Marcus Oakley's "Best Recommendation" Questions

[3db]

Yes, a black rectangular cube me too look from Oppo, Yamaha, or Panasonic is the cat's meow and commands much more presence than the space craft look.

 

[Diesel57]

It sounds like you're looking for a reason to donate money, the advice here is very solid and provides knowledge and it's free...

 

[lovinthehd]

Yes, a black rectangular cube me too look from Oppo, Yamaha, or Panasonic is the cat's meow and commands much more presence than the space craft look.

Yeah, but you couldn't stack anything on top with the Oracle....you have the matching tt?

 

[3db]

Yeah, but you couldn't stack anything on top with the Oracle....you have the matching tt?

Agreed and I wish!!

 

[cel4145]

To me, the best CD player is on a computer. Because once you rip the CD, you never have to take it out of the case again. A laptop with good music software beats the usability of stand alone CD players by a mile, IMO.

 

[3db]

To me, the best CD player is on a computer. Because once you rip the CD, you never have to take it out of the case again. A laptop with good music software beats the usability of stand alone CD players by a mile, IMO.

It's difficult to integrate a laptop into a programmable remote such as a Logitech's Harmony. I would take your idea and modify it by ripping the disks to a disk on a dedicated multimedia server.

 

[cel4145]

It's difficult to integrate a laptop into a programmable remote such as a Logitech's Harmony. I would take your idea and modify it by ripping the disks to a disk on a dedicated multimedia server.

I didn't think of that because I don't use unified remotes. I have the strength to put down one remote and pick up another

 

[KEW]

I didn't think of that because I don't use unified remotes. I have the strength to put down one remote and pick up another

Watch your backs, Gene & Hugo, there's some new muscle on the scene!

 

[Dan Madden]

You mean it has its own speakers?
What does it do with vocals? Changes them to barks?

I'm talking about the DAC's, transport and Marantz's HDAM processing and how that affects the analog performance of the unit. To give you an example, A friend of mine bought Oppo's flagship 105 unit that was praised for it's DAC's and it's overall analog performance. He lent it to me for a few days to try it out and I expected to be hurt at how much better it would sound when A/B compared to my Marantz which was vastly older. I WANTED it to sound better to be honest and all I can say is that it was pretty laid back. Not that it was bad, it's just the Marantz brought music to life on my system. Vocals were very laid back on the Oppo and the Marantz brought them forward and in my face. Bare in mind this comparison was using the analog out's on both units wired to my Rotel together so I was able to switch to one or the other immediately. Volume levels were matched.

 

[Irvrobinson]

Not that it was bad, it's just the Marantz brought music to life on my system. Vocals were very laid back on the Oppo and the Marantz brought them forward and in my face. Bare in mind this comparison was using the analog out's on both units wired to my Rotel together so I was able to switch to one or the other immediately. Volume levels were matched.

I'm just wondering, how are the differences you heard possible? What you're describing might be due to one of two situations:

1. The DAC in one of the units is grossly non-linear (grossly in the sense of the variations in IC production), and is falsely producing the wrong analog signal levels that corresponds to the value in the sampling data words.

2. The analog line-stage circuitry in one or both units has poor frequency response linearity.

I would argue that the relative probability between the two choices is that (2) is far more likely than (1).

Analog non-linearity can be caused by a variety of factors, from poor circuit design to unfortunate matching between components (and fault could be in a downstream component, the Rotel). So it seems possible (to me), but I've got to say that it seems highly unlikely, and even more unlikely to produce the euphonic or laid-back effects you're describing, which sound like they're frequency range-specific. And from Oppo no less, which is held in high regard by people who measure things.

A long time ago some digital circuits had ringing or other bad effects (often from crude digital filters), or poor-designed discrete line-stage amplifiers. But these days modern IC DACs and IC op-amps are approaching audio signal perfection. Obviously, telling you that you really didn't hear the differences you imagine is futile, I'll leave that to the everything-sounds-alike legion that hangs around here, but the particular effects you're describing are difficult to develop explanations for.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I'm talking about the DAC's, transport and Marantz's HDAM processing and how that affects the analog performance of the unit. To give you an example, A friend of mine bought Oppo's flagship 105 unit that was praised for it's DAC's and it's overall analog performance. He lent it to me for a few days to try it out and I expected to be hurt at how much better it would sound when A/B compared to my Marantz which was vastly older. I WANTED it to sound better to be honest and all I can say is that it was pretty laid back. Not that it was bad, it's just the Marantz brought music to life on my system. Vocals were very laid back on the Oppo and the Marantz brought them forward and in my face. Bare in mind this comparison was using the analog out's on both units wired to my Rotel together so I was able to switch to one or the other immediately. Volume levels were matched.

Interesting.
Not visualizing your setup correctly. How did you level match the setup, exactly?
Do you have two copies of a music that is exactly the same, bit for bit?


Consciously wanting something doesn't mean much in such listening. Your subconscious is in charge.
And, of course this was sighted?

 

[Dan Madden]

I'm just wondering, how are the differences you heard possible? What you're describing might be due to one of two situations:

1. The DAC in one of the units is grossly non-linear (grossly in the sense of the variations in IC production), and is falsely producing the wrong analog signal levels that corresponds to the value in the sampling data words.

2. The analog line-stage circuitry in one or both units has poor frequency response linearity.

I would argue that the relative probability between the two choices is that (2) is far more likely than (1).

Analog non-linearity can be caused by a variety of factors, from poor circuit design to unfortunate matching between components (and fault could be in a downstream component, the Rotel). So it seems possible (to me), but I've got to say that it seems highly unlikely, and even more unlikely to produce the euphonic or laid-back effects you're describing, which sound like they're frequency range-specific. And from Oppo no less, which is held in high regard by people who measure things.

A long time ago some digital circuits had ringing or other bad effects (often from crude digital filters), or poor-designed discrete line-stage amplifiers. But these days modern IC DACs and IC op-amps are approaching audio signal perfection. Obviously, telling you that you really didn't hear the differences you imagine is futile, I'll leave that to the everything-sounds-alike legion that hangs around here, but the particular effects you're describing are difficult to develop explanations for.

I believe it's totally futile to say that all CD/DVD players sound alike using their analog outputs because many of them use different DAC's and other methods at converting the CD's into analog sound. At the end of the day, it comes down to preference. I believe many would like the sound of the Oppo better and there were subtle things I did like about it better. But I no way can you convince me that I was imagining things and that they did or should sound the same.........They didn't.

 

[Dan Madden]

Interesting.
Not visualizing your setup correctly. How did you level match the setup, exactly?
Do you have two copies of a music that is exactly the same, bit for bit?


Consciously wanting something doesn't mean much in such listening. Your subconscious is in charge.
And, of course this was sighted?

I did have two copies of the same CD to do the test. As for volume matching, out of the box they were quite the same volume wise but I made a minor adjustment to my Marantz unit because it was slightly louder than the Oppo and I can adjust the analog out volume of the Marantz via it's remote. Both units were plugged into my Rotel via RCA patch cords. I even had my wife switch between the two blind so I did not know which one was playing. Again, The differences between the two were quite profound. Again, it really comes down to personal preference. The Marantz was more punchy and put the vocals front and center. The Oppo was more laid back vocally but had an almost hi-def, analog sound to it. It was like the Marantz put the singer in front of me with the band in the back. With the Oppo, they were all back there on the stage together. I listen to a lot of vocal jazz so I preferred the Marantz. Classical or instrumental jazz lovers would probably prefer the Oppo.

 

[KenM10759]

To me, the best CD player is on a computer. Because once you rip the CD, you never have to take it out of the case again. A laptop with good music software beats the usability of stand alone CD players by a mile, IMO.

In a similar way, I prefer ripping CD's with my Bluesound Vault. The manufacturer has written their ripping routine in such a way that it seems to read the disk several times and compare before writing, or something like that because it does take about 10 to 20 minutes to rip a CD with that and only 3 to 5 minutes with my PC. I was told by a Bluesound staff member that they do that to assure there's as little interpolation of any missing bytes as possible.

What I do know is that once the CD is ripped either way (PC or Vault), it plays the same way every time and there is no variation. There's also no chance of damaging the CD or losing it, especially with data backup.

 

[cel4145]

In a similar way, I prefer ripping CD's with my Bluesound Vault. The manufacturer has written their ripping routine in such a way that it seems to read the disk several times and compare before writing, or something like that because it does take about 10 to 20 minutes to rip a CD with that and only 3 to 5 minutes with my PC. I was told by a Bluesound staff member that they do that to assure there's as little interpolation of any missing bytes as possible.

Probably uses processes similar to EAC, which is free ripping software that has been around for a long time. dBpoweramp is a popular paid alternative which is supposedly more user friendly than EAC. I've been using EAC for so long, though, that I felt the need to try something different for more user friendliness.

 

[KenM10759]

The speakers wouldn't be more powerful unless they were fed more power. Let's just say they're more "forward compatible" should there be upgrades to amplification and/or other speakers.

 

[Blue Dude]

+1 for EAC. EAC will reread questionable frames many times over to ensure it's been read correctly, and then it can be set up to run Accurip to ensure you have a bit-perfect copy. CUETools is another program you can run afterward to verify integrity, and it can even repair rips that have minor errors. I can rip a CD perfectly in 2-3 minutes, and be assured that it's exactly the same data that was on the disc. All of the above is free for personal, non-commercial use. It takes about 10 minutes to rip a CD to FLAC files, verify them, edit their metadata, find some album art, and move everything to my music server. Unless I want to look up something in the liner notes, I usually don't open the case again.

 

[Kyle0910]

So I was wanting a dedicated CD player just a few days ago. Decided to try one out. I hooked up a Rotel CD14 player to a B&W panorama soundbar with a supercube 4000 sub (not my system) and noticed a few things.

The unit was damn sexy. Looked amazing and picturing it in my AV cabinet pitched a tent. The finished matched my Denon 4200 all the way to the brushed metallic paint. The size was perfect. The display was amazing and had all of the info you could want from metadata.

Next, the operation was so smooth. I pushed the eject button and before I even pressed the button the entire way down it slid right open with no audible noise. Play the CD and it starts right up. I have a blu-ray player at home and its just a loud machine! This Rotel player was something else.

As far as audio goes, the reason you buy a player, I felt that I could hear a difference. It sounded smoother in my head. Then I started really listening and the difference faded away.

The placebo effect was strong with this one. It still does look sexy as hell. I demoed this at my local magnolia center and told them if it is still sitting here open box by Christmas to sell it to me for $100 and he agreed so I'll still pick it up but wouldn't pay anymore for it.


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[Dan Madden]

So I was wanting a dedicated CD player just a few days ago. Decided to try one out. I hooked up a Rotel CD14 player to a B&W panorama soundbar with a supercube 4000 sub (not my system) and noticed a few things.

The unit was damn sexy. Looked amazing and picturing it in my AV cabinet pitched a tent. The finished matched my Denon 4200 all the way to the brushed metallic paint. The size was perfect. The display was amazing and had all of the info you could want from metadata.

Next, the operation was so smooth. I pushed the eject button and before I even pressed the button the entire way down it slid right open with no audible noise. Play the CD and it starts right up. I have a blu-ray player at home and its just a loud machine! This Rotel player was something else.

As far as audio goes, the reason you buy a player, I felt that I could hear a difference. It sounded smoother in my head. Then I started really listening and the difference faded away.

The placebo effect was strong with this one. It still does look sexy as hell. I demoed this at my local magnolia center and told them if it is still sitting here open box by Christmas to sell it to me for $100 and he agreed so I'll still pick it up but wouldn't pay anymore for it.


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You were listening to it with a soundbar which is NOT the best way to audition any player. You might want to try comparing players using a good set of headphones.

 

[Kyle0910]

You were listening to it with a soundbar which is NOT the best way to audition any player. You might want to try comparing players using a good set of headphones.

I agree, that would be best. However I have auditioned some others in the past with a pair of CM10s and I could really not tell a difference. I'm not big into headphones so maybe it's just not for me.


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