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In Reply to: RE: NEW CD Player Choice posted by mbrierley on May 26, 2025 at 12:20:54
You didn't mention what sonic characters are lacking in your setup prompting you to research CD players. Various CD players have different sounds to them.... mainly due to their internal DAC/Analog output stage. I've owned 3 or 4 Sony, 4 Cary, 1 Accuphase, 1 Denon, and few others over the decades. The Carys were very nice if you enjoy a more robust full-bodied and richer sound with great dynamics. My Accuphase DP-65v was similar to the Carys but a little more transparent.As Leo mentioned, if the CDP has a digital output you can try different outboard DACs to find the sound you're looking for.
CD players being what they are with LASER and transport mechanisms will eventually fail. Take that into consideration if buying a very pricey old model. Can it be repaired? Personally, I would buy a lower priced new CDP and try different newer outboard DACs on it. Just my 2-cents worth. Good Luck!
P.S. Sold my Accuphase and gave away my CDs several years ago. I stream my own CD 'rips' from the music server + DAC or the Qobuz streaming service.
Edits: 05/26/25 05/26/25
I actually had to buy a CD recently. It wasn't available on Qobuz, which is rare. I forgot to look at Presto, they had a download that was $10 cheaper. Now I've just got to find my CD/DVD drive to rip it. I haven't seen it in a long time.
"gave away my CDs several years ago. I stream my own CD 'rips' from the music server"
I own my CDs and I do not rip CD except for beach music or the CD is broken.
I once 'owned' my CD's too until I sold or gave them all away. But I still have those albums in glorious lossless full fidelity on my music server with multiple backups.
Why beach music ??
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I love swimming in the ocean, and when fatigue sets in, there's nothing better than lying on the beach, listening to music. It's a truly cherished part of my life.
Edits: 05/26/25
I spent a lot of time at the beach myself as a kid. I would ride my bike about 30 minutes to Huntington Beach to bake in the sunlight. The Pacific ocean is noticeably colder than the Atlantic but it was refreshing once you got in. I was pulled out to sea pretty far by a rip tide one day but managed to swim parallel to the shore and then back to the sandy beach. Lifeguard was perched up at his station ready to rescue me me but saw that I had it under control. I was a pretty strong swimmer back then.Some pics of Huntington Beach around 2004:
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Even the cops were pretty chill
Edits: 05/28/25 05/28/25
After much debate, I decided maybe the best route was to add a new mid end DAC instead of a similarly priced new CD Player.
Has any one experience of the Holo Audio May Level 3? Its their flagship box and has had nothing but rave reviews.
Also, my tiny reservation about buying a DAC is that my CDP only has Coax and Toslink out so max bit rate I am going to get is 24/192hkz which is what I already have.
Any thoughts?
Had the May KTE and it was superior to the Directstream Mk1 and Mk2.
Excuse my championing of the humble J3. I didn't know you were talking about gear in the $6k range. Different beast. And nicely understated cosmetics.
But I think you are on the right track getting a DAC at this point. After reading a bit about the May Level 3, I'd certainly give it a shot, provided a good return policy is in the offing.
As to bit rate, isn't how the bits are handled more important than the rate? I offer this as proof: https://www.soundguys.com/high-bitrate-audio-is-overkill-cd-quality-is-still-great-16518/
Even for those of us lucky enough to have top-notch hearing, we aren't dogs and there is only so much we can hear.
Please let us know what DAC you try. I'm quite curious now.
PS Gary- I only half agree with the post on audible limits. There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that normal humans can regularly hear above the accepted norms of 20Khz albeit in a small sample group.
Is't that one of the reasons why vinyl lovers champion vinyl over CD in that there is no real cut off in terms of frequency response of vinyl?
Which again puts me back to my conundrum of hi end CD 16bit/44k players with DAC's/transports dedicated to CD only vs a DAC. Besides the rave pro reviews of the May DAC, is a user review I saw somewhere who said it out performed his Accupahse DP-750. Hi praise indeed and you'd think would convince me....
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