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CD Players

post #1 of 5
1/10/12 at 3:44pm
Thread Starter 

As I'm looking through the listings of the CD/SACD players and whatnot I'm not entirely sure what makes each better or worse....what should you look for when buying a CD player? (keeping in mind they'll be played out of an amplifier) 

 

I've never actually owned a CD player, being in the iPod generation so any info at all would be greatly appreciated. "Digital Output" is listed on some of the players and I'm curious what exactly that entails (I would think as a DAC output). I've read in a couple threads that say that an amplifier is absolutely necessary, so I'm thinking of looking into a desktop amp.

 

Also are SACD players the best way to go for sound quality?

If I ripped CDs with EAC and burn them onto other CDs will there be a difference in sound quality from the originals to the duplicate CDs?


Edited by DesireUsername - 1/10/12 at 4:52pm
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post #2 of 5
1/11/12 at 5:45pm

A CD player basically consists of two parts, the transport that actually reads the disc, and the DAC and output stage that converts the read data into sound you can use. Higher-end CD players generally use better transport mechanisms that are less susceptible to vibrations and such. Esoteric's VRDS-Neo is one of the very best, which they reserve for their best players. The more affordable Esoteric models use a transport called the VSOP. You also see a lot of Philips based transports out there.

 

Once the digital audio gets to the DAC stage, the differences are basically the same as the differences between stand alone DACs. There's different chips used (The PCM 1792u is very common) some players have fully discrete output stages while others use op-amps. You can bypass the analog output stage by using the S/Pdif output, but you will need a DAC somewhere in the chain. You will need an amplifier as well, you can't hook speakers or headphones up to a CD player. 

 

If you own SACDs, you'll want to look for an SACD player. Otherwise you don't need that. SACD playback support does not automatically mean better performance with regular CDs. In many cases its the opposite.

 

Conventional wisdom says that discs burned with EAC should be perfect copies of the original (provided you use offset correction and all that). However, its possible that you may hear better sound with a MAM-A Pro Audio Master CD-R than say a discount special Memorex from Staples.

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post #3 of 5
1/11/12 at 8:36pm
Thread Starter 


 

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveBSC View Post

 

Conventional wisdom says that discs burned with EAC should be perfect copies of the original (provided you use offset correction and all that). However, its possible that you may hear better sound with a MAM-A Pro Audio Master CD-R than say a discount special Memorex from Staples.


Thanks for the really in-depth response. I'm really impressed with the Esoteric models, both VRDS and VSOP, however their both kinda crazy expensive and I really don't have anywhere near that cash. So I'm a little more curious what CD players in the $150 price range will offer.(I'm completely willing to pay more or less depending on if there's a really phenomenal amp, DAC, or amp/DAC combination that would work exceptionally well with the given player.

 

I'll take the safer route and use the higher quality CDs if you believe that it'll make a difference.

 

Again thanks for the really exceptional post that very clearly summarized everything.

 

EDIT: Sorry for asking about specific CD players but there are very few rated, and with the unrated ones I don't have much to go off besides aesthetics and price. 

http://www.head-fi.org/products/barbie-floweroake-bar502-sing-a-long-cd-player-with-dual-mircophone


Edited by DesireUsername - 1/11/12 at 9:12pm
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post #4 of 5
1/11/12 at 9:25pm

You're going to struggle at the $150 level to find much of anything that will be better than a typical DVD player. If you can manage $300 or so, then you can start to find some pretty decent players on Audiogon. At that level I would just stick to a high quality "standard" CD-R from a brand like Taiyo Yuden, you can get a 100 pack for $20. The same amount of MAM-A gold archive CD-Rs would run you about $170, and the pro audio version is even more than that.

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post #5 of 5
1/16/12 at 12:47pm
Thread Starter 

Thanks for the input....I ended up getting the Sony STR-DE197 Receiver And Sony SCD-CE595 5 Disc CD Changer (Came as a bundle)....i was intrigued by the SACD capabilities....I sorta bought the receiver just because it came with the CD player...so if I'm planning on using headphones is there anything I should use it for?

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