$500 budget for a (used) cd player

[TSG]

What's available on the used market that will smoke my Pioneer DV-525? I received a couple of recommendations to have the Pioneer modified at ModWright.. but I don't know about that. Anyone experienced a ModWright mod? This will be used for 2 channel only with the B&K Pro10 and Ref4420 I just picked up. No external dac right now.

Or should I use an external dac with the Pioneer?

How would I get the best out of my CDs?




Tom

[Ricky]

Tom,

Ah, now more fun can start. You can play the dac/cdp game. $300-500 used will get you a very good dac (data perpetuaties, parasound, msb, ead, etc). Once you buy Dac A, you compare it to your pioneer's dacs, with pioneer as transport. If Dac A doesn't provide a noticeable improvement, sell it and get Dac B. Once you have a dac that clearly outperforms the Pioneer, you're sitting pretty. Once the upgrade buy hits, buy Dac C...but keep Dac B in the system to compare...Dac C must beat Dac B head-to-head before it stays in the system..and the cycle starts over

I did this and ended up with the Parasound DAC1600 on a $400 budget. When I want an improvement, I might go after $800 used dacs. Differences between dacs and cd players can be so small and system dependent that reviews don't really help, you need to a/b on the fly, level-matched in your system to be sure.

[Lex]

Used Sony S7000 DVD/CD unit, great CD player.

Lex

[JonMarsh]

There's an awful lot of options from spending between $400 and $1K. What is best for you depends on the rest of your system and electronics, and overall goals- which may change as you discover and evaluate new pieces.

There are some additional options if you're handy with a soldering iron and not afraid of kits.

For "bang for the buck" with relatively conventional DAC cirruitry (i.e., op amp outputs), I'd shop around for a used Parts Connection DAC (which were available in kit form), particuarly one of their later models, like the 2.6, or the 3.0.

For something a bit more exotic, I've built a few MP-DAC II's from Hawk Audio in the Netherlands; very robust power supply, and totally discrete non feedback analog output stage, combined with Crystal semi 24 bit chip set. Very smooth sound, detailed but in a low key way that doesn't call attention to itself- i.e., not bright, hard, forward, or edgy.

http://www.htguide.com/CFBoards/index.cfm?fuseaction=Threads.viewthread&CFB=1&Tid=32601&Forum=3&DoOnePage=Yes&RequestTimeout=500

Moving on to the fully built outboard DAC category for $1K, a unit I've heard briefly that was quite impressive, and which has impeccable bench performance is the Music Fidelity A324 upsampling DAC.

http://www.musicalfidelity.com/a32series.html

There are undoubtedly many others which board members may suggest or recommend from their experience; Rickey's description of the process for evaluation is pretty much spot on. It's important to find what works for you in your system.

For me, the MP-DAC was a bit of an ear opener, as it provides substantially better CD reproduction than the big Sony SACD players. It's led me on some interesting design directions, and now I have an interesting kluge up prototype I've been listening to for a few months with upsampling, transformer coupling between the DAC converter and non feedback class A output stage. And also a pretty massive power supply. You may note that I'm something of a fan of non-feedbac electronics, and have some Ayre gear; as a reference for what you could be shooting for at moderate price, I'd go out and give a listen to an Ayre CX-7 CD player- I think it's the "standard" in it's price range, but then I'm probably not really objective! Giving some pieces like the Music Fidelity or the Ayre a good listen will also give you a way to calibrate your expectations, so you have some basis for "rating" the performance of less costly units, while also having a good grasp of what is possible at some faintly reasonable price.

Good luck in your hunt, and happy listening.

-Jon




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