IVE TESTED THE NAIM NAIT 5I , KANDY LIII , AND THE ARCAM A18

[admin_exported]

so here it is.... the naim kit with the matching cd player was very very amazing but if your cd collection is like mine with lots of less than good recordings of grimey hiphop then its to true for it really but it is amazing sounding is beautiful .......then i tested the kandy mk 3 kit cd and amp and that was really not that impressive at all to my ears very flat at low levels .........but then i tested the a18 arcam with the matching cd player and for the price it is outstanding with bass and treble controls its just perfect for my not so brilliant recordings so this is my choice for the amp...................but my question is is it really worth spending another 500 quid on the matching cd player ? im going to try some lesser cd players such as technics or a marantz cd6002 what do the sound boffs think this will be like ??? curious to hear some opinions xxxxxxxxxx

 

[d_a_n1979]

IMO yes; go for as good as a CD player that you can afford!

If you feel that its still too procey; you could always look out for a decent Arcam CD92/CD192 CDP on eBay or hifi shops online. Both are very VERY good CD players and obviously gel with Arcam amps.

What speakers have you been demo'ing?

 

[Anonymous]

I have just bought an Arcam DV135 DVD player (see What Hi-Fi review) to use as my main CD player, I've hooked it up to my Roksan Caspian Integrated and it sounds tremendous even straight from the box and will get better once it runs in. It cost me £300 online from Superfi and at that price is an absolute steal and I would imagine it would be perfect for your Arcam A18 amp.

 

[Anonymous]

ive got the b&w's 684's and they are so so nice amazing sound from just a crapy old sony av receiver lol so cant wait to get them running the arcam and whatever cd player i get i swear by b&w's there amazing well i thought i would buy a not so expensive player use it for a while then demo at home the matching arcam cd player which should give me a good clear indication whether its worth spending the xtra on a good cd player , thanks for your reply

 

[Anonymous]

If you can, buy a good CDP.

I used to own a Creek Evo, then I changed it to an Arcam CD73. Both are great players for the money, and they sound very different from each other.

For money reasons I had to sell the Arcam, and tried CA 340 and 640V2, which I didn't like for my system. I ended up buying a used NAD521 BEE, which suits more my personal tastes. The NAD is OK, but it is miles away in performance from the Arcam, and I really miss the CD73. It's amazing how important the source is. You only realize this when you make a source "down-grade"!

If you can buy a used CD192, I'm sure it will be far superior than the CD17.

 

[Anonymous]

yeah il have to give it some thought because the matching cd player for the a18 is the cd17 and is 500Q so its quite expensive but i demo'd it and it sounded sooo good so guess il just have to wait and see what interconnecters should i use was thinking chord chorus or the one below cant remember the name but one was 120 and the other was 60 would it make much difference ?

 

[Anonymous]

Or you could transfer your music to a HDD and then spend £5-600 on a DAC which would pummel mentioned CD players into the pile.

 

[Anonymous]

thanks for that very interesting so how much is the cd192 or how much will a used one be roughly ??? i never really thought the source was very important guess im wrong !!!

 

[Anonymous]

TELL ME MORE .... so is that basically a cd player with a hard disk ???? that rips the music off ?? which make and model should i look at etc ???? saw the naim one in audio t the other day touch screen 400gb hard disk god it was nice but it was nearly 5k !!!!!!!!!!

 

[Anonymous]

Like this but a gadgillion times better.

 

[Anonymous]

so i have to have it linked to my pc ????? at all times ?/

 

[Anonymous]

tommy2shoes:so i have to have it linked to my pc ????? at all times ?/

ÿ

A decent DAC will equally make a decent budget CD or DVD player sound great too. So you don't have to go the HDD route. My PS3 sounds fantastic attached to my DAC. ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

Wired or wireless, but yeh.

 

[Anonymous]

pudley:
A decent DAC will equally make a decent budget CD or DVD player sound great too. So you don't have to go the HDD route. My PS3 sounds fantastic attached to my DAC. ÿ

Or that...ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

what are these things all about .............New Version MHZS CD88F Hi-End AUDIOPHILE Tube CD Player, Shanling CD S100SE High End Vacuum Tube HDCD CD Player are these any good ???

 

[Anonymous]

I don't know anything about them but they look like cheap and nasty Chinese guff.

 

[Anonymous]

Most British brands manufacture in China anyway; at least their entry-level series.

You can find good and not so good Chinese brands. Shanling is one of the most respected. They use good quality parts (you can see the hefty transformer, Nichicon capacitors, and the board is RoHS compliant). Some top of the line (and quite expensive) players from Shanling have been favorably reviewed on WHF and HFC.

I have a friend who owns a Shanling CDP (I think the model is CD-T80, or something...GBP 600 approximately). I remember he had to upgrade the stock Chinese tubes for some NOS, and also changed the opamps for better ones. After doing this he was satisfied with the sound. Build quality is good, lots of steel and Aluminium, but the execution is far from impecable (the drawer is noisy, the internal layout isn't very neat, etc.).

I think it's safer to buy a traditional British brand; but sometimes these Chinese brands, if you can get a good deal on them, and tweak them a bit, can be a good value.

Regards,

Rodrigo

 

[Anonymous]

Tannoyite:
Most British brands manufacture in China anyway; at least their entry-level series.ÿ

ÿ

Yes but there is a huge difference between a British firm whose products are built in China and a Chinese firm whose products are built in China.

Interesting about Shanling though, I thought the build on that one looked shoddy TBH, although it is only a small photo.

 

[Anonymous]

Octopo:[
Yes but there is a huge difference between a British firm whose products are built in China and a Chinese firm whose products are built in China.

I agree with you. I just wanted to point out that maybe we shouldn't despise Chinese products. After all, China is becoming the world's factory! Chinese can make very good, not so good, and crappy stuff. It all depends on what you ask them to do.

If British products manufactured in China are good, it's not only because the engineering is done in the UK, but also because they carefully choose which Chinese factory will manufacture their products. The Chinese actually have the technology and facilities to manufacture impeccable high-end products. Actually, I've seen photos of the GP Acoustics factory in China (they own KEF and Musical Fidelity, and manufacture Arcam, among other stuff). If you look at the pictures without knowing it's a Chinese factory, you would think it's in Germany!

That Shanling CDP doesn't seem too well executed at first glance. It may be an entry level model. But I have seen one of the high end models (one which has the tubes at sight, and has a top loading transport), and its build quality was excellent; its weight was about 15 kilos!

Regards,

Rodrigo

 

[Andrew Everard]

tommy2shoes:what are these things all about .............New Version MHZS CD88F Hi-End AUDIOPHILE Tube CD Player, Shanling CD S100SE High End Vacuum Tube HDCD CD Player are these any good ???

Chinese-made players, being sold by a vendor in Hong Kong. I've tested some Shanling equipment and it's been rather good, never heard of MZHS though I think i saw that player - but didn't hear it - at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair last week.

I'd need a lot of persuading to take a punt on an unknown player, bought unheard on E-Bay, from a seller 6000-odd miles away.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Octopo:I don't know anything about them but they look like cheap and nasty Chinese guff.

A new broom for your sweeping generalisation, sir?

 

[PJPro]

tommy2shoes:what are these things all about .............New Version MHZS CD88F Hi-End AUDIOPHILE Tube CD Player, Shanling CD S100SE High End Vacuum Tube HDCD CD Player are these any good ???
I think you might be wise to avoid those CDPs.

 

[Anonymous]

I bought the Shanling s100se because I have a lot of discs that are encoded with hdcd (Grateful Dead, Olu Dara, Roxy Music, Neil Young). I made the decision after researching the fact that the chassis is basically the same as a Music Hall cd25 which got stellar reviews on performance and build. This holds true for the s100se but it has a completely different cb and output stage. I upgraded the output tube to a rca usa gray plate and replaced the opa6402 opamps with lm4562s. I find the build and the sound to be very good and I am quite satisfied with the purchase and the mod. I will admit that the hdcd decoding was an important factor in making my purchase, and thus inspired my purchase with minimal direct feedback on quality. Given this uncertainty, I am very please with my purchase and the performance of the modded unit!

 

[Anonymous]

tommy2shoes:
but if your cd collection is like mine with lots of less than good recordings of grimey hiphop then its to true for it

I disagree with that comment, I listen to lots of different types of music with hiphop and rnb being part of my main collection. Most of the recordings are superb - Kayne West thumps through the speakers with amazing ability. Put a disc in with a good CD player that has a very good DAC (internally or externally) and you get some amazing results.

Id be interested to know which CDs in your collection arent that great....... as it may just be a weak link in your system rather than the recordings.....

Just a thought anyway

 

[Anonymous]

The Arcam CD17 sounds better than it's price tag suggests. It has the new Wolfson 8741 DAC chip which gets more detail and emotion out of the music than the 8740 of previous generation players. Some of the external DACs on the market use the 8740 so won't sound as good. I have done a direct A-B comparison with an Arcam CD192 and I thought the CD17 was so much better, it was truly suprising. I was not the only person, it was obvious to all present. I challenge anyone who says otherwise to prove that they have heard both within seconds of each other with the same amp, speakers and cables.

The CD17 is not really an entry-level machine, it just happens that (given the performance) it can be sold at such a bargain price!