CD player suggestions

[Brandon B]

The "pleasure" of turning 40 has been counterbalanced with enough birthday cash to upgrade my 2 channel digital source.

So, looking for suggestions for a CD player (do NOT care about SACD or DVD-A) in the $400 - $750 range.

Curious about local opinions of lower end units with mods by guys like Dan Wright and Stan Warren. Maybe even would consider doing some mods myself with stuff from guys like LCaudio if that gets me big bang for buck value.

My equipment 1) now - Odyssey stratos amp, DIY belden ICs, and Norh ACA preamp, and Maggie MMG's crossed to 2 sealed Lambda SB10 woofers at 250Hz w/a Marchand deluxe XM9. Woofers are run off a Crown MA2402 amp. 2) soon - MMGs to be replaced with DIY Aria5A's (Focal 5W woof, accuton tweet MTM), hopefully before the end of the $#%!* summer.

My sound preference /*begin use of hated vague subjective decriptions*/ tends towards bright, analytical and detailed. And clean powerful bass is my highest priority (without it I just feel like I am listening to background miusic)./*end*//

Also, any chance at all of it being a 5 disc carousel, or are those just useless as a quality transport under all circumstances?

Suggestions for something that would be just "reasonably good" now but with a more of the value being the transport that I could add a higher end DAC to would also be nice.

Thanks!

BB

[Kevin P]

I've heard that the Sony SCD-C222ES (or something like that) is a fine player. Crutchfield has it for $500 meaning you can find it cheaper elsewhere. It's a 5-disc multichannel SACD player as well, but in general the Sony ES SACD players make darned good CD players/transports as well.

If you're looking for a higher quality piece, step up to the SCD-C555ES, which can be had for under $800 now. If I were in the market for a 5-disc carousel this is the one I'd get.

Sony players tend to have the detailed sound you are after.

Both these pieces have a 5 year warranty in the USA.

You may not think you're interested in SACD (or DVD-A) now, but wait until you hear one on your system!

KJP




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[Chip]

The Sony SCD-C555ES is a great recommendation. I own this changer and the sound is amazing. Yes, it plays two channel/multichannel SACD's however, i bought it for it's redbook playback capabilities. Great player and can be had for $595.00 from jandr.com. I bought mine from Oade bros.com last October for $800.00. This changer was originally list priced at $1700.00 when it debued. I think Oade bros. sells it for $599.00 now. Good luck! :LOL:




Chip Engle


"Concrete ain't a spectator sport"


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[Nicholas Renter]

Has anyone looked at (or listened to) the Music Hall CD-25:

http://www.audioadvisor.com/store/productdetail.asp?sku=MHMMF25&product_name=MMF%20CD-25%20HDCD%2024/96%20CD%20Player

I don't mean this to be an ad for AudioAdvisor, but the Music Hall site hasn't been updated with this product yet.

From what I've read on the 'net, it sure looks interesting.

[Brandon B]

Thanks. The 555 is pretty much exactly what I was looking for.

Oade said they were told today that it has been discontinued, and they had no stock. JandR had some so I went ahead and ordered one before they get scarce. $599.

I have been using a mid fi 14 year old sony 5 disc unit with no digital output, as well as my pioneer DVD player. I generally like the features of sony's disc machines, so I'm sure I'll be happy with that end of it.

Guess I'll go make 8 more IC's to hook it up.

BB

edit: Nicholas, you posted while I was typing. Thanks for the suggestion, it looks pretty nice too. I do like the 5 disc format though, and probably will prefer the sony even at a small performance hit.

Also, as I learned recently, you need to put the open/close URL tags around a web address for it to show up as a link instead of just text.

[Andrew Pratt]

Also, as I learned recently, you need to put the open/close URL tags around a web address for it to show up as a link instead of just text.

unless some kind mod steps in and fixes it for you 8)

[Lex]

Wow, a done deal before I can sing praises for Rega, lol. I was going to say a used Rega Planet. But hey, the Sony may be just the ticket, and it does give you SACD.

Nicholas, your product link was fine. now if someone did that every day to the same place, we might catch on. lol. We don't tell people they can't post product links. It's part of the biz.

Lex

[Brandon B]

Yeah impulse is my middle name.

Well, it was, but I changed it earlier this afternoon.

I had kind of looked around before I asked the question, and I guess the Sony sort of nailed the list of things I was looking for. I probably would have waited if the guy at Oade hadn't said it was discontinued.

Also, since they don't ship until tomorrow, I figured I had a day to accumulate suggestions. So anyone who thinks I'm making a poor choice at $600, please chime in.

BB

[Lex]

Well Brandon, I am sure that Jon and others will second the motion, that the best audio sound does indeed come from transports, at the very least, isolated CD players like a Rega. Problem is for 5 disc changers, is the platten. No way can a movable platten maintain the stability for the optics that a single disc player can. In the end, as important are the quality of the DACs. Sony has used some good DACs in products like the old S7000. Does this product sport great DACs? Well, perhaps so. Of course, if your going to use it as a transport, I guess that's a moot point.

How is the power supply and motor isolation in this unit? Optics? etc...

Just a few things to think about.

Lex

[JonMarsh]

I checked out a 555 at the Denver Sony Outlet store earlier this year; if I'd had a little more spare lucre, I would have picked it up for my girlfriend's system. It's fairly chunky, more so than the ES CD caourosel changers.

It would be intersesting to see what it would do with a good external DAC. Problem is, even my 50 lB Sony SCD777ES is not "state of the art" as a transport goes; run through the MP-DAC, it's audibly a skosh more edgy than my reference transport. That's part of why I'm working on a new DAC design with a CS8420 SRC chip as the receiver/sample rate converter/re-clocker. I'm hoping that will cut down the influence of the transport a bunch more (hopefully, 80-90%, though I doubt it will eliminate it completely in a high res system).

What I wish I could afford right now is a Philips SACD player, the SACD 1000, (Oade has them for $899, less than half their original MSRP), because it could be fun to mod and tweak. Might get an idea of how good SACD can be, at least I wouldn't feel as uncomfortable as I do with the idea of going into my (originally) $2500 SCD777ES.

Brian, here's an idea; when you get your Sony, see if you can find a local dealer carrying Music Fidelity, and try the A3-24 DAC with upsampling- just to see what it sounds like on CD. It's fairly affordable, compared with others of comparable quality.

Regards,

Jon




Earth First!
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We'll screw up the other planets later....

[Nicholas Renter]

Thanks, Andrew.

ops:

[Brandon B]

Got my 555 earlier this evening. I am happy (so far). Already a nice improvement over the relic I was using.

Thanks for the help!

BB

[Ricky]

I recently got a Parasound CDC-1500 changer (~ 500 retail) with the optional ADAM upgrade to AES/EBU balanced and ST Optical outputs (300 retail), and the Parasound DAC1600 (retail 1600)....both for ~ $550 used. I am quite happy with the redbook playback. I think Parasound is a "quiet" dac company since they started with two cd players (my changer and the single), gave them both ADAM options to improve playability as a transport, and since have developed 4-5 dacs (1100, 1500, my 1600, dac2000 ultra).

The new Music Fidelity and Bel Canto DAC2 are two new ~ $1k dacs that I may consider next year or so. They are supposed to be "near SACD" quality. I have also recently owned/tried the Sony 333es, adcom gda700 dac, and Onkyo 989 receiver dacs (I prefer the Onkyo among the 3).

[David Meek]

Ricky,

That Musical Fidelity A3-24 DAC is getting rave reviews from all the mags. Good luck!




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