CD sound quality on Blu-Ray players?

[admin_exported]

Hello,

I have an old Arcam DV88 at the moment, which I use for CD & DVD. The DV88 seems to be making a lot more noise lately, got a quote of £192+vat for a service from Arcam. So, I am tempted to replace it with a Blu-ray player. Don't have much to spend though, so how does the CD sound quality from say the Sony BDPS350 compare with that from the DV88?

Put another way, what Blu-ray players would play CDs to the same or better standard as the DV88?

Thanks!

Andy

 

[drummerman]

I can't comment on Sony's BR products but a Pioneer BDP-51, for example, is a decent cd player. It depends on the rest of your system but unless you have a fairly expensive one I'd say todays better BR players do a fine job and you probably won't be dissappointed. It's not high-end but you can always add a separate DAC if you really feel the need to.

 

[Anonymous]

A dedicated cd player will always be better for music.

 

[Anonymous]

I use the S350 into CA's DacMagic and I have to say that it sounds 'fine' to my ears. I do not have any reference point to compare it with as I use to have an Apple touch previously, never used some 'expensive' CD player with my amp.

 

[Sorreltiger]

When I set up my AV system, I kept my Arcam CD72, not the last word, but a decent player in its day. I have it connected by analogue. Out of curiosity, I have also tried my BDP-S350. Although the Arcam is better, there really isn't a huge difference. However, I still use the CD player as it's much more convenient. The Sony doesn't do a bad job and you could live with it. The amp might be more of a limiting factor.

 

[Anonymous]

Well I have not heard either, but I think Blu-Ray players don't do that good of a job! It depends on the rest of your system, if the rest of your system is full of mediocre speakers, then it's fine, but with high-end speakers, you will notice the difference!

 

[Anonymous]

Wow, well thanks everyone for the quick replies, this is a very active forum! I should have mentioned the rest of the system, which is an Arcam AV38 (stereo) amp and Quad 11L speakers, which I will be keeping. I will just listen to CDs via the amp & speakers, and the BR via the TV (Panasonic TXL37S10) or possibly sometimes in stereo also via the amp/spkrs.

So Sorreltiger, you say the CD player is more convenient - in terms of loading time do you mean? How noisy is it when playing CDs (or anything)?

momo72 - did you try the S350 without the DacMagic (I assume the S350 does have analogue stereo out!)? What did you think of it?

 

[Sorreltiger]

Yes, the main factor is loading time. As I already had the CD player (which wouldn't be worth a great deal second-hand) I decided to go with that. It does sound better.

 

[strobo]

I found an improvement in stereo sound quality from my CD player to the HC receiver by using the front left/right EXT.IN (5.1/SACD) inputs instead of the designated CD inputs.

I wonder if the same could be said of a BluRay player, possibly helping it gain some ground back on a dedicated CD player. Possibly even more so if it has the 5.1 outputs...??? Has anybody tried this with a BluRay player.