in and this means that I am getting Some exercise, which can't be a bad thing

P

[mwahahaha]

There's one thing I've noticed about CDI owners (I unfortunately haven't heard one so can't comment personally) no other player will do as long as there's a shred of life left in the ol' war-horse!

I guess the killer is the transport as Naim won't be any help as far as I know. I know Les keeps a stock of new CD3 transports to be able to service the ones that he sells into the future. You should try and have a listen to his CD3 at some point - one hell of a player!

[pjdowns]

Don't worry, I will.

You're right about the mech, that is a problem, but I am lucky in the fact that mine was replaced when I purchased the CDI about 5 years ago and has a perfect Nextel ring, so I am not too worried about that....

Hoping that the problems I had with it before it went to Naim have gone away... it could have been something to do with me trying to clean the laser with Bluetack LOL.... Hell I am an IT geek, not an electronics engineer LOL.

Oh and Def Leppard sounds excellent on the CDI ... Love this band

[DSJR]

Paul, you clean the platter and puck innards with blu-tac, NOT THE LASER!!!!!

Glad you're enjoying it. I'm playing some good "electronic" tunes this aft too. Them Big Moog sequencers don't 'arf plumb the depths.......