How will Arcam CD72 compare with a BluRay player with Dacmagic

cassper

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I have some decisions to make so I am looking for an advice. At the moment I am using Arcam CD72 for CDs and WD TV Live with Beresford Caiman for digital files. Caiman is soon going to my study to be used only for PC & headphones, Dacmagic is on its way to me to replace it in the hifi system. The question I have now is - if I buy some top of range BluRay player (request of my missus) and use it as a transport to spin CDs and feed PCM to the Dacmagic, how will it compare with the Arcam? Will I need to keep the CD player or will the Bluray&Dacmagic combo be sufficient and comparable? Is the difference in sound quality still going to justify a standalone CD player?
 

John Duncan

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Depends on the Bluray player. I've found the Cambridge 751BD a very good CD player indeed, and it kind of has a DACMagic built in. I'd certainly be comfortable with having it alone in place of a 400 quid standalone player (quite aside from the fact that it does SACD and DVD-A as well).
 

cassper

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John Duncan said:
Depends on the Bluray player. I've found the Cambridge 751BD a very good CD player indeed, and it kind of has a DACMagic built in. I'd certainly be comfortable with having it alone in place of a 400 quid standalone player (quite aside from the fact that it does SACD and DVD-A as well).

I have my eyes on this one, I can have it for some 110EUR http://www.whathifi.com/review/panasonic-dmp-bdt310 . It does not do SACD and DVD audio, but I only need something to play my large collection of standard CDs. That is why I am curious if this combined with dacmagic will sound nearly as good as CD72.
 

John Duncan

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OK, so my suggestion is a leeedle bit over budget :-D

In that case difficult to say because I don't have experience of the Panasonic; the only experiment I've done was putting a very cheap DVD player into a DACMagic, which was not as good as a dedicated CD player.

However, at 110 euros the panasonic has got to be worth a punt - if it's as good as the CD72 (or near as dammit) when plugged into the DM then you have your answer. Or do you need to get rid of the CD72 before you can spring for the BD player?
 

6th.replicant

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cassper said:
...That is why I am curious if this combined with dacmagic will sound nearly as good as CD72.

Not saying it will be 'good' or 'bad' per se, but you might find the Cambridge DACmagic very bright-sounding and lacking bass compared to your CD72...

A demo is essential, IMHO.
 

cassper

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6th.replicant said:
cassper said:
...That is why I am curious if this combined with dacmagic will sound nearly as good as CD72.

Not saying it will be 'good' or 'bad' per se, but you might find the Cambridge DACmagic very bright-sounding and lacking bass compared to your CD72...

A demo is essential, IMHO.

I will give it a good consideration before deciding what to do. I hope that NAD C355 will tame the brightness a little bit. Anyway, for the digital formats I will be using dacmagic (if it is too bad I can still go back to Beresford Caiman) and if I will have to keep CD72, then so be it. In that case I am looking forward to confusion in my missus' eyes:) Two new boxes, one more remote controller:)
 
A

Anonymous

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My personal feeling is, unless the player has "serious" jitter issues, it will be as good as the DAC magic. I have not been able to discern any difference between any of my digital sources, via external DAC, or into my ADM9T's(with built in DAC). I've even tried a £40 Tesco special, and apart from the horrid interface, it sounded exactly the same as my Squeezebox, PC, Arcam CD7SE (old I know :) ) and PS3.

The Tesco special and Squeezebox (duet) both sound horrid from their respective analogue outs.
 
cassper said:
I have some decisions to make so I am looking for an advice. At the moment I am using Arcam CD72 for CDs and WD TV Live with Beresford Caiman for digital files. Caiman is soon going to my study to be used only for PC & headphones, Dacmagic is on its way to me to replace it in the hifi system. The question I have now is - if I buy some top of range BluRay player (request of my missus) and use it as a transport to spin CDs and feed PCM to the Dacmagic, how will it compare with the Arcam? Will I need to keep the CD player or will the Bluray&Dacmagic combo be sufficient and comparable? Is the difference in sound quality still going to justify a standalone CD player?

Couple of points: I'm currently running my DacMagic and using the CD73T as transport. The main difference is the DacMagic is slightly more forward in tonal balance.

Point two: A few months ago I visited Sevenoaks and listened to MAs new GX range. The initial intention was to talk DACs, but one thing led to another etc etc etc. Aaaaaanyway, I spied Arcams Bluray at a discounted price and he spoke in length about the pros and cons of playing CDs through a bluray. He concluded that even a £1,000 bluray would struggle to match Arcam CD73.

I would suggest a dem is essential to see whether this bod was right about his theory of Bluray Vs budget CDP.
 

cassper

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plastic penguin said:
cassper said:
I have some decisions to make so I am looking for an advice. At the moment I am using Arcam CD72 for CDs and WD TV Live with Beresford Caiman for digital files. Caiman is soon going to my study to be used only for PC & headphones, Dacmagic is on its way to me to replace it in the hifi system. The question I have now is - if I buy some top of range BluRay player (request of my missus) and use it as a transport to spin CDs and feed PCM to the Dacmagic, how will it compare with the Arcam? Will I need to keep the CD player or will the Bluray&Dacmagic combo be sufficient and comparable? Is the difference in sound quality still going to justify a standalone CD player?

Couple of points: I'm currently running my DacMagic and using the CD73T as transport. The main difference is the DacMagic is slightly more forward in tonal balance.

Point two: A few months ago I visited Sevenoaks and listened to MAs new GX range. The initial intention was to talk DACs, but one thing led to another etc etc etc. Aaaaaanyway, I spied Arcams Bluray at a discounted price and he spoke in length about the pros and cons of playing CDs through a bluray. He concluded that even a £1,000 bluray would struggle to match Arcam CD73.

I would suggest a dem is essential to see whether this bod was right about his theory of Bluray Vs budget CDP.

If I understand correctly - even a £1000 BluRay would struggle to match CD73T purely as a transport?? Because I am not interested in the analog output of the BluRay at all. My only question is if BluRay+Dacmagic would be competitive against CD72T - that means they would have to be very very good together.
 
cassper said:
plastic penguin said:
cassper said:
I have some decisions to make so I am looking for an advice. At the moment I am using Arcam CD72 for CDs and WD TV Live with Beresford Caiman for digital files. Caiman is soon going to my study to be used only for PC & headphones, Dacmagic is on its way to me to replace it in the hifi system. The question I have now is - if I buy some top of range BluRay player (request of my missus) and use it as a transport to spin CDs and feed PCM to the Dacmagic, how will it compare with the Arcam? Will I need to keep the CD player or will the Bluray&Dacmagic combo be sufficient and comparable? Is the difference in sound quality still going to justify a standalone CD player?

Couple of points: I'm currently running my DacMagic and using the CD73T as transport. The main difference is the DacMagic is slightly more forward in tonal balance.

Point two: A few months ago I visited Sevenoaks and listened to MAs new GX range. The initial intention was to talk DACs, but one thing led to another etc etc etc. Aaaaaanyway, I spied Arcams Bluray at a discounted price and he spoke in length about the pros and cons of playing CDs through a bluray. He concluded that even a £1,000 bluray would struggle to match Arcam CD73.

I would suggest a dem is essential to see whether this bod was right about his theory of Bluray Vs budget CDP.

If I understand correctly - even a £1000 BluRay would struggle to match CD73T purely as a transport?? Because I am not interested in the analog output of the BluRay at all. My only question is if BluRay+Dacmagic would be competitive against CD72T - that means they would have to be very very good together.

I've not heard the 73T and a Bluray side-by-side, just going on the advice of a recognised dealer, hence why I say a dem is essential. But just to clarify: Arcam CD73 (as a CDP, not transport) and a £1,000-ish Bluray, and the latter will struggle as a cd playback machine to match the budget Arcam.
 

cassper

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plastic penguin said:
cassper said:
If I understand correctly - even a £1000 BluRay would struggle to match CD73T purely as a transport?? Because I am not interested in the analog output of the BluRay at all. My only question is if BluRay+Dacmagic would be competitive against CD72T - that means they would have to be very very good together.

I've not heard the 73T and a Bluray side-by-side, just going on the advice of a recognised dealer, hence why I say a dem is essential. But just to clarify: Arcam CD73 (as a CDP, not transport) and a £1,000-ish Bluray, and the latter will struggle as a cd playback machine to match the budget Arcam.

I think we have a little misunderstanding here. I never intended to use the bluray player as a cd playback machine. It was always going to be just a transport for the external dac. Basically we can narrow down the question to 'Is the sound I get out of Dacmagic going to be comparable with CD72?'..
 

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