Older Hi-End CD Player vs Newer Generations

[Yannis T]

I have a 25 year old California Audio Labs Tercet Mk III CD player. At the time it was a $1400 player. Sounded great through my Martin Logan Sequel II speakers.

I currently have it playing through a Denon PMA 2000R integrated amp and some bi-wired Monitor Audio GX50 book-shelf speakers in my 400 sq. ft. office.

Is there going to be any improvement going to something like a Marantz CD-5005 player? Is today's electronics going to make the sound better? Or was that CAL Tercet so good for the times it won't be inproved upon fidelity-wise over the Marantz CD-5005 class today?

Thanks for your comments. 8O

[Alaric]

I had a friend who owned a CAL CD player , with a tube output stage. At around 20 years of age he figured a new one would be better. We killed a month's worth of spare time auditioning high end players , from Ayre to Zen. We even compared it to my Marantz SA 8260 (no slouch) in his system. He enjoys his CAL even more today. But it was one hell of a fun month. I very much doubt the Marantz 5005 will top your CAL. Replacing your caps with the best you can afford (still less than a decent CD player) and some nice Mills resistors would probably give you a "new" unit with sound far superior to most players.

[Yannis T]

Good idea. Can you recommend a place to do those upgrades?

[Alaric]

Most places that mod CD players have their own list of tweaks they do. The moderator over at Analog Audio , wkhanna , has a shop in his town that seems very good , and Bill (wk) has had some of his gear modded there and swears by them. It would be worth your time to PM him and get his input. He does some upgrades to Rotel amps that are reported to bump the big Rotels up a whole level. Another of our long time members , Jon Marsh , is a very accomplished engineer who does his own mods and designs fantastic speakers in his spare (!?) time.
A lot of people can handle replacing capacitors and resistors , but it will take some legwork to find someone you'll trust You have a very nice piece with your CD player , and you've found some of the nicest people in the audio community here , as well as some very talented folks. Look around and ask lots of questions and you'll get some very good guidance. I'll be following with interest since I've actually heard the CAL player and was very impressed. The gentleman who owned it could have owned any CD player he wanted but chose his trusty CAL to feed his four Moore Franklin Associates , 250 watt , tube monoblock amps.
Oh , and Welcome to the 'Guide! :later:

[madmac]

Yannis.....My 2 cents is that you will get better performance out of a new high end CD player. You may not notice it right away, but once you spin a number of your favorite discs over a period of time you will come to appreciate the newer technologys and DAC's inside it. It will, however, not be a night and day difference.

[wkhanna]

The moderator over at Analog Audio , wkhanna , has a shop in his town that seems very good , and Bill (wk) has had some of his gear modded there and swears by them. It would be worth your time to PM him and get his input. He does some upgrades to Rotel amps that are reported to bump the big Rotels up a whole level.......

Vintage Hifi of Pittsburgh

Tell Tom that Bill with the C-19 referred you.
That CAL CDp is worth keeping, IMHO.

Keep us posted, please.
And welcome to HTG!

[Alaric]

Hi , Bill! :later: I was hoping you'd jump in here. I agree on the CAL player. The one I heard compared favorably to the Ayre and McCormack players I heard , and that was no small feat. As good as the Cambridge 840 sounded , the CAL had a huge soundstage in depth and width and height. It was a large , heavy , very good sounding bit of gear. Still very much high end equipment. I still think some Mundorf caps and Mills resistors would easily keep it among the best available. Sometimes older stuff is still good stuff. Even if I had $ 2000 for a CD/SACD player , I would keep my SA 8260. I still haven't heard anything I like better for that price.
And the amps I heard paired with the CAL were late 70s vintage (approx.) , but they sounded every bit as good as any of the Manley gear I've heard. Five hundred watts per bi-amped channel of tube audio that good is an experience I'm glad I had. :dancenana: Definitely worth a 'nana. I was drooling over his stereo already when he showed me a couple thousand albums and the SOTA turntable with the SME tonearm. LOL Many a beer was retired listening to all that audio nirvana grab those B & W 800s and make them behave , while adding fun stuff to his Harley.
To Steve! :^x May he and his magnificent stereo have many more Saturday afternoons.

[Yannis T]

I put in an email to Vintage Hifi. Waiting to see if I get a reply from Tom.

[wkhanna]

Hi Yannis.

I just spoke with Tom last night.
He just got out of the hospital, torn Achilles.

It may be a while before his two-man shop is able to take on new work & they are going to be backed up for a few weeks.
If you are patient, it will pay off.
His work, experiance & talent are not exceeded.
His price is ridiculously reasonable compared to anyone's.

[PewterTA]

I agree, if you can wait for Tom, you won't be disappointed. But you will probably have to wait.

I feel bad he torn his achillies... that's not fun at all!

But if you aren't in a rush, Tom is the one to refurb the unit if you want to care about quality of the workmanship.