Help picking out a good source unit

Hey all.  This might be a long write up, but thanks to all those that genuinely read it and help me out.

First, let me start off by giving some history: I love music and listen to all genres I can get my hands on (even like movie audio).  As soon as the digital music wave hit, I got in it.  Downloaded over 10,000 songs.  Car audio was my thing for a while, but large volume does not equal quality (I was playing compressed files anyway... didn't exactly help).  In fact, I never really cared for quality until my Sony MDR-V300s broke.  So I asked one of my musician friends, and he recommended the audio-technica AD700 phones.  Bought them recently.  Time has passed and I've listened closer and I just can't deal with how the compressed files sound compared to a collection of CDs I have.

So...  I joined Head-Fi, and it changed my life.  I was quite happy with my AD700 cans until I realized they are great for gaming because of the soundstage but not so good for music.  So I ordered the ATH-M50s and Alessandro MS1s.  I'll be doing some comparisons soon when they come in.

However, all of this being said, my sources for playback are terrible IMO.  I am done with compressed files, and I plan to play CDs I have.  200 and growing.  Probably not a lot of music on discs but I suppose it is a bunch for an eighteen-year-old.  I have access to: my laptop, a cheap DVD player, a small CD player, another laptop and desktop, and a couple of other receivers.  I did some tests playing the same CD on the first three devices.  Results led me to conclude the DVD player and CD player were pretty much the same, but the lappy was disgusting.  The sound card seems horrible.  Because of this, I don't want to do any high quality listening on my lappy.  Not interested in changing sound cards and getting external hard drive to hold stuff and don't wanna face backups failing or the computer itself failing or working with programs I don't know and overriding sound cards with my own commands and it just seems like a big mess when I could just buy a CD player LOL.

Therefore, instead of continuing my headphone collection, I want to first improve my source.  I really don't want to do any real comparisons for the phones I have until then.  For files themselves...  I can tell the difference between 96kbps and 128kbps, and the jump from 128kbps to 320kbps, but I have a hard time hearing differences between 192kbps and 256kbps, 256kbps and 320kbps, and then lastly 320kbps and loss less audio.  Oh and I'm sorry if I'm totally wrong on the units or numbers.  Still sort of new to being an audiophile.  I have a CD and burned a 320, 256, 192, 128, and 96 version of one track on another CD, then tested it in the CD player for these results.  Some differences were detected, but I'm thinking if I had a really high quality player I could really hear differences.  I tried it in the laptop and they all sounded muddy, leading me to believe the sound card is bad anyways.

As an idea for purchases, I'm looking for a moderately priced high fidelity CD player.  I've looked into SACD stuff too.  Don't know which route to take.  Also, will I need an amp (or DAC)?  Not with the phones I have I don't think.  At least not yet.  I want to improve the source slowly, like over time, for example, as my headphone collection grows (can't ever think of selling/giving away any of them, they are all pieces of art to me) and expands into higher quality realms, I would need a newer setup.  But I don't want to buy as many setups as headphones.  Because all of my headphones can benefit from one source.  I guess what I'm trying to say is I'll keep the new setup for a while for the lower tier phones, then a new one once I go to middle tier phones, and lastly another when I make it to the best of the best.

Oh and, I have a Blu-ray player (on my lappy) for good video but I'll worry about the sound coming out of that later, so right now only interested in CD player.  And not portable (forgot to mention that).

All points considered, what are your recommendations (moderately priced if at all possible)?  I'm not made of money haha, but I do understand a good chunk will probably leave my wallet for this.  It's okay, the only thing that beats audio is my girl and family so I will benefit from the purchase I assure you. I can say I've read a lot in the headphone forums but the source area is really completely new to me.  Thanks so much in advance, I appreciate any help.

Quote:

Originally Posted by computerparts 

On a revealing system, the differences between 192, 256, and 320 can be heard. Most of my cd's are around 1411 kbps. As far as source, there's a few paths you can take. You can opt for a separate dac and transport, or a one box cd player, or a quality dvd player. Also, I hate to say this especially to someone who's expecting large things from a source, but the source is only as good as the rest of the setup. In the future, as you upgrade the source, it may be necessary to upgrade other components including cables in order to get the most out of the upgraded source. Also, keep in mind that the best bargains are often found in used equipment.

 

That being said, a good place to start would be a cheap entry level cd player. Marantz makes decent cd players with built in headphone amps. Some good models of Marantz cd players are cd63, cd67, cd5001, and cd5003. I believe the cd5003 is the current model and the rest are discontinued. All of those should be able to be had for less than $350. Or, if you want to upgrade your dvd player as well, you could look into a Marantz dvd player, I can heartily recommend the DV9500 as it handles cd's, dvd video, audio, and sacd and it has a built in headphone amp. It's the former flagship dvd player from Marantz, but it can be had for around $400 on the used market if you look hard enough.

 

The separate dac and transport route will be more expensive and I wouldn't recommend going this route yet.

 

Thanks a bunch!