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Best Price/Performance CDP under $2500?

post #1 of 102
4/5/02 at 3:21am
Thread Starter 
I'm looking for a good home CDP (integrated or discrete transport/dac, preferably the latter but it's not that important) that's no more than about 13-14" deep and preferably under 6" high (depth is far more important than height, if it uses an outboard DAC then the dimensions apply only to the transport.) I'm willing to go up to around $2500 total, but it would be nice if it was under $1K, total price.

Any reccomendations? (note that if it's good enough, I can just put it under my [LCD] monitor and UPS and mitigate any size restrictions)
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post #2 of 102
4/5/02 at 3:51am
http://www.avguide.ch/news/index.cfm?show=detail&ID=874

Just guessing, haven't heard it. Very integrated, even a pre.
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post #3 of 102
4/5/02 at 8:35am

2500 smackaroos!

Heck, eric343. For that kind of money you could really do some serious improvements to your system. Why spend the money all in one place. You could take home the MAX, or a high end tube amp, and still have a lot of money left for a good source, interconnects, and headphone cable for your HD-600s.
I think that would do a lot more for you than a $2500.00 CD player.
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post #4 of 102
4/5/02 at 8:52am


Or, build a pair of Bottlehead Paraglows (like me ) and use them with AKG-K1000's and your traditional speaker system too.

You'd still have almost $1000 left. Oh, joy of joys.
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post #5 of 102
4/5/02 at 9:52am
http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/redg.../rgcd5enr.html

Of Redgum Audio www.redgumaudio.com

Cost US$1800.

its an upgraded version of the previous RGCD5.

Check out the reviews section in their site.
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post #6 of 102
4/5/02 at 2:06pm
Thread Starter 
Whoa... hey, I said under $2500... not $2500...

And I'd really prefer the sub-$1k route; above that I would need to do some creative financing.

I was looking at a 333ES, although apparently it's not too amazing in the redbook department (I don't have ANY SACDs) ... Maybe NAD? I just want something that's way better than my Sony DVP-S550D....
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post #7 of 102
4/5/02 at 2:10pm
Thread Starter 
Oh, and Nick, I don't have a conventional speaker system. Just headphones...
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post #8 of 102
4/5/02 at 2:43pm

Arcam CD72

$800
http://www.arcam.co.uk/diva/hifi/cd72.html
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post #9 of 102
4/5/02 at 3:52pm
Sony SCD-555ES with Modwright mods will cost you less than $1200. You can expect killer sound, and awesome build quality.

We gotta stop this silly rumor that the ES Sony SACD players have lousy CD performance-- it's not so.

IMO, it makes no sense at all to spend $2500 on a player that only does CDs. I don't understand why anyone would even consider a CD-only player. That's a dead-end device to me. You'll just have to sell it in a couple years anyway, and you won't get any money for it cause no one will want a CD-only player.

I also agree that with money left over on the 555, you can get a very nice tube amp to boot.

markl
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post #10 of 102
4/5/02 at 4:42pm
Quote:
Originally posted by eric343
I was looking at a 333ES, although apparently it's not too amazing in the redbook department (I don't have ANY SACDs)
Not sure where you heard this... if you look at the reviews here on Head-Fi, and at Asylum, from people who actually own it, you'll see that it actually has VERY good Redbook playback. Jude compared it to a couple $1000 Redbook-only players and it did well. I haven't heard another sub-$1000 Redbook player that was clearly better. I haven't heard *every* sub-$1000 player, but I've heard quite a few.

In addition, from everything I've heard, the 333 and 555 modded by Dan Wright is clearly *better* than anything close to $1000 for Redbook.
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post #11 of 102
4/5/02 at 4:49pm
i was just in a similar predicament as you eric, and i went for the rega planet 200. cost me $850 from audiolab. they also carry that same arcam player that audio&me suggested, which would've been my alternative.. i'd look into either of those. also, the arcam does hdcd.. dunno if you're interested in that or not.
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post #12 of 102
4/6/02 at 3:32am
Thread Starter 
Just out of curiosity, what's the difference between the 222 and 555? (apart from $$$ of course...)

Incidentally... I looked at the Arcam; the dimensions are *perfect*, and it certainly looks to be really good... If only it could do SACD...
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post #13 of 102
4/6/02 at 12:01pm
The hell with SACD, it's all a monopoly right now. Get the Arcam, it certainly is beautiful on the outside, but what it puts out is what's remarkable.
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post #14 of 102
4/6/02 at 2:30pm
Hey Eric,

I strongly recommend that you take a good look at the nOrh CD1 tubed CD player. It costs $800 shipped, and is rumoured to have an incredible demonstration of tube sound, with no extreme colouration and no loss of detail. You can read a review on it here: http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/norhcd1_e.html

The website where it can be bought and where the specs can be found is at http://www.norh.com .

As you can see, its not aesthetically stunning on the exterior, mostly for the reason that most of the money went into where it counts, the sound. If you want to talk to people who will swear to its excellence, go to the Harmonic Discord Forum, at http://www.harmonicdiscord.com , where you can use the search tool to look it up or you can ask about it.
Just take a look at it; you will DEFINITELY get your money's worth.
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post #15 of 102
4/6/02 at 3:16pm
Thread Starter 
Well, if you can tell me where to get it... (it's been discontinued due to no CD transports being made)
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