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Need opinions on CD players $1000-$1500 (preferably with SACD) - Page 2

post #16 of 19
8/18/09 at 4:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by s_nyc View Post
Anyone wants to chime in? What about a reliable $300 CD Player (e.g. the Marantz CD 5001/5003) and a $1200 upper-scale DAC (e.g. the Cullen PS Audio)?

I am starting to be less and less convinced of the 2-box solutions vs the integrated one, but I would love if someone proves me wrong.
I did try North Star M192 Mk1 and Marantz CD5001. Sound was pretty awesome, soundstaging, coherent reproduction, transients etc. What I really disliked was CD5001 noisy mechanism and flimsy.. err.. everything. And the fact that in two box combo:

1) you need to match more equipment with eachother
2) you have more boxes
3) there is more (unnecessary) output stages, conversions and other stuff on the signal path due to transmitters and receivers etc.
4) the DACs that have connections I need and are in my price range, usually don't have remote, which is important to me.

on the other hand, separate DAC and transport gives you option to change either one if it's broken or unfitting to the system. And a great DAC can serve more than one transport (computer, DS player, CD, etc).
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post #17 of 19
8/18/09 at 4:49pm
jlaakso - I would recommend first buying the Sony unit or getting a used model as Erik suggested. With Sony you get a very high level of bang for buck in sound, something you have to go really over board with other transports. If you were stateside I'd say nab a McIntosh used SACD player and take an easy win, I just don't know how practical that is Finland.

Having the Sony player would take care of SACD playback, as well as giving you a solid unit down the road to apply a DAC to.

On the DAC side of things I would suggest the Lavry DA11 if you can get by without SACD support, and since getting that DAC outside of collecting my interest in SACD has all but dried up. Hearing what PCM is truly capable of can really change things. Not to say SACD isn't amazing when it's done right, it's just far easier to get quality CD than SACD these days. Plus, it will decode up to 200khz / 24bit over rca or fiber inputs - so anything you download is safe.

best of luck
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post #18 of 19
8/18/09 at 11:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by thisbenjamin View Post
jlaakso - I would recommend first buying the Sony unit or getting a used model as Erik suggested. With Sony you get a very high level of bang for buck in sound, something you have to go really over board with other transports. If you were stateside I'd say nab a McIntosh used SACD player and take an easy win, I just don't know how practical that is Finland.

Having the Sony player would take care of SACD playback, as well as giving you a solid unit down the road to apply a DAC to.

On the DAC side of things I would suggest the Lavry DA11 if you can get by without SACD support, and since getting that DAC outside of collecting my interest in SACD has all but dried up. Hearing what PCM is truly capable of can really change things. Not to say SACD isn't amazing when it's done right, it's just far easier to get quality CD than SACD these days. Plus, it will decode up to 200khz / 24bit over rca or fiber inputs - so anything you download is safe.

best of luck
Thanks for the advice, although I wasn't looking for any I just commented on the CD5001 + DAC issue, which I happened to have experience on. Lavry DA11 does not have the needed connections either, at least according to my current plans. And it carries features I would not need and care not to pay for. nor is it easily available for test drive here. The North Star could have been my choice, if it had remote.

And I really do not care for SACD, since I do not have any nor do I plan to get any. 2ch material is quite enough for me ATM.

Enough about me, I'm not here to hijack the thread, just tried to contribute
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post #19 of 19
8/21/09 at 8:46pm
I wonder how Oppo BDP compares.. Probably not as good, but I also heard it's pretty darn good.
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