HiFi Nightmare weekend!

Tesler

New member
Oct 2, 2007
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Came home on Friday night and decided to put some music on. 10mins in, my amp decided it had enough and lost the right hand channel. Ok my amp is 18years old (Pioneer A400) so I guess it had to pack up sooner rather than later. What has actually happened is the volume control needs stripping down and cleaning, I can do it myself, I've done it once before about 10 years ago but not got the time right now. So, last year I bought a Cambridge Audio 740a and a 640p phono stage, I didn't like the sound of this at first so I relegated it to the spare room. But now it is back in the HiFi rack connected to my B&W 606S2's bi-wired with QED XT silver anniversary cable mounted on Custom Design 300 stands. I'm going to run it in to see if the upper frequencies smooth out after a while. Next this happens, Saturday night, the CD player has decided to throw a wobbly and now Playsssss CD'sssss reallllllllyyyy Slowwwllllllllyyyyyyyyy and has started wowing really badly. OK this is an old CD player aswell, (Marantz CD63SE) this machine is about 12 years old and has never failed once untill now. So I've been having a bit of a HiFi nightmare this weekend, I never expected 2 units to fail at the same time. I suppose I'm going to have to buy a new CD player but funds are extremely tight at the moment. Can anyone recommend a good CD Player thats going to work well with the cambridge Audio amp and isn't going to cause me to re-mortgage my house to pay for? I listen to a wide range of music from Classical to Rock and somewhere in between. I like an open and punchy sound but want a lot of detail retrieval, I found the Marantz CD63SE sounded a little restrained with the CA 740a. Thanks Guys.
 
A

Anonymous

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can you be more specific with your budget? Your marantz was good in its day ( i thought about getting one myself after hearing it)but a good £250 player nowadays should be superior.
 

Tesler

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Oct 2, 2007
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Yes, about £250 was the region I was looking to spend, I was wondering if the Cambridge Audio 540c might do?
Has anyone got one f these, if so, what does it sound like, will t be a bit more forthright than my old marantz?
Will the Cambridge Audio 340 suffice or should I aim higher?
 

John Duncan

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Jan 8, 2008
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Well my Primare D20 arrived on Saturday and it's in the rack alongside my 640c v2 and I can't really tell much difference, so I'd get the 640 v2 if I were you.........
 

Tesler

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Oct 2, 2007
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[quote user="JohnDuncan"]Well my Primare D20 arrived on Saturday and it's in the rack alongside my 640c v2 and I can't really tell much difference, so I'd get the 640 v2 if I were you.........[/quote]

John,
I was thinking about the 640 v 2 but I've heard rumors that there is a V 3 in the pipe line, Do you, or anyone else for that matter, know if this is the case? If so, when do you think the V3 will be released, and should I hang on untill it's out?

Cheers.
 

John Duncan

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Jan 8, 2008
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I've heard that too, but tbh I don't know what they could do to it (except make it prettier) to improve it at the price. The arrival of the v3 might make v2s very cheap though.........
 

JoelSim

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Aug 24, 2007
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[quote user="JohnDuncan"]Well my Primare D20 arrived on Saturday and it's in the rack alongside my 640c v2 and I can't really tell much difference, so I'd get the 640 v2 if I were you.........[/quote]

Bit disappointed then?
 

John Duncan

Well-known member
Jan 8, 2008
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Well, I'll reserve judgement for the time being - I haven't done much A/B comparison yet (I think I've got a week before there'll be pressure to get rid of one or the other). It's still undoubtedly a great CD player, but I think if I'd paid 800 quid for it and then somebody played me the Cambridge, then I'd be disappointed. So far all it's proved to me is that either a) there isn't much difference between 250 quid players and 800 quid players, b) my system isn't as transparent as I thought, c) the Primare is a 250 quid player in an 800 quid box or d) cables *do* make a difference and I need to swap my Chord and my Nordost
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But when all is said and done, I now have a rather attractive Primare (even my wife went 'ooooo') for a TCE (Total Cost to Exchange) of about 50 quid, to no detriment that I've spotted. Maybe I need the matching amp now.......
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gregory

New member
Sep 9, 2007
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tragic 2 pieces of equipment at the same time, go for the cambrigde it will be cheap and will match your other gear. give the 640p time to burn in it's a cracker.
 

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