Musical road block and detour on 5.1 AV upgrade path

[tlspuds]

Old hifi: Marantz KI Signature CD & Amp with a pair of Mission 752 Freedoms.

AV kit: Sony KDL-40W4000 TV, Sky HD and a PS3.

New AV kit: Denon AVR-2310, Dali Lektor 6 Speakers & Dali Ikon Vokal 1 Centre (all new for £875 btw)

To get (in order) when funds permit : Rear Speakers, new Bluray (for music as well) and eventually a Sub

The above upgrade path was nice and clear in my head until the new floorstanders arrived and I installed them. As you do - I started tinkering with them, focusing on music to both test and start to run them in. While enjoying the new sound emmensly it dawned on me that I was listening via my (currently up for auction!) KI signature CD player. Queue playing a CD via the PS3 to see if I can 'get by' and the sound is of course Brutal!

So now I have a choice:

1. Pull my CD from the auction (having already commited to my Mrs to selling my old hifi kit to offset the cost of the new) and use the PS3 for movies only.

2. Park music listening and prioritise getting a 'musical' Blu Ray player by the end of the year, letting the CD player go now as promised.

The PS3 is definately staying for gaming and I only have space for the two boxes - so its the current CD player & PS3 combo or a new Blu Ray and the PS3.

To make the decision I'd appreciatte you sharing your own experiences of listening to music via modern Blu Ray players using the 2 Channel mode of similar AV set ups. Can current Blu Ray players up to £400 get 'close enough' to the sound quality of a 'decent' CD player?

 

[professorhat]

I don't think you'll find any Blu-Ray player at that price will rival your Marantz KI player I'm afraid (as an owner of one myself). The only thing you could try is ripping one of your CDs in WAV format to the PS3's hard drive and try replaying direct from the hard disk. It improves things significantly (in my opinion) and see if you can get by with that, though I think it'll still be a way off your KI. If you can live with the compromise though, you could then upgrade the PS3 hard drive so it can fit all your ripped CDs on this and then play direct from there (though this does depend on how many CDs you have!).

If this doesn't work for you, I'd personally stick with the PS3 for Blu-Ray playback and keep the Marantz for CD playback. The PS3 is a good Blu-Ray player and, though you can definitely improve Blu-Ray playback with a dedicated player, it sounds to me you'd be compromising too much on your music playback than you would be happy with.

Of course, the very best thing to do would be to audition some Blu-Ray players around the £400 mark purely for music playback and see what you think (maybe taking your Marantz CD player along before it goes to compare). The Cambridge Audio 650BD would be a good place to start as well as the Marantz BD5004.

 

[kinda]

Hello,

Just wondering are you using the stereo outputs of the PS3? If so wondered if you'd get better CD performace by feeding the digital dignal to the Denon, and using its DAC?

I'd expect the Denon DACs to be better than the PS3's so it might be worth a try to see if it improves things, since you seem happy with the actual musical amplification of the Denon when fed by the CD player.

 

[Chewy]

Quite a dilemma!

I'm no expert on dedicated stereo listening equipment, but I have read time and time again that even a cheap dedicated cd player and stereo amp, outclasses the average home cinema amp and movie disc spinner for music playback.

That said, I personally use my blu-ray player and amp to listen to music, and I think it is fantastic, but music is secondary to me, with home cinema and movie soundtracks being the priority.

I would say, given that you are sufficiently into your music to buy the stereo kit in the first place, you will miss them when they are gone, and you won't achieve the same stereo sound quality (I suspect) without spending a lot more than £400 (like adding a '1' in front of the '4') on a blu-ray disc spinner.

Just tell the wife no one bid for your CD player in the auction, so you've got to keep it!

 

[tlspuds]

professorhat:
I don't think you'll find any Blu-Ray player at that price will rival your Marantz KI player I'm afraid (as an owner of one myself). The only thing you could try is ripping one of your CDs in WAV format to the PS3's hard drive and try replaying direct from the hard disk. It improves things significantly (in my opinion) and see if you can get by with that, though I think it'll still be a way off your KI.

From what I've tried your spot on with regards to playing digital tracks from the hard disk being better than a CD from the PS3. Btw I simply use a HDMI connection for the PS3.

I've just tried the same track from the PS3 Hard Drive vs Marantz CD player. You guessed it - night and day. These new speakers, using the Pure Direct mode of the Denon 2310, with the Marantz KI source has really thrown a spanner in the works of my plans.

As I feel right now I'm going to have to keep the CD player unless some other members here have experience of an affordable Blu Ray Player Music solution that can bridge the music gap.

Thanks to all for the input.

 

[kinda]

Maybe digital optical or coax might help. I think HDMI is well known for introducing a lot of audio jitter.