Dedicated CD vs Universal Player

[Anonymous]

I am now completely confused. I listened to the same pieces of music through both the DV7600 and the laptop very carefully. As a check I asked my eldest boy to listen and express a preference.

My opinion is that they are both the same in terms of sound quality. My sons opinion is that the laptop is best because 'when you play cello you can hear slight scratching as you play it: you can hear that through the laptop but not through the CD player'. I should mention he plays cello to a very high standard: we were listening to the Bach prelude piece.

This means that either the DV7600 is extraordinarily bad as a CD player (in which case I desperately need a DAC) or the laptop is extraordinarily good.

Hmmmm....

 

[John Duncan]

In which case you've just saved yourself some money. I would expect the DV7600 to be quite a reasonable CD player, and buying a standalone CD player would give you only a small incremental improvement, unless you spent quite a bit of money. I do think that if you bought a quality DAC, and fed it with lossless files from your laptop, and if you listened very carefully, you'd find that the Laptop/DAC combination would beat a CD or musically inclined (as the Marantz is) DVD player. It's very easy to be seduced by tales of extraordinary improvement by buying this or that, but you say above "My opinion is that they are both the same in terms of sound quality". There might be your answer.

Just my opinion (albeit a little off-brand).

On the other hand, some time spent at a good hifi dealer with your amp, your laptop and your DVD player might prove to you that there *are* benefits to be had from 'buying this or that' - and I've no doubt that a two grand amp could make you go 'ooo' - in which case, you might have to sell your son's cello

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the help John.

Sale of the cello would fund a Chord 64 DAC and the rest of the system to go with it (and change) but you have to get your priorities right. The highest fidelity music I listen to is my son playing the cello...I reckon it would give even your system a run for it's money

I've decided to take a risk and buy a Dacmagic and see how it goes. I'll report back in a few weeks when I can give a sensible report.

Thanks to all...

 

[Anonymous]

spot on its only hifi playing an instrument leaves hifi for dead

 

[John Duncan]

Just so's you know, I'd sell all my hifi before I sold my piano or guitars...

 

[Anonymous]

Interim Update:

I'd been having the odd problem with crackling through the speakers which got a lot worse just after my last post. Occasionally it could be fixed by switching to another source and then back again.

Anyway, I took it up to JSS Audio in York who fixed it. Not only have they fixed the problem but the whole system sounds miles better since I got the amp back (yesterday). They say they cleaned it all oput and sorted cracked solder or somesuch. Now I can hear a big difference between a track played from the laptop and a track played from the Marantz DV7600.

Strangely though, if I burn the track to DVD at 320bps and play the DVD through the DV7600 the sound is at least as good as playing the original CD.

I'm still going to get a DAC but my system is much more 'musical' since I got the amp back from JSS yesterday and I'm not nearly as dissatisified with the sound.

Perhaps the contacts had been getting dirty over the years and because it happened so slowly I never really noticed. Perhaps this is an argument for updating your equipment regularly!

I'll get back regarding the DAC when I finally source one although its not such a big issue now.