Old vs new... CD players

[thewinelake.]

In rebuilding my system, I'm wondering how my old Marantz CD52 mk II would sound up against more modern decks (at the £200-£300 level). Would the transport be OK, such that use of a vaguely decent DAC (eg. DACMagic) would render it up to scratch?

 

[BigH]

In rebuilding my system, I'm wondering how my old Marantz CD52 mk II would sound up against more modern decks (at the £200-£300 level). Would the transport be OK, such that use of a vaguely decent DAC (eg. DACMagic) would render it up to scratch?

I don't know the Marantz 52 but in my opinion the Marantz 63se is as good as many modern players even ones costing far more than £300. Yes your transport should be fine, add a DAC and see if you can tell a difference.

 

[knaithrover]

In rebuilding my system, I'm wondering how my old Marantz CD52 mk II would sound up against more modern decks (at the £200-£300 level). Would the transport be OK, such that use of a vaguely decent DAC (eg. DACMagic) would render it up to scratch?

I don't know the Marantz 52 but in my opinion the Marantz 63se is as good as many modern players even ones costing far more than £300. Yes your transport should be fine, add a DAC and see if you can tell a difference.

+1

 

[Al ears]

In rebuilding my system, I'm wondering how my old Marantz CD52 mk II would sound up against more modern decks (at the £200-£300 level). Would the transport be OK, such that use of a vaguely decent DAC (eg. DACMagic) would render it up to scratch?

I don't know the Marantz 52 but in my opinion the Marantz 63se is as good as many modern players even ones costing far more than £300. Yes your transport should be fine, add a DAC and see if you can tell a difference.

+1

No. The use of CDPs that old as transports is a pure waste of money. The main failures C D Ps is the mechanism itself. If it cannot be cheaply replaced then you might as well throw it away.

The DAC section itself has improved no end over the years but quality drive mechanisms haven't followed.

 

[BigH]

In rebuilding my system, I'm wondering how my old Marantz CD52 mk II would sound up against more modern decks (at the £200-£300 level). Would the transport be OK, such that use of a vaguely decent DAC (eg. DACMagic) would render it up to scratch?

I don't know the Marantz 52 but in my opinion the Marantz 63se is as good as many modern players even ones costing far more than £300. Yes your transport should be fine, add a DAC and see if you can tell a difference.

+1

No. The use of CDPs that old as transports is a pure waste of money. The main failures C D Ps is the mechanism itself. If it cannot be cheaply replaced then you might as well throw it away.

The DAC section itself has improved no end over the years but quality drive mechanisms haven't followed.

Think you have misread this, he already has the cd player. So how can it be a waste of money?

 

[Aestate dies longiores sunt]

In rebuilding my system, I'm wondering how my old Marantz CD52 mk II would sound up against more modern decks (at the £200-£300 level). Would the transport be OK, such that use of a vaguely decent DAC (eg. DACMagic) would render it up to scratch?

I don't know the Marantz 52 but in my opinion the Marantz 63se is as good as many modern players even ones costing far more than £300. Yes your transport should be fine, add a DAC and see if you can tell a difference. 

This is a nonsense - I turfed out my old Marantz se cd player - it sounded bad! - old mission and Cyrus cd players are still very good.

 

[BigH]

In rebuilding my system, I'm wondering how my old Marantz CD52 mk II would sound up against more modern decks (at the £200-£300 level). Would the transport be OK, such that use of a vaguely decent DAC (eg. DACMagic) would render it up to scratch?

I don't know the Marantz 52 but in my opinion the Marantz 63se is as good as many modern players even ones costing far more than £300. Yes your transport should be fine, add a DAC and see if you can tell a difference.

This is a nonsense - I turfed out my old Marantz se cd player - it sounded bad! - old mission and Cyrus cd players are still very good.

How do you know?

 

[thewinelake.]

It will be interesting to compare CD from CD as against a CD ripped into a Mac (lossless) and then played out via a USB DAC.

BTW - Do we think a dragonfly would be as good as a DACMagic for this job?

 

[manix]

In rebuilding my system, I'm wondering how my old Marantz CD52 mk II would sound up against more modern decks (at the £200-£300 level). Would the transport be OK, such that use of a vaguely decent DAC (eg. DACMagic) would render it up to scratch?

It has got positives, old swing arm laser mech CDM4 (OK it's a plastic swing arm mech but never the less it's better than anything made now). Many people liked it more than the 63. Plenty of scope for mods if you are into that kind of thing.

TBH I would demo it against what you are thinking of buying in a shop and see what you think.

 

[thewinelake.]

What fun!

Much of what he was doing was in the DAC/analogue audio sections, and that suggests to me that use of a good DAC would be very worthwhile.

 

[Al ears]

In rebuilding my system, I'm wondering how my old Marantz CD52 mk II would sound up against more modern decks (at the £200-£300 level). Would the transport be OK, such that use of a vaguely decent DAC (eg. DACMagic) would render it up to scratch?

I don't know the Marantz 52 but in my opinion the Marantz 63se is as good as many modern players even ones costing far more than £300. Yes your transport should be fine, add a DAC and see if you can tell a difference.

+1

No. The use of CDPs that old as transports is a pure waste of money. The main failures C D Ps is the mechanism itself. If it cannot be cheaply replaced then you might as well throw it away.

The DAC section itself has improved no end over the years but quality drive mechanisms haven't followed.

Think you have misread this, he already has the cd player. So how can it be a waste of money?

I know. My point is it's so old it's eventually going to break so the waste of money will be on the separate dac not the cdp.

 

[BigH]

In rebuilding my system, I'm wondering how my old Marantz CD52 mk II would sound up against more modern decks (at the £200-£300 level). Would the transport be OK, such that use of a vaguely decent DAC (eg. DACMagic) would render it up to scratch?

I don't know the Marantz 52 but in my opinion the Marantz 63se is as good as many modern players even ones costing far more than £300. Yes your transport should be fine, add a DAC and see if you can tell a difference.

+1

No. The use of CDPs that old as transports is a pure waste of money. The main failures C D Ps is the mechanism itself. If it cannot be cheaply replaced then you might as well throw it away.

The DAC section itself has improved no end over the years but quality drive mechanisms haven't followed.

Think you have misread this, he already has the cd player. So how can it be a waste of money?

I know. My point is it's so old it's eventually going to break so the waste of money will be on the separate dac not the cdp.

I see what you mean now. Can always buy another one quite cheap. I suspect around about £30.

 

[Al ears]

In rebuilding my system, I'm wondering how my old Marantz CD52 mk II would sound up against more modern decks (at the £200-£300 level). Would the transport be OK, such that use of a vaguely decent DAC (eg. DACMagic) would render it up to scratch?

I don't know the Marantz 52 but in my opinion the Marantz 63se is as good as many modern players even ones costing far more than £300. Yes your transport should be fine, add a DAC and see if you can tell a difference.

+1

No. The use of CDPs that old as transports is a pure waste of money. The main failures C D Ps is the mechanism itself. If it cannot be cheaply replaced then you might as well throw it away.

The DAC section itself has improved no end over the years but quality drive mechanisms haven't followed.

Think you have misread this, he already has the cd player. So how can it be a waste of money?

I know. My point is it's so old it's eventually going to break so the waste of money will be on the separate dac not the cdp.

I see what you mean now. Can always buy another one quite cheap. I suspect around about £30.

You could indeed. However to my mind a good CDP is one where a very good transport mechanism is combined together with a very good DAC. Buying an old transport mechanism to go with a modern external DAC may not such a good proposition. Why add a weak, cheap turntable to a good DAC?

 

[thewinelake.]

Surely a good DAC is always good to have - whether it's used to get the best from a vintage CD transport it to listen to DSD content or a library of pre-ripped CDs.

 

[Al ears]

Surely a good DAC is always good to have - whether it's used to get the best from a vintage CD transport it to listen to DSD content or a library of pre-ripped CDs.

I'm not saying it isn't just that it's a waste of money if your mechanism of transport is rubbish / keeps failing due to age.

 

[manicm]

Modern budget dacs are not really better than older ones, I'd say those up to 500 quid are deliberately tuned to popular tastes.

The best 80s and 90s cd players hold their own among modern ones. Note Linn discontinued their flagship Sondek CD12 only because Phillips discontinued that specific transport. And the CD12 was universally acclaimed.

 

[matthewpiano]

My modern, budget Denon is a better CD player than either my Marantz CD63MkII KI Signature or my Rotel RCD965BX, mostly I would guess due to the modern DAC and, in particular, Denon's AL32 processing. An extremely musical and even handed player.

 

[Al ears]

My modern, budget Denon is a better CD player than either my Marantz CD63MkII KI Signature or my Rotel RCD965BX, mostly I would guess due to the modern DAC and, in particular, Denon's AL32 processing. An extremely musical and even handed player.

Yes dacs progress particularly in the formats they can handle. Transports do not, in fact some of the best have been discontinued, sadly.

 

[manicm]

My modern, budget Denon is a better CD player than either my Marantz CD63MkII KI Signature or my Rotel RCD965BX, mostly I would guess due to the modern DAC and, in particular, Denon's AL32 processing. An extremely musical and even handed player.

Yes dacs progress particularly in the formats they can handle. Transports do not, in fact some of the best have been discontinued, sadly.

The only new format, which is in fact very old, is DSD which modern standalone dacs can handle now. Hardly anything of note to be honest. What's interesting is that Marantz's forthcoming new flagship disc player/dac will upscale everything to DSD before analogue conversion.

For my ears personally budget to midrange CD players have not really improved, they just cater to modern tastes i.e. slightly lesser transparency, a bit more bass, a bit safer sounding. I'm hugely generalising here but I believe there's some truth to it.

 

[bigfish786]

My old Arcam Alpha was a fantastic player, just looked dated.

my current CD player, Moon Equinox, is probably 10 years old, and sounds amazing,

the presentation is big, great separation, brilliant piece of kit, and looks so good.

CD players are more than just a transport and dac, there are more elements that together make the whole product. Getting them ALL right is the secret.