Stand Alone CD Players

G

George

Audioholic Intern
<font color='#000000'>I'm looking for a decent high end CDP. I will be auditioning the Meridian 507 and the 508.24(discontinued). I would appreciate any thoughts from people who have listened to one or both. Also are there any differences in the transport mechanism used by both? What other players in that category would be worthwhile listening to.
George.</font>
 
A

av_phile

Senior Audioholic
<font color='#000000'>have heard that many exotic CDP uses CD transport mechanisms intended for PCs. &nbsp;Another option is to get an excellent Rotel CDP or any good commercial CDP and mate it with an external DAC like those of &nbsp;Musical Fidelity or Delius. &nbsp;You may want to google search on these brands.</font>
 
Yamahaluver

Yamahaluver

Audioholic General
<font color='#0000FF'>Take a look at SONY XDP-777ES which is legendary for its quality as well as the excellent sounding Yamaha CDX-1060 which was rated way above other players priced much higher due to its neutral, transparent nature.</font>
 
M

miklorsmith

Full Audioholic
Hey - let's really muddy the waters!

If you don't have tubes anywhere in the chain, the CDP is a great place to put them. Usually only 2 low-power (cheap) tubes that last a long time.

Preamp is also a great, easy place. Hey - I have 'em in both!

Tubes are one of the best things to ever happen to digital. Different tubes will help you "tune" your player to your system too - much more effective AND cheaper than using cables for that purpose.

My CDP is a modded unit from Modwright but there are killer choices OEM too. Check out the Unison Research Unico CD. Classy and great, for about $2k.

The only CDP I know of that uses a CD-ROM transport is the Creek CD-50 mkII. Creek reports that it reduces jitter considerably and the player is well reviewed. Computers generally don't have jitter problems, so it does make some sense. No tubes though. :)
 
mtrycrafts

mtrycrafts

Seriously, I have no life.
George said:
<font color='#000000'>I'm looking for a decent high end CDP. I will be auditioning the Meridian 507 and the 508.24(discontinued). I would appreciate any thoughts from people who have listened to one or both. Also are there any differences in the transport mechanism used by both? What other players in that category would be worthwhile listening to.
George.</font>

Why are you looking for an expensive, stand alone CDP player? Just curious ;)
 
Yamahaluver

Yamahaluver

Audioholic General
jazzbeq said:
Good day,

i found this page on internet about an upgrade for the cdx-1060. Do you someone who translate it? or a french or english version of it?

thanks

http://www.xn--gamskjr-rxa.dk/cdx/index.html
Is there any specific info that you need particularly, cant find a Danish to English translator unfortunately or would have done it for you.
 
jaxvon

jaxvon

Audioholic Ninja
It should be noted that tubes introduce low-level harmonic distortion. This is why they sound nice, they add some pretty harmonics. Is this bad? Depends. If your goal is the most accurate reproduction of music, then no. If you're going for pure enjoyment and find the tubes do this for you, then they're worth it.

Before I get attacked, I realize that many recording studios use tube preamps for their microphones, such as the Groove Tubes VIPre. At the same time, these are used because they are known to impart a certain sonic effect on the signal from the microphone. Just as the sounds of synthesizers can be modified to fit the user, a tube preamp modifies the sound coming from the microphone to the liking of the engineer or artist.

There are many great high-end players out there. While you're at it, and you feel an itching to drop a lot of cash, you may want to check out Wadia.
 
M

miklorsmith

Full Audioholic
You're probably aware that newer tube topologies are breaking down the barriers of the old-soft-slow regimes. Mine sounds clean and fast and powerful (low-level, I have SS amps). They do soften some of the etch I hear from my friends' all SS affairs.
 
WmAx

WmAx

Audioholic Samurai
jaxvon said:
It should be noted that tubes introduce low-level harmonic distortion. This is why they sound nice, they add some pretty harmonics.
Only the worst of the worst(limited to some SET designs) produce THD in levels that would be audible within their rated power output specifications. Most tube amps have THD well below audibility. However, many tube amplifiers have poorly matched output transformers, resulting in very high output impedance: this can result in frequency response deviations that are audible in the proper circumstances.

Before I get attacked, I realize that many recording studios use tube preamps for their microphones, such as the Groove Tubes VIPre. At the same time, these are used because they are known to impart a certain sonic effect on the signal from the microphone.
I find it funny that it's still common place to use non-linear equipment for recording in this day. Hell, most of the microphones popularly used dont even have a linear response.

It would be better(and far more controllable) if E.Q.s were used for both recording/mastering in place of using some silly non-linear microphone. Also far better to use an E.Q. at home for tonal adjustment as opposed to a non-controllable tone device(tube amp). At one time, a sufficienty powerful E.Q. with no audible noise or other problems was too expensive for most consumers. Today this is not an issue, and a superb qulaity E.Q. with incredible tonal control can be had for approx. $330 USD: Behringer DEQ2496.

-Chris
 
M

miklorsmith

Full Audioholic
In my context, tubes have very little to do with tonal balance and everything to do with tonal quality. I've owned equalizers and it isn't the same at all. That being said, different types of tubes in the same piece yield different tonal definitions.
 
WmAx

WmAx

Audioholic Samurai
miklorsmith said:
In my context, tubes have very little to do with tonal balance and everything to do with tonal quality. I've owned equalizers and it isn't the same at all. That being said, different types of tubes in the same piece yield different tonal definitions.
You owned an equalizer of the caliber/precision of a DEQ2496? You measured a tube amplifier into a complex load, then reproduced the tonal response with said E.Q. on a SS ampliifer? Then DBTed?

Would you care to quantify what you mean by 'tonal quality'?

Thanks.

-Chris
 
$

$hockwave

Audiophyte
i was looking in getting a stand-alone 5 disc cd changer i think i have deicided on the sony SCDC222ES because it looked like the best all around because i want one that is only a cd/sacd play with funtionality with random over all the disc where the other 150 dollar model did not look like it offerd which i enjoy
 
J

jero

Audiophyte
Yamahaluver said:
Is there any specific info that you need particularly, cant find a Danish to English translator unfortunately or would have done it for you.
Hi there good people, maybe I can be of some help.I´m Danish and if you give me a few days I will translate the article for you, by all means I will do my best. :)
 
J

jazzbeq

Audiophyte
info needed

Good Day,

i do like to have some info on the tube modification for my Yamaha CDX-1060. Is there a way to only change the chip in the dac to upgrade it to recent standard. my CDX-1060 seem to have fade in sound quality over the year, how i tweak it? is tube the solution? or i just push the beam a bit?

thanks for any info you could provide

regards
Christian

miklorsmith said:
Hey - let's really muddy the waters!

If you don't have tubes anywhere in the chain, the CDP is a great place to put them. Usually only 2 low-power (cheap) tubes that last a long time.

Preamp is also a great, easy place. Hey - I have 'em in both!

Tubes are one of the best things to ever happen to digital. Different tubes will help you "tune" your player to your system too - much more effective AND cheaper than using cables for that purpose.

My CDP is a modded unit from Modwright but there are killer choices OEM too. Check out the Unison Research Unico CD. Classy and great, for about $2k.

The only CDP I know of that uses a CD-ROM transport is the Creek CD-50 mkII. Creek reports that it reduces jitter considerably and the player is well reviewed. Computers generally don't have jitter problems, so it does make some sense. No tubes though. :)
 
WmAx

WmAx

Audioholic Samurai
jazzbeq said:
Good Day,

i do like to have some info on the tube modification for my Yamaha CDX-1060. Is there a way to only change the chip in the dac to upgrade it to recent standard. my CDX-1060 seem to have fade in sound quality over the year, how i tweak it? is tube the solution? or i just push the beam a bit?

thanks for any info you could provide

regards
Christian
Theire is no need to 'tweak' anything. If you want 'tube' sound, then there is a perfect solution: Behringer makes a tube preamp stage of which you can adjust(because it's adjustable, it's an excellent solution if you want some sort of tube sound) the tube saturation/distortion proportionately to the signal(it is designed for studio use). It can be used on microphone or line level inputs(controlled by a toggle switch):

http://www.zzounds.com/item--BEHT1953

-Chris
 
S

Sleestack

Senior Audioholic
I highly recommned keeping your transport and going the route of external DAC + tube buffer. I addded the Musical Fidelity X-DAC v3, X10v3 (tube buffer) and X-PSUv3 between my Denon 3910 and B&K 507 S2. As far as 2 channel music goes, it is the single best upgrade I have made. It not only povided a high quality DAC through which I run all my 2 channel digital sources, but the tube stage dramatically improved the soundstage and brought a muscial warmth to my system. I liked the combo so much, I bought a second set to run on my desk b/t my sources and my dedicated headphone amp.

Music Direct is having a package deal on the DAC/tube stage/PSU combo for $1200 (normally $1800).
 
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