Yamaha CD-S1000 vs. CDX-1030.

[JOHN FICKEL]

I still use my Yamaha RXZ9 home theater receiver, which I absolutely love. For sometime now I’ve been listening to music through my Sonos connect, hooked up via digital coax to my Z9, and streaming with Amazon ultra HD. I recently decided to hook up my old Yamaha CD player the 1030, to compare Amazon ultra HD to that 34-year-old player. The CD player to me sounded much better …. My question is, would there be any advantage to playing old Megadeth old Metallica and 95% death metal would there be much of a difference playing those through the Yamaha CD-S1000. A sidenote, I don’t care about super audio CD. I’d be playing my old metal CDs. Any help with this I’d greatly appreciate. Also, one more thing, I’ve hooked up the CD player with digital coax to my Z9 and I still thought the CD player sounded better. But I’m thinking maybe the Sonos was restricting it…. Either way I’m blown away by how a 34 year old CD player could sound so darn great. THANK YOU !! Am I gonna be blown away by these new Yamaha CD players. Or are we still limited to how the CD was pressed?

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

The CDX must have quite a player. According to my old Audio magazine annual buyer’s guide, it listed for $700 in 1990. From what I can find, even now people are asking close to $300 for them used.

I’d be shocked if the S1000 sounded better. On top of that, it isn’t going to have the cool orange display to match your Z9.

The Z9 is an awesome beast. The only reason I gave mine up is because my wife dragged me into HDMI with Roku, and I figured if that was the route we were going, I had to get an HDMI front end order to hear the programming in true 5.1. But I’m still using the Z9 as a multi-channel amplifier, along with a Yamaha CXA-5000 pre-pro.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

The CDX must have quite a player. According to my old Audio magazine annual buyer’s guide, it listed for $700 in 1990. From what I can find, even now people are asking close to $300 for them used.

I’d be shocked if the S1000 sounded better. On top of that, it isn’t going to have the cool orange display to match your Z9.

The Z9 is an awesome beast. The only reason I gave mine up is because my wife dragged me into HDMI with Roku, and I figured if that was the route we were going, I had to get an HDMI front end order to hear the programming in true 5.1. But I’m still using the Z9 as a multi-channel amplifier, along with a Yamaha CXA-5000 pre-pro.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

That’s what I was thinking. I’d be shocked if the newer CD player sounded better. I think I’m looking too much into the marketing hype the 1030 has a 1 bit DA converter. Where is all the new things today have a 32 bit dac. I’m really starting to think a lot of it is marketing.

 

[lovinthehd]

I'd be shocked if the older player was up to snuff let alone better. Lots of it is of course marketing, tho.

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

Update. I decided to try my Oppo UDP203 as a Cd Player and wow I feel it blew the doors of the CDX1030,, it’s not harsh and bass is so much smoother !! I had to turn down my PB4000’s Lol. 32 bit AKA and not sure if it’s true there is a video I saw when they compared the 203 to the S2100 Yamaha and said no difference. Wonder if that’s true ?

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

Update. I decided to try my Oppo UDP203 as a Cd Player and wow I feel it blew the doors of the CDX1030,, it’s not harsh and bass is so much smoother !! I had to turn down my PB4000’s Lol. 32 bit AKA and not sure if it’s true there is a video I saw when they compared the 203 to the S2100 Yamaha and said no difference. Wonder if that’s true ?

Went back to the CX 1030 now I feel that just sounds so much more lively and less boring. Can’t believe a 34 year old player still sounds better than most players today.

 

[3db]

Went back to the CX 1030 now I feel that just sounds so much more lively and less boring. Can’t believe a 34 year old player still sounds better than most players today.

What you are reporting in perceived differences in sound between your various CD players is bias, be it sight or mood. You will be chasing your tail indefinitely unless you do a proper blind listening test.

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

What you are reporting in perceived differences in sound between your various CD players is bias, be it sight or mood. You will be chasing your tail indefinitely unless you do a proper blind listening test.

Got it. It’s still boggles my mind while sitting here and switching back-and-forth. I did not care which one sounded better. I just want to use the one that sounds best to my ears, With the music that I listen to. But on another note, I’m shocked that taking two players almost 34 years in age not being a bigger difference apart then it really is …. just. seems like all marketing with these dacs. One bit versus 32Aka Oppo ? And that not blowing the door off the one bit Yamaha? .

 

[Verdinut]

With a $1000 Yamaha CD player you will be wasting your money. For less than $300, You can get a brand new Sony Blu-ray player which will play any CD as well as any expensive CD player. Moreover, it will also play Blu-ray discs, DVDs as well as SACDs as it features more elaborate circuits that will outperform any CD player on the market.

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

With a $1000 Yamaha CD player you will be wasting your money. For less than $300, You can get a brand new Sony Blu-ray player which will play any CD as well as any expensive CD player. Moreover, it will also play Blu-ray discs, DVDs as well as SACDs as it features more elaborate circuits that will outperform any CD on the market.

Really? I have an Oppo 203 now. An absolutely love it. However, I was just curious as I’ve had this Yamaha for quite a while. CDX1030 in absolute mint condition. I used to stream even with Amazon ultra HD and the player blew it out of the water. I’ve even compared it to my Yamaha.RXZ9 Dacs. Those are Burr brown 1792 and again preferred the sound of the CDX player. What i would really like to know what are all these Dacs worth? to me I just don’t hear the difference between these Dacs. All I care about is playing my old CD collection don’t care about super audio CD. I have the Oppo for Blu-ray. I’m just looking to make these metal cds sound the absolute best they can.

 

[dolynick]

If you're using a digital connection from the CD player to your receiver, it doesn't matter what the DAC in the player is - it's being decoded by the receiver anyways. You're not going to hear any difference between any of the players when they're all being decoded by the same DAC in the receiver. You're essentially using them as transports in this scenario, and any differences in sound between transports that might be possible (it's digital, so I'll be generous and say jitter or something like that but I generally don't believe there will be) would be so minute that they should be inaudible.

You may be able to hear differences if you're doing analog out from the various CD players though.

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

If you're using a digital connection from the CD player to your receiver, it doesn't matter what the DAC in the player is - it's being decoded by the receiver anyways. You're not going to hear any difference between any of the players when they're all being decoded by the same DAC in the receiver. You're essentially using them as transports in this scenario, and any differences in sound between transports that might be possible (it's digital, so I'll be generous and say jitter or something like that but I generally don't believe there will be) would be so minute that they should be inaudible.

You may be able to hear differences if you're doing analog out from the various CD players though.

I apologize if you misunderstood what I had wrote I am not using the digital output of any player. I’m using the analog outputs only. However. The Oppo will simultaneously put out analog and digital so I can go back-and-forth to hear all three. What I was talking about is the analog out of the Yamaha CD player and the analog out to the Oppo. That’s what I’m beside myself about! the Yamaha I think sounded better than a newer Blu-ray player and a darn good one. I understand when you use a digital output it becomes just a transport.

 

[dolynick]

I apologize if you misunderstood what I had wrote I am not using the digital output of any player. I’m using the analog outputs only. However. The Oppo will simultaneously put out analog and digital so I can go back-and-forth to hear all three. What I was talking about is the analog out of the Yamaha CD player and the analog out to the Oppo. That’s what I’m beside myself about! the Yamaha I think sounded better than a newer Blu-ray player and a darn good one. I understand when you use a digital output it becomes just a transport.

I must have misread something skimming through the thread. My mistake.

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

I must have misread something skimming through the thread. My mistake.

No problem

 

[Gordini777]

Hi. Reading your old post about the CDX1030 and I agree..its an excellent player with a fabulous mechanism. Its weakness is perhaps the analogue output stage which is using some older type IC's and time has moved on since. I have exactly this player myself and am using it with a good but old musical fidelity DAC but the real gain with this transport is using an Audio Alchemy DTI which is a jitter filter which I have found works particularly well with this transport. There is also a Sonic Frontiers jitterbuster which also works well. I don't know what the DAC that you are using but I can honestly say there are big differences between transports... and the yamaha 1030 when used as a transport is excellent.