Aye no argument there.
“Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of fuel. Sentimental people call it inspiration, but what they really mean is fuel. I have always needed fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio”
Hunter S Thompson
Current Lash Up:
TEAC VRDS 701T > Sony TAE1000ESD > Krell KSA50S > JM Labs Focal Electra 926.
My most treasured CD player is an old California Audio Tempest 2 [Special edition]from 1989, it is a two box afair, and therefore demands a bit of room, it has a proper all valve directly coupled analogue output stage, [no mickey mouse added on cathode follower gimmicks] it even uses valves for the current to voltage conversion from the DAC chips. Is it accurate by todays standards ? highly unlikely, However; it is very musical, and therefore portrays music in a way that is uncanily Analogue, which for me is more important than test figures, although for its day, it doesent test bad, even by todays standards.
I have had a few decent modern players over the years, and have held onto one or two, mainly for refrence, however; when it comes down to just listening to music, this old antique is hard to beat!
A...
"Today scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality"
Nikola Tesla
Its now a conspiracy theory to believe that the Immune system is capable of doing the job it was designed to do.
A fish is only as healthy as the water its swimming in ! [Dr Robert Young]
www.tubedistinctions.co.uk
Matthew 5:10
Good thread over on the Tent about this “kinda” exact thing...
https://www.hifiwigwam.com/forum/top...fi-comparison/
AC POWER
Hardwired 10kVA balanced mains powering entire system
AMPS
Meridian 557 power Amp (Modded) / PS Audio BHK Preamp (Modded)
SPEAKERS
Wharfedale Evo 4.4
DAC
PS Audio Directstream (Modded)
TURNTABLE
Pro-Ject X8 balanced output via XLR / Ortofon Quintet Blue cartridge
PHONOSTAGE
Pro-Ject DS3 B balanced Input (TT and Phonostage powered by Pro-Ject Power box RS2 linear psu)
DIGITAL
OPPO 203 (Modded: Linear PSU, i2s output to Dac) - Roon Endpoint, HDMI input used for all things Streaming/ PS5 /AppleTV ... also good for movies apparently?
MUSIC PLAYBACK
Tweaked AP-Linux based Roon Server into Oppo 203 as Roon endpoint
Ipad Roon Remote.
Apple Music/ YouTube via AppleTV, fed to Dac via Oppo HDMI input/i2s output to Dac.
SPEAKER CABLES
Biwired: Duelund DCA10GA (Bass) Duelund DCA16GA (mid & treble) Duelund 12DCA used as jumpers (On "Blackcat Cable" Chris Sommivigo's advice - yup, even with biwire it sounds better - and it does)
INTERCONNECTS
All Balanced: Ghost+ recording studio XLR cables
I can see the attraction with certain older high end equipment I still have six Wadias in my digital replay collection though I do have a real soft spot for the Wadia 15 dac
Some thoughts on previous chart toppers
Coherent Systems
Real high end sound with musicality not hifi
Location: Seaford UK
Posts: 1,861
I'm Dennis.
My slightly more recent vintage FM tuner arrived today, and I'm delighted with it both functionally and aesthetically, and the controls are lovely, it's a keeper.
I believe CD, DACs , digital sources in general have evolved quite a bit even in the last few years, let alone from 2003. So, I personally wouldn't say a high end CD player from 2003 is high end now. Or maybe it even is, but now sound close to that can be had for much less money. In any case, I know guys with good experience who claim that top-end old Mark Levinson CD players are still high end. On the other hand, I know guys who have sold very expensive Wadia CD players and use quite cheap DAC solutions and say it's close or better. There is one fact in the whole story - digital sources seem to lose their value (in the sense of market value) the most.
I wouldn't say the same for preamps, amps, phono stages, turntables - top amps 30 years ago pretty much still are top amps.
The only real progress seems to happen in digital sources and to a lesser extent in speakers (because of progress in materials science, probably). And in marketing
Gyrodec/AO rb250/Benz Micro Gold LO | EAR 864 | Quad 909 | ATC SCM 19v2
Location: Suffolk
Posts: 246
I'm Ray.
CD players have not improved in years and the modern ones seem a lot less reliable than ones made about 30 years. DACs maybe have improved slightly but still some of the old DAC chips are sought after. Speakers have changed but not always for the better, I was surprised how poor some of them were when I did a load of demos. Don't believe what some HiFi mags say.