Which CDP take the best of compressed and hard-sounding metal cd's? I don't like brightness and want a CDP that hide the flaws in the cd's. Also a CDP i think which is not too transparent.
Which CD Player for compressed metal recordings
- Thread starter peterpan
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MrReaper182
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- Apr 6, 2014
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The best way of fining the answer to that question is to arrange with you local hi-fi dealer (if you can) a day that you can come to their listening room with your stereo amp, speakers and some of your CDs and listen to many diffent CD players until you find the right one for you. That's what I did when I decied to upgrade my CD player. If you can not do that and have about 800 quid to spend on A CD player then I highly recommend the Audiolab 8200 CD player. By the way your never going to 100 percent hide the bad flaws in a badly produced album.
peterpan said:
If you meant compressed music to MP3 files the Rotel RCD 1520 and the ONKYO C-5VL are very good options .
peterpan said:
Hi there peterpan. I thought I would direct you towards my threads. They are not just about Deathmetal or Glam rock. They hopefully shed some light on this very matter. You might have to copy and paste the links.
http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/deathmetal-hi-fi-extracting-most-your-cds-or-streamers
http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/power-metal-symphonic-metal-heavy-metal-glam-and-hard-rock-hi-fi
Not to say that others can't help you because of course they can.
I've been looking into this for a couple of years now. Though a good CDP will help with an open soundstage. What I've found with CD's that seem too compressed (limited) and harsh (bright) is it's more to do with the cables you use.
Yes I know a lot of people on here will say that rubbish but I listen to lots of Metal, Deathmetal, Blackmetal and so on. The cables I have on my Hi-Fi at the moment have reduced a lot of that harshness/brightness and opened the soundstage. When I changed from my Pioneer CDP to the Cambridge Audio one I have now there wass no difference in the sound stage really. It's the Hi-Fi you see in my picture that's been getting the cable upgrades and before I made these cable changes I felt a lot of CDs I listened to were to harsh or compressed. They aren't anymore. Some of them still need work as I found the cables worked better on some CDs but not all. I think it's all to do with frequencies and which ones get coloured up by poorly shielded cables or cables that are too thin.
Note Since getting the Cambridge Audio Hi-Fi I've always had the same Speaker cable which is quite thick but it's only been since putting on Chord Company Chameleon Interconnects and now an Chord Company Anthem Reference Interconnect that the sound stage has really opened up and the harshness reduced. I can now listen much louder without my ears hurting.
Name me some of the CDs you listen to and find overly compressed or bright. I'm sure I'll have them so could let you know how they sound on my system. Also what kit have you got (the whole Hi-Fi, cables, speakers and stands.
I am partial to heavy metal (Dio / BS etc) and sounds good through my Naim CD5XS without being unpleasent. There are some poor recordings such as Rainbow Rising which still is ok to listen to, however there are limitations.
In fact does a good job all round with nice detail to boot if you can stretch to it 2nd hand.
Of course must try with rest of gear to see if matches / suits.
Some cables and mains products will help to remove noise and can soften music (eg wireworld stratus 52), but I have found at the expense of dynamics and other areas. In the long run having gone back to stock cables (Naim powerline excepted which is more about mechanical dampening i understand).
In fact does a good job all round with nice detail to boot if you can stretch to it 2nd hand.
Of course must try with rest of gear to see if matches / suits.
Some cables and mains products will help to remove noise and can soften music (eg wireworld stratus 52), but I have found at the expense of dynamics and other areas. In the long run having gone back to stock cables (Naim powerline excepted which is more about mechanical dampening i understand).
The Exposure 2010s2 CD is ecxellent CDP*dash1*
Other good options : Rotel RCD 1570 , Audiolab 8200CD and Naim CD5si .
As advised by others upgrading the interconnects and power chords as well should improve the sound *drinks*
Other good options : Rotel RCD 1570 , Audiolab 8200CD and Naim CD5si .
As advised by others upgrading the interconnects and power chords as well should improve the sound *drinks*
Would you consider a Linn Sneaky, which is superb, and the best source I've heard at anywhere near that budget.
Hi peterpan I hope the advice is helping you.
Here is some more. No offence but only use what you read as a guid line. Everyones ears are different. The Exposure CDP may have sounded harsh when WHF demoed it in there reference room but you don't have their reference room, you have your own room and that CDP may sound amazing in your room.
Use you ears. You know how you like the metal albums you listen to to sound so go and have a listen in a shop. We can only give you advice from our experiences. Someone may say a combination of gear sounds great to them but to you it might sound awefull.
I'm still interested in what albums you listen to so I can check on my set up and see if the sound bright/harsh.
Here is some more. No offence but only use what you read as a guid line. Everyones ears are different. The Exposure CDP may have sounded harsh when WHF demoed it in there reference room but you don't have their reference room, you have your own room and that CDP may sound amazing in your room.
Use you ears. You know how you like the metal albums you listen to to sound so go and have a listen in a shop. We can only give you advice from our experiences. Someone may say a combination of gear sounds great to them but to you it might sound awefull.
I'm still interested in what albums you listen to so I can check on my set up and see if the sound bright/harsh.
Covenanter
Well-known member
- Jul 20, 2012
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I'm a bit bemused by this thread! If the recording is compressed, as it seems a lot of current "pop" recordings are, what can a CD player do about it? A CD player reads the 1s and 0s on the CD and passes them on to the DAC which converts them into an analogue signal. The more effective it is the more accurately it will represent the recording and if there is compression the more accurately it will represent that too!
In my opinion, if you need to deal with the compression you are going to have to do that with the analogue signal and that means tone controls or some sort of "equaliser". How successful that would be I can't say but if the compression varies between recordings, as it surely will, then you are going to have to do a lot of fiddling.
Chris
PS I don't have many modern "pop" recordings but to repeat what I have said on a number of threads the Adele "21" album is almost impossible to listen to on my kit although it is fine in my car.
In my opinion, if you need to deal with the compression you are going to have to do that with the analogue signal and that means tone controls or some sort of "equaliser". How successful that would be I can't say but if the compression varies between recordings, as it surely will, then you are going to have to do a lot of fiddling.
Chris
PS I don't have many modern "pop" recordings but to repeat what I have said on a number of threads the Adele "21" album is almost impossible to listen to on my kit although it is fine in my car.
The thing i've been finding and trying to tell people is thought all CDs are limited/compressed what the OP is getting at is there appears to be not much dinamic range on Heavy Metal CDs which he is right. This is more the case than should be on POP CDs as there is so much information being recorded on Metal albums with the loud volume of the distorted guitars, Huge drum sounds and heavy Bass Guitar sounds and screamy or loud vocal performences.
So I think they have to be limmited more to get a deacent volume level on the disk. Of course this squashes the dynamic range and can bring the harsh mid and high tones up in the mix and the strip a lot of the low end out to make more space in the soundstage giving the impression of the music sounding bright and harsh.
I have found the cables I use allow my DAC to do it's job better, a lot of the harshness has gone and the instruments sound more life like instead of over processed and compressed. The sound stage has opened up and I can hear a lot more detail. I can also listen at louder volume comfortably.
The thing is a lot of people don't believe cables make any difference. You are right in that the CDP won't make any difference really but I guess the OP thinks it will. In a mechanical sence the more solidly the CDP is built the less mechanical noise will be added to the music thus it won't sound bright and harsh.
So I think they have to be limmited more to get a deacent volume level on the disk. Of course this squashes the dynamic range and can bring the harsh mid and high tones up in the mix and the strip a lot of the low end out to make more space in the soundstage giving the impression of the music sounding bright and harsh.
I have found the cables I use allow my DAC to do it's job better, a lot of the harshness has gone and the instruments sound more life like instead of over processed and compressed. The sound stage has opened up and I can hear a lot more detail. I can also listen at louder volume comfortably.
The thing is a lot of people don't believe cables make any difference. You are right in that the CDP won't make any difference really but I guess the OP thinks it will. In a mechanical sence the more solidly the CDP is built the less mechanical noise will be added to the music thus it won't sound bright and harsh.
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