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DVD/CD player from year 2000. Given to me by a friend who moved years ago. Unit sold for $2k originally. Over $3700 in todays $ if still made. A very heavy well built unit. Works fine except for no remote. Volume output is max, so I need to be careful switching from another source to it.
Im much more of a vinyl guy. The best SQ from my system is with very good vinyl pressings. Some cds sound as good and some better than "ok" vinyl pressings. None top MOFI, or the like, vinyl.
Last night played an "ok" pressing of E.C.s Backless then CD of E.C.s Unplugged. CD sounded very good.
I run digital out into a Geshelli J2 DAC with an LPS so only using the Toshiba as a cd transport.
My question is even though the Toshiba was expensive in its day, have CDTs advanced enough that a new modest priced, say $400?, unit would have a noticeably better sound?
Psgary.... thanks for reply. Interesting about price/ performance ratio for old vs. newer cd players. That seems to be a crux for digital components as technology advances their value drops alot. Not as bad for analog it seems.
Id probably go with a transport as the Geshelli J2 is pretty good for now. DAC is my next planned big upgrade. I dont play cds much and keep forgetting there is an unused blu-ray player in the house. Not sure if it has digital out or can even play regular cds.
For my generic bedroom system I have a blu-ray player hooked up and it plays redbook CDs just fine.
Can the J2 be upgraded to the J3? If so, you might want to consider that. The J3 is terrific, my ears tell me. It's supposed to be quite advanced compared to the J2, which has an excellent reputation. Geshelli is really doing a great job of producing affordable DACs. (Of course, the general public considers $400+ ridiculously expensive. Yeah, right. Tell that to their $1k cellphones.)
I think? I read awhile back where a J2 was sent back to Geshelli and moded to a J3. Appearently a tight fit but possible?
Yes, Geshelli dacs are highly rated for performance/cost ratio.
Which chip did you go with?
Id like to try an R2R topology for my next dac. If Geshelli made an R2R, Id definately try theirs. I was very pleased dealing with them and no worries about importing. Yes, I know there are a few other U.S. R2R dacs.
Its just nice to keep supporting a business I had a good experience with.
I went with the Sparkos 2590, although Geshelli had to ship the chip separately because they had a lot of trouble with them breaking during shipment. But installation was a breeze, aided by a technician friend.
That meant initially the TI OPA 1656 was in the J3. That opamp sounded really good, so good that when the Sparkos 2590 was installed there was a bit of a let down. The Sparkos sounded better but the improvement was not dramatic. I could easily have lived with the TI.
And as far as I'm concerned, the performance/cost ratio of Geshelli is off the charts.
Regarding modern CD players, they have advanced light years from the beginning of this century.
Several years ago the transport on my Cary 300/303 went out. Twice an attempt was made by an excellent audio technician friend of mine to replace the transport. Parts alone were over $500. But nothing could fix the Cary.
So the technician suggested I try getting a very modestly priced CD player, which I resisted for a while. He said that CD players with their built-in DACs had come a long way. A year ago, tired of not having decent sound, I went ahead and got a Rotel CD11 Tribute, not expecting all that much. Boy, was that a wrong idea.
The CD11 list price is $600 and left the Cary in the dust. The CD11 transformed my system. The sound had never been so good. The difference was astonishing.
Keep in mind the Cary dates from around 2010 or earlier and cost $3500 new, over $5k today. The CD11 was on clearance and was had for $400.
Then last fall a Geshelli J3 went into my system and took the sound up another level. The CD11 was used as a transport and fit excellently.
It's hard to imagine that the digital out from a Marantz, Rotel, or Arcam CD player, all priced $600-700, wouldn't be better than the Sony. Cambridge has a CD player at $450 whose digital out might be good. Their CXC v2 transport has received positive comments here. It goes for $600 at Crutchfield. That's where I got the CD11. Audio Advisor has similar prices. Both have very reasonable home audition policies.
The point is that CD players and transports have improved dramatically in recent decades. I'm a big fan of Geshelli DACs. Great bang for the buck. My advice is to pick up a recent, modestly priced CD player or transport. You might be surprised at how much better the sound will be.
I saw a used CD11 for $350 not long ago. You could probably pick up a Marantz CD 6007 or something similar for about the same price. Same thing for a Cambridge CXC v2. All those are often available used at Audiogon or U.S. Audio Mart.
Good luck.
If you are using the Toshiba as a transport only, via either the optical or coax out, it only sends data to the DAC. A remote would have no affect on the volume.
Your Geshelli J2 DAC has 3 adjustable output levels according to the manual. If you haven't tried yet, you may be able to lower the output closer to match that of your vinyl playback.
There are some nice units kindly recommended by other posters that may be better, with or without mods. Unfortunately I am not familiar your Toshiba.
While exploring possibilities, you may want to experiment with coax vs toslink cables. Sometimes one may work better than the other and opposite in fact to what is expected in theory. I have found cheap non digital regular coax topping a list of choices at times. Go figure.
Jonesy
"I know just enough to get into trouble. But not enough to get out of it."
Jonesy... ok, so a remote would be useless. Oddly, I never could find even a universal remote that listed this unit. Mute point now.
Yes, I use the J2s volume settings along with pre amps volume, but forget sometimes. A few nights ago I had J2s volume at high setting, pre amp volume at 11:00 position for streamer then switched to Toshiba. I literally jumped from the volume blast. Thank goodness speakers didnt blow.
The Toshiba only has RCA analog or optic out, which I use, no coax.
Appearently, even though this was an expensive and heavy unit it isnt anything special today.
As my previpus post stated, a big step up from the $250.00, although good, J2 dac would probably benefit both cds and streaming. Id probably go for a R2R for the "warmer" sound.
Ah, I thought the digital out Bitstream/PCM RCA coax could be set to PCM output for your Dac. Guess it's not as simple as that.
Off topic from the Toshiba, but I think it's great that tweaks/options are offered on products made by companies such as Geshelli Labs. Makes one feel invested with tailoring to upgrades and personal tastes.
Good luck with both the transport and dac!
Jonesy
"I know just enough to get into trouble. But not enough to get out of it."
I had one back in the day. It was heavy because Toshiba added a 12 lb. (useless) steel plate to the chassis. Its big claim to fame was DVD-A playback which nobody cares about anymore. I wasn't impressed and sold mine shortly after I bought it.
Didn't think it was anything special...
the world has largely moved on past CD players. While some are still available like VHS tape players, most folks today use more flexible and convenient file based players.
I transitioned about 15 years ago to a media server based solution that goes beyond the dated CD standard and shares content with endpoints all around the house.
True the world seems to move on very rapidly with digital and Im sure very good SQ can be achieced with the right gear.
My streamer,dac, cd player dont have USB or i2s.
One reason vinyl is my go to. Technology hasnt changed much for analog yet SQ is very good in my system.
Wife and I actually have more cds than records, but they get played much less. That is what sparked my original question. Id probably play cds more if the SQ was much better for a modest cost. I think a big upgrade in dac would probably be the best next move.
are quite inexpensive these days. Just bought one for my phone that elevated that listening experience for $80.
My streamer,dac, cd player dont have USB or i2s.
Optical and S/PDIF still work fine. I use the latter with the garage system using an inexpensive Raspberry Pi streamer with DigiOne HAT.
I have a Sony X229ES CD player with DIY coax SPDIF. It sounds wonderful.
I also have a Cambridge CXC V2 CD transport and a Tascam CD-200 CD player.
It is easy to get optical Toslink to sound acceptable. But don't expect high resolution or music magic. It has a little metallic sound.
Coax connection sounds quite bad. Poor resolution and distortion. I can't listen to for a longer time.
After coax mod, the Cambridge sounds very nice now. I am in the process of tweaking the mod for Tascam.
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