My old CD player sounds better!!!

[cse]

I had started to tire of the bright and overly forward sound of my Densen CD player(cost £1400), so decided to get out my old Micromeger Stage 4 CD player(circa 1998, £600) from the garage. I was surprised by the positive results. The Micromeger sounds much weightier, fuller and less taxing to listen to. how can this be? True, it lacks some of the overall finer detail of the Densen, but I think I prefer the sound. Going to keep it in situ for a while to test the longer term results.

 

[hammill]

I had started to tire of the bright and overly forward sound of my Densen CD player(cost £1400), so decided to get out my old Micromeger Stage 4 CD player(circa 1998, £600) from the garage. I was surprised by the positive results. The Micromeger sounds much weightier, fuller and less taxing to listen to. how can this be? True, it lacks some of the overall finer detail of the Densen, but I think I prefer the sound. Going to keep it in situ for a while to test the longer term results.

One has to ask why you bought the Densen in the first place. Did you not do a comparison with the old one before splashing out £1400? As to how it can be, once you get to this price point, the differences seem to be more of taste than anything else judging by the differing opinions people have on this forum about the same pieces of equipment. I bet you would get some people who preferred the Densen and some who preferred the Micromeger in a listening test.

 

[BenLaw]

Sounds to me like you are interpreting 'overall finer detail' as 'bright and overly forward', and when you don't have that detail (which others would regret, and perhaps interpret as a muddied sound, or some other adjective) you consider this 'fuller and less taxing'. As with many things, there's no right and wrong answer, and you know which is the better CDP for you.

 

[cse]

Sounds to me like you are interpreting 'overall finer detail' as 'bright and overly forward', and when you don't have that detail (which others would regret, and perhaps interpret as a muddied sound, or some other adjective) you consider this 'fuller and less taxing'. As with many things, there's no right and wrong answer, and you know which is the better CDP for you.

You are probably right about the detail bit. With a very detailed Cd player you probably need a very secure, controlled amp to compensate. I was thinking of upgrading the old Roksan Caspiam MK1, but was tryng to establish whether or not, I really liked the Densen.

 

[cse]

Sounds to me like you are interpreting 'overall finer detail' as 'bright and overly forward', and when you don't have that detail (which others would regret, and perhaps interpret as a muddied sound, or some other adjective) you consider this 'fuller and less taxing'. As with many things, there's no right and wrong answer, and you know which is the better CDP for you.

You are probably right about the detail bit. With a very detailed Cd player you probably need a very secure, controlled amp to compensate. I was thinking of upgrading the old Roksan Caspiam MK1, but was tryng to establish whether or not, I really liked the Densen.

 

[cse]

I had started to tire of the bright and overly forward sound of my Densen CD player(cost £1400), so decided to get out my old Micromeger Stage 4 CD player(circa 1998, £600) from the garage. I was surprised by the positive results. The Micromeger sounds much weightier, fuller and less taxing to listen to. how can this be? True, it lacks some of the overall finer detail of the Densen, but I think I prefer the sound. Going to keep it in situ for a while to test the longer term results.

One has to ask why you bought the Densen in the first place. Did you not do a comparison with the old one before splashing out £1400? As to how it can be, once you get to this price point, the differences seem to be more of taste than anything else judging by the differing opinions people have on this forum about the same pieces of equipment. I bet you would get some people who preferred the Densen and some who preferred the Micromeger in a listening test.

Good point it's just that the Micromegar is such an older machine with one would assume an inferior DAC.

 

[cse]

I had started to tire of the bright and overly forward sound of my Densen CD player(cost £1400), so decided to get out my old Micromeger Stage 4 CD player(circa 1998, £600) from the garage. I was surprised by the positive results. The Micromeger sounds much weightier, fuller and less taxing to listen to. how can this be? True, it lacks some of the overall finer detail of the Densen, but I think I prefer the sound. Going to keep it in situ for a while to test the longer term results.

One has to ask why you bought the Densen in the first place. Did you not do a comparison with the old one before splashing out £1400? As to how it can be, once you get to this price point, the differences seem to be more of taste than anything else judging by the differing opinions people have on this forum about the same pieces of equipment. I bet you would get some people who preferred the Densen and some who preferred the Micromeger in a listening test.

Good point it's just that the Micromegar is such an older machine with one would assume an inferior DAC.

 

[Mooly]

The Micromegas' used Bitstream conversion. I own a Stage 2 and have only just "retired" it after 17 years. The MM's were a fantastic machine and beat all the competiton at the time... anyway I have just replaced it with a Marantz Pearl Lite and find the Marantz offers a significant step up in musical presentation. I was a bit surprised tbh by just how much as I really rate the MM even after all this time.

I know what you mean re the Densen and a hard aggressive sound.

 

[cse]

The Micromegas' used Bitstream conversion. I own a Stage 2 and have only just "retired" it after 17 years. The MM's were a fantastic machine and beat all the competiton at the time... anyway I have just replaced it with a Marantz Pearl Lite and find the Marantz offers a significant step up in musical presentation. I was a bit surprised tbh by just how much as I really rate the MM even after all this time.

I know what you mean re the Densen and a hard aggressive sound.

I agree. What does Bitstream conversion mean.though?

 

[ellisdj]

Just an idea - try and pick up an older Meridan CD Player 506 either 16, 20 or 24bit or similar model, 508 - they are smooth as silk, with great amounts of detail.

You might find best of both worlds - I think it is great with Chord cables - signature interconnects, with Epic Speaker cable

 

[amcluesent]

>so decided to get out my old Micromeger Stage 4 CD player(circa 1998, £600) from the garage<

After the last winter the whole player would have been frozen, so cryogenic treatment for free! Bound to sound better...

 

[Anonymous]

There is a lot of good older kit out there that can be listened to for hours on end. Some of today's hyper analytical players are all well and good, but if you can't listen to them for hours on end, well what is the point.

I am currently favoring my old Philips CD 473 from 1987, it has the infamous TDA-1541 DAC in it. Very easy to listen too with a smooth analogue sound, these players can be picked up for not much money now.

I think some of these expensive Brands who strive for the very last bit of detail have somehow forgotten to make machines that are really enjoyable. Maybe it's just technology pushing them forward.

It's made me think about the type of DAC I actually want to play my lossless files and Spotify.

 

[Mooly]

Bitstream... this hopefully will explain it. The big advantage is that it allowed players to do away with the so called "brick wall filter" which was a necessary evil when 16 bit conversion was performed at the 44.1khz sample rate. The filter HAD to be designed with extremely steep roll of as soon as the top of the audio band was reached and in practice that could not be done perfectly. The transient response of the filters was poor... and there was no way around it.

The 1bit "Bitstream" convertors pushed the sampling frequency much much higher and consequently the filter design could be relaxed, much to the benefit of the audio signal. Transient response and time delays were much improved

http://www.research.philips.com/technologies/projects/cd/technology.html

And in the left hand menu click "bitstream",

http://library.thinkquest.org/26171/gforce.html

 

[CnoEvil]

There is a lot of good older kit out there that can be listened to for hours on end. Some of today's hyper analytical players are all well and good, but if you can't listen to them for hours on end, well what is the point. I am currently favoring my old Philips CD 473 from 1987, it has the infamous TDA-1541 DAC in it. Very easy to listen too with a smooth analogue sound, these players can be picked up for not much money now. I think some of these expensive Brands who strive for the very last bit of detail have somehow forgotten to make machines that are really enjoyable. Maybe it's just technology pushing them forward. It's made me think about the type of DAC I actually want to play my lossless files and Spotify.

I much prefer my Linn Karik/Numerik from the early 90s, to the more current (now defunct) Linn CDPs.