cd player

[southall-1998]

Being incoherent again, Jammy

S.

[jammy395]

Explian ....Mordor Moderator edit: ad hominem removed............

[southall-1998]

Oi...I'm big-boned

[Firebug1]

At AOS some folks rave about staple platter Pioneer cdp's. I don’t have experience about them. Best cdp I have had was Naim cd5x. Sell it same time when ditched rest of my my Naim gear.

[joe]

I've owned and used an Exposure CDP since 1998. Sounds great and has never had a fault. (Of course, it will fail immediately now I've said that).

[savvypaul]

A PC with a decent DAC is my choice, these days. Use something like 'Exact Audio Copy' to rip your CDs. You can also stream CD quality files from Tidal and Qobuz for a flat monthly fee, and download 24 bit recordings from Qobuz, Linn, Hyperion and a few others, which sound magnificent. If, like me, you want something a little more 'friendly' than the usual PC set up...I ended up with a Vortexbox Player which has all the software, CD ripper and storage built in. About as close to 'plug and play' as computer audio gets...from about £300.

http://www.vortexbox.co.uk/category/[store]

[_D_S_J_R_]

Big Sony's apart, there's some feckin' crap being discussed here. Naim CD5X and cheapo Arcam? I'll just say you get the basic rudiments and nothing more. There's whole world of good three dimensional digital players out there, but in my day you needed to spend a bit - a grand or more - to even begin to get it.

Copland Jammy? The players used to be good, but the UK importers are 'expensive' to put it politely and the spares for the TEAC and later Sony drives may be an issue too.. I wish you'd sent that Sony my way. I'd have done my best with it and had I been able to sort it properly, I'd have returned it to you!

[Classicrock]

I think the performance of the Cambridge CXC transport has modified my view that big heavy built CDs were necessary for decent sound. First time CD has got close to vinyl in my set up and still using a 90s Teac Dac.

[_D_S_J_R_]

Vinyl needs to come close to CD really, but in essence I do understand what you say In past years, cheap CD sounded bleached and tuneless. this is NOT how standard red book digital is supposed to sound, certainly if you listen to a Sony PCM 1610 and later 1630 ADAC's, as well as the best of vintage domestic gear like these Sony's, which I feel I've been blessed enough to be able to do in past years. Thankfully, modern chipsets have drastically improved the potential of low cost digital and I'm going to stick my neck on the block again and say that very few designers of DOMESTIC digital electronic gear really know what to do with it, if bodging a chipset and designing everything from scratch - if they really knew what they were doing, they'd be earning a fortune working in industry and probably being worked to death. I'm thinking of one chap who became something of a guru on PFM, yet he was reported to have bodged and botched his way through so many firmware updates, took his employers practically to the cleaners and then jumped ship to start his own firmware bodging service, leaving his ex-employers to reportedly backwards-engineer their own DACs.

Anyway, the Doc has shown how a neglected audio ic op-amp can ruin what's being done further back in the DAC path and I reckon so many older and cheaper domestic CD players really suffer in power supply cost-cutting.

[Jonty2547]

OK, I hold you lot responsible for the price hikes - just been looking ay Sony 777 and 555 es cd players on ebay

Guy, you're more than welcome to borrow my 555ES for a few weeks to see if you think it's worth the £400 or so to buy one, although i doubt you'd be disappointed. (It really is a superb thing)
I work on Ransomes Europark, so you could collect during the day if you'd like to?