CD player short list, how much have they improved over last 8 years

[matengawhat]

Looking to replace a mf xray v8 DAC and CD player, think they cost £1800 8 years ago, how much would I need to spend to get an improvement and where should I start?
Would like the CD player to have dac inputs for my pioneer n50a.

 

[muljao]

Do you mean you want to plug your CD player into your pioneer with a digital cable?

If that is the case any reasonable CD player with a digital out should sound how the pioneer dac makes it sound, so all you need is a good CD player with a digital out.

I'm not overly familiar but if you want a CD player with a built in dac to plug on the streamer, that's a different story

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_10154799912981015]

I think you get much more for your cash, even british company's get them built in china, sad but you get a lot more

Examply my Arcam CD 73 failed last year, cash was tight i bought a NAD C315bee for £200 it was a budget player, it sounded as good or better than the arcam

 

[nopiano]

As a breed i dont think they've improved at all. As suggested above, now so many are made in PRC they may be better value, or cheaper for a given performance.

I've never tried it, but for a given budget, a more modest transport, or a cd player with digital out (pretty much every cd player made, in other words), into a fancy DAC might be worth hearing. Chord seem to be the current DAC favourites, though the Hugo TT is really what you need, and that's pricy. Vital to compare, however.

Would you consider keeping your player and getting a super DAC for both Pioneer and the MF?

 

[matengawhat]

Part of the reason for looking is I think the laser has just died in the CD player, won't read any discs so might just pick up a transport and keep dac for now but just thought perfect opportunity to look at something new.

I have an audiolab 8200 sitting around doing nothing so also thought about dropping that in for a bit, also has dac inputs for the Pioneer. Was from my headphone amp setup that stripped out

 

[drummerman]

DAC's have technically moved forward quite a bit, just look at ESS.

Whether you like the result is another thing and the engineering around it ie. Output stage, PSU and filtering have as much if not more to do with the end result.

The above mentioned Sabre DAC's are on paper capable of superb results yet hifi companies often deliberately engineer a house sound and thus compromising the DAC' inherent capabilities or, sometimes just manage to implement it badly.

I have two cyrus cd players and probably prefer the older one for musicality whilst the later one is better at the HiFi thing.

 

[NSA_watch_my_toilet]

Looking to replace a mf xray v8 DAC and CD player, think they cost £1800 8 years ago, how much would I need to spend to get an improvement and where should I start? Would like the CD player to have dac inputs for my pioneer n50a.

CD Players didn't improved since. At the start of the cd era, the DAC chips could have been a bit slow. But this is not the case since long time anymore.

At the other side, the hifi mafia went crazy and started to ask more and more for their more and more chinese cd players. Today, for a CD Player that had a market price of 1'800£ 8 years ago, will probably be priced between 3 to 6k £. And now, it will nearly be impossible to find some quality cd transports (even if it has no effect on sound quality, it has an effect on reliability).

Spare your money my friend.

 

[jonathanRD]

Part of the reason for looking is I think the laser has just died in the CD player, won't read any discs so might just pick up a transport and keep dac for now but just thought perfect opportunity to look at something new.

I have an audiolab 8200 sitting around doing nothing so also thought about dropping that in for a bit, also has dac inputs for the Pioneer. Was from my headphone amp setup that stripped out

Some options - Rega Saturn-r and the Creek Evolution 100CD, both CD players and DAC's combined. The Evolution can also act as a pre-amp.

 

[manix]

Looking to replace a mf xray v8 DAC and CD player, think they cost £1800 8 years ago, how much would I need to spend to get an improvement and where should I start? Would like the CD player to have dac inputs for my pioneer n50a.

CD Players didn't improved since. At the start of the cd era, the DAC chips could have been a bit slow. But this is not the case since long time anymore.

At the other side, the hifi mafia went crazy and started to ask more and more for their more and more chinese cd players. Today, for a CD Player that had a market price of 1'800£ 8 years ago, will probably be priced between 3 to 6k £. And now, it will nearly be impossible to find some quality cd transports (even if it has no effect on sound quality, it has an effect on reliability).

Spare your money my friend.

Interesting post wonder if you have any technical data to back this up.

Only thing I can say is probably true is that it's hard to find a quality CD transport compared with old machines though there is little wrong with a quality SACD transport.

 

[manix]

Part of the reason for looking is I think the laser has just died in the CD player, won't read any discs so might just pick up a transport and keep dac for now but just thought perfect opportunity to look at something new.

I have an audiolab 8200 sitting around doing nothing so also thought about dropping that in for a bit, also has dac inputs for the Pioneer. Was from my headphone amp setup that stripped out

You do realise that it will be faily cheap to fix this machine by a half competent repairer. Ring up a local hi-fi shop they will probably have a guy who comes round every couple of weeks to pick up batches of equipement to fix. We are talking £100 tops.

 

[Mammy Nun]

They haven't improved at all......

 

[muljao]

They haven't improved at all......

I think this may be to general a statement. We can buy a good cd player now for 200 pounds. You could buy a good cd player in 1995 for 200 pounds. Are they as good as each other, I'd guess and say the same, but 200 pounds now is probably 1/3rd of whats considered a reasonable weeks wages, 20 years ago it was probably more than half.

It would stand to reason we now get more for our money, so price vs performance I would think there is a rather good improvement.

The thing now is that there are probably less higher end cd players. Before you'd buy a budget one at 150 pounds, a better one at 300, all the way up to stupid money. Now I think the budget ones start at 200 pounds but there are very few before we go very high end. It is probably more thought now that a good DAC and transport is the best way to go. There are those who will say if you spend 10 grand ona CD player, the majority of the money is better spent on the DAC

I read here one time that a 3000 pound cd player was disassembled only to find a transport that could be bought for 15 pounds on ebay, I don't know if this is true as I didn't see the article

 

[Mammy Nun]

BUY A £50000 WADIA.

BUY A £50 NAD.

NO FUKIN DIFFERENCE.

 

[Electro]

BUY A £50000 WADIA.

BUY A £50 NAD.

NO FUKIN DIFFERENCE.

If you're listening to this then even a £50 Nad is far too expensive .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEddZPvaLB8

 

[Mammy Nun]

Spot on Brother Electro..........Its all a fukin con.

FINEST MUSICAL IN THE WORLD......NO LESS...!!!!!!