What's the best CD player on the market?
Discussion
JustinP1 said:
Keep your transport, upgrade your DAC.
A very good unit is the Chord DAC64. I had one of the first batch years ago, and since then they have got even better. About £1500 or so on ebay.
Good point, do you know anything about this Justin?A very good unit is the Chord DAC64. I had one of the first batch years ago, and since then they have got even better. About £1500 or so on ebay.
http://www.audioaffair.co.uk/index.php?act=viewPro...
MaxAndRuby said:
JustinP1 said:
Keep your transport, upgrade your DAC.
A very good unit is the Chord DAC64. I had one of the first batch years ago, and since then they have got even better. About £1500 or so on ebay.
Good point, do you know anything about this Justin?A very good unit is the Chord DAC64. I had one of the first batch years ago, and since then they have got even better. About £1500 or so on ebay.
http://www.audioaffair.co.uk/index.php?act=viewPro...
By it's own volition it says its major technical advance is the bluetooth receiver.
That to me makes no product or marketing sense. If you are dropping £3000 on a DAC you are an audiophile. Their specific application in their own words would be to stream audio from your phone or PDA. Makes no sense.
The USB input however only gets a tiny mention. However, for me I would say that is the 'killer application'. Get yourself a Mac Mini or similar and you have a very good and flexible front end and storage system mated digitally to an audiophile quality DAC.
If it is better than the DAC64 then that would be great. The original had a great accurate sound as well as being 'rounded' and not sterile. I think the only reason why my setup was an improvement was the fact that there was one less analogue cable in the chain.
Zad said:
I haven't been involved in really high-end stuff for a few years now, but I suspect "best" (which is a difficult term at the best of times) might mean DVD/Blu-ray transport which is capable of handling native 24-bit 192ksps. Or do you just want pure CD?
I have blu-ray and CD, both going to my DAC, it's music reproduction I'm primarily interested in.A year ago I'd have said that anything to do with a computer/DVD player/blu-ray player where music reproduction is concerned would be 's
t', from what I've been reading it seems I'm a bit of a dinosaur.JustinP1 said:
By it's own volition it says its major technical advance is the bluetooth receiver.
That to me makes no product or marketing sense. If you are dropping £3000 on a DAC you are an audiophile. Their specific application in their own words would be to stream audio from your phone or PDA. Makes no sense.
My thoughts exactly, but you look at the company, and the kit they produce and......get even more confused!That to me makes no product or marketing sense. If you are dropping £3000 on a DAC you are an audiophile. Their specific application in their own words would be to stream audio from your phone or PDA. Makes no sense.
MaxAndRuby said:
Zad said:
I haven't been involved in really high-end stuff for a few years now, but I suspect "best" (which is a difficult term at the best of times) might mean DVD/Blu-ray transport which is capable of handling native 24-bit 192ksps. Or do you just want pure CD?
I have blu-ray and CD, both going to my DAC, it's music reproduction I'm primarily interested in.A year ago I'd have said that anything to do with a computer/DVD player/blu-ray player where music reproduction is concerned would be 's
t', from what I've been reading it seems I'm a bit of a dinosaur.The point of the CD was to provide a convenient method of allowing the DAC in your home to replay the original digital signal. Twenty odd years later, in the same way we are not still playing games on the BBC Micro or the Sinclair Spectrum, data transmission and storage are generations ahead.
With blu-ray the format seems to be changing quite quickly, and to be forward compatible they have updatable firmware. I don't think many players are significantly different than something like a PS3 IMHO. Certainly when the PS3 had the software upgraded to upsampling, it was better than my £3000 CD/DVD transport and it got mothballed!
MaxAndRuby said:
A year ago I'd have said that anything to do with a computer/DVD player/blu-ray player where music reproduction is concerned would be 'st', from what I've been reading it seems I'm a bit of a dinosaur.
If you were using the computer to turn the bits into analogue, you'd be right (well, in Hifi buff terms. It doesn't actually hurt your ears any more! t', from what I've been reading it seems I'm a bit of a dinosaur.
). But, if you just use it for the digital stage(s)...
Don't tell anyone, but I think a lot of audiophiles will be in for a shock when they try to sell on their expensive transports in the future, or even their pre-amps and associated power supplies. One is one, and Zero is zero, and computers do this very well!
the best i have listened to is the DCS kit
http://www.dcsltd.co.uk/
also meridian 800 and naim players i have enjoyed
http://www.dcsltd.co.uk/
also meridian 800 and naim players i have enjoyed
MaxAndRuby said:
Wondering about upgrading my Cyrus XT and DAC X, but know very little about high end CD players.
Been wondering about Mark Levinson, but have never heard anything with my own ears.
What's REALLY good?
You bugger. I have the CD XT and DAC XP and I'm very pleased with them. You MUST NOT make me think I can get any significant improvement or I will end up spending more money. Again.Been wondering about Mark Levinson, but have never heard anything with my own ears.
What's REALLY good?
What do you find lacking with the Cyrus kit? The DAC X is very highly rated. I find the DAC XP with Mono X power amps to be very good and considering that the combination costs the best part of £5k, I don't want to go out an spend more! If you tell me you've found something that adds an extra dimension, I'm going to be in trouble.
grumbledoak said:
One is one, and Zero is zero
This is what bothered me about adding a PSX-R external PSU to my Cyrus XT transport, what possible improvements can be made?I got quite a convincing response from Cyrus about error checking and data loss, which I can sort of buy, but as a software engineer I know that if a £15 CD in a PC missed 1 bit, let alone a byte, then it would be game(or any other application) over.
Then Chord produce a transport for about £4000, what's it all about?
Zod said:
What do you find lacking with the Cyrus kit?
Nothing, it's superb.In the same way I always wondered what my Porsche 911 GT2 would be like with just a little bit more power......
Come on mate, we're hi-fi buffs, we're always after something a little bit better on that road to perfection.
Even though we know we'll never get there.
Fun though
MaxAndRuby said:
Zod said:
What do you find lacking with the Cyrus kit?
Nothing, it's superb.In the same way I always wondered what my Porsche 911 GT2 would be like with just a little bit more power......
Come on mate, we're hi-fi buffs, we're always after something a little bit better on that road to perfection.
Even though we know we'll never get there.
Fun though
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