High end cd players

[Pigmy Pony]

When my Densen CDP gave up the ghost I went out and bought a £300 Marantz player, and I don't feel I've lost any of the music. If I ever feel like upgrading, I guess buying a decent DAC to plug it into will be the way to go. Alan Firebottle's experience is intriguing, I'll look into that one.

[Lawrence001]

When I was talking to the technical guy from Melco at the last Windsor show he told me they actually find HDDs better for SQ. I can't remember all the technical details but I think he mentioned the read/write speed/process and the way the SSD physically stores data, they had done tests and research on it all.

If they've since moved from HDD to SSD then take it all with a pinch of salt!

Sent from my BKL-L09 using Tapatalk

[Beobloke]

It's interesting how CD players do seems to have come on in leaps and bounds. I reviewed Cambridge Audio's £300 AXC-35 a year or so back and was astonished at just how good it is.

Even then, though, my old Marantz CD-94 is still a fair way ahead of it!

[Gazjam]

Audiolab 6000CDT CD Transport is the most currently twisting my Melon..."forget all you think you know" sounding piece of gear for sensible money.
Best Redbook CD playback I've had in my system by a country mile.

Regret selling my CDs now.

Adopted streaming...but still wanted to hedge my bets for the CDs I kept in the Cull...
Spent significant wedge on my "last disc spinner" as well....for video its "good enough"( as they say, probably close to 4K Dolby Vision Reference quality) ...Audio though, even over i2s to a good Dac...compared to the 6000CDT it's a different Sport.

Just shows to go you.

[Filterlab]

When I was talking to the technical guy from Melco at the last Windsor show he told me they actually find HDDs better for SQ. I can't remember all the technical details but I think he mentioned the read/write speed/process and the way the SSD physically stores data, they had done tests and research on it all.

If they've since moved from HDD to SSD then take it all with a pinch of salt!

Sent from my BKL-L09 using Tapatalk

That's odd as Melco offer SSD storage as an upgrade on their units. Unless it's a downgrade for more money.

[Macca]

I suspect the reality is that nobody would be able to tell what type of drive their music was coming from.

[dave2010]

My CD playing experience has gone from 'meh' to astonishing.

I can now believe in the 'Perfect music forever' tag line. Listening to the CD collection is like listening to brand new music.
The reason - I have moved onto a new R-2R Dac, the Musician Pegasus.

The detail and separation of complex passages, with absolute pin point imaging is an absolute joy.
So my advice is ignore high end players, get a reasonable transport and a Pegasus.

Are the R-2R converters reliable? Probably as much as any others. Getting the resistors in the ladder networks to accurate values might be difficult - I think special techniques are used for those. Do they drift off over time, thus compromising the conversion?

[Firebottle]

I have no doubts about reliability, given that it's modern technology.

There are only 2 values in the resistor ladder, the required accuracy just makes them more expensive. I don't expect any drift as there is no power/heat in the resistor ladders.

[fiddlemaker]

Bought a Denon 1520 CD Player in the late 80s...entire grant cheque!!!

It was built like a brick shit house(big copper plate under the hood)

I had one of those, too. Mine sounded absolutely awful. Put me off CDs/digital for years.

[ReggieB]

Like other's I've had problems with the reliability of CD players and have had a few goes south mechanically (including a "rock solid" Teac VRDS). So I would not spend a lot on a CD transport. For me that's made the Audiolab 6000CDT I purchased recently the perfect solution. It's at least as good as any of my previous players and is very affordable.

So my suggestion would be get a 6000CDT, and as Alan says, spend you're money on a good DAC. Especially as with that not only your CDs will sound better, but so will your streamed music.