BEST CD PLAYER UNDER 300 POUNDS - USED DEALS INCULDED

[Thaiman]

[quote user="drummerman"]There's an argument that red book cd transports sound better than DVD-CD-ROM
drives [/quote]

Most of Cyrus fan will tell you that the CD 7Q is a classic disc spinner and generally prefer to the CD8. The only different between the two, as far as I know, is transports! CD7Q has a red book while the CD8 is a pc rom base.
I also prefer the sound of CD7Q to the CD8.

 

[drummerman]

I've heard that though I can only say I have listened to good and slightly less good examples of both. I believe the implementation of DAC/Output stage is far more important than the transport used though like I said, I might be wrong.

 

[Anonymous]

The DAC is the deciding factor but you may hear differences between transports because they are a very old fashioned read mech now. They read in real time by forward error correction and interpolation, which means if they don't get everything they need they first guess and second mute until they can read again. Depending on the condition of the mech and the player, this will vary slightly and you may be able to hear it.

Far better to use a computer Hard Disc where you can be sure it will play the same every time. The machine reads the CD and stores the information using a checksum, when you play the file, it doesn't read in real time, instead it keeps reading until the checksum says all the noughts and ones are there, if they aren't, it won't play. Every time the file plays it will be the same.

Ash

 

[Thaiman]

Ashley,
Do AVI plan to introduce a Harddrive source? btw... I had the AVI 2000m range for a while (cd - pre- mono blocks), a bit bright but play rock music very well....I prefer the later LAB series though.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Ashley James"]The DAC is the deciding factor but you may hear differences between transports because they are a very old fashioned read mech now. They read in real time by forward error correction and interpolation, which means if they don't get everything they need they first guess and second mute until they can read again. Depending on the condition of the mech and the player, this will vary slightly and you may be able to hear it. Far better to use a computer Hard Disc where you can be sure it will play the same every time. The machine reads the CD and stores the information using a checksum, when you play the file, it doesn't read in real time, instead it keeps reading until the checksum says all the noughts and ones are there, if they aren't, it won't play. Every time the file plays it will be the same. Ash[/quote]I see what you mean, especially since I'm a harddisk user myself. The dac I currently have compares to 70/80% of the sound of an arcam cd192.I feel one thing is missing though in the whole discussion of transports and dacs. Jitter! I've made bitperfect copies of music to different cd-r which all sounded differently. Every cd-r gave it's own flavour to the music. The only explanation I have for that is the amount (and kind) of jitter every part introduces.I read quite an interesting article on the web about a test wherein even a budget phillips cd-player gave a bit perfect result but in practice did sound very much worse to an more upmarked example. http://www.jitter.de/english/engc_navfr.html Ashley, I wonder what your view on the effect of jitter is on sound in general and especially with computers in mind- since computers are not considered to be providing an ideal environment with all the other processes going on whilst we play our music?

 

[Anonymous]

I don't think it's possible for a listener to decide what is spoiling the sound of a DAC, all he can say is that it does or doesn't sound acceptable.

I'm no expert although I am surrounded by them and they tell me that Jitter isn't an issue with CD players and can be only at the A to D and D to A stage of a system where the HD/CD and the DAC are in separate boxes, however most modern DACs are sold as having a high immunity to jitter and we've compared the Evaluation Boards that Manufacturers provide to help companies like us to design our own properly. On the most revealing systems we find it almost impossible to tell them apart, they all sound very good indeed and almost identical, which isn't surprising considering that they are all 24 bit devices and exceed the 16 CD spec by quite a margin.

What this means is that all digital sources, given a good DAC, should sound virtually identical, but they don't and the reason is not the DAC's but their implementation. They may have a bad layout, who knows, they are susceptible to RFI and out of band hash as are pre and power amps, which means that not only must the DAC be right, but the rest of the kit as well.

When we still made a CD player I submitted one for review to What hi fi and they gave it four stars because it was "extremely detailed and sweet sound but laid back and lacking the attack and excitement of others in the group". In fact ours sounded exactly like the Evaluation Boards supplied by the DAC manufacturers and the others had more distortion. I was livid and now warn people not to put too much faith in reviews.

In short I'd forget jitter and concentrate on finding a good sound and to that end you might be interested in an article on our website which is design to help you deal with the pitfalls inevitable in subjective assessment of sound quality.
http://www.avihifi.com/assessinghifi.html

Ashley

 

[Anonymous]

Roksan Kandy under 300 quid on ebay.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Ashley James"]When we still made a CD player I submitted one for review to What hi fi and they
gave it four stars because it was "extremely detailed and sweet sound but laid
back and lacking the attack and excitement of others in the group". In fact ours
sounded exactly like the Evaluation Boards supplied by the DAC manufacturers and
the others had more distortion.[/quote]Funny. In comparing the sound from my cd-player and a harddisk both running through the same dac, I also found at first that cd sound had more "attack". The fact that listening to cd got me tired of listening faster than when playing music from harddisk, made me rethink my conclusions. Most probably the attack I experienced was a sharp/edgy treble, which I had grown used to over many many years of cd use...