[I3eyond]

Thinking of leaving the computer as source world and enter a new level in my digital audio transport.
 
Looking at the Marantz CD5004...thoughts?
 
With this CDP, would it be best to run analog>amp or CDP>DAC>amp? [use CDP's DAC or utilize my Musical Fidelity V-DAC]
 
And while you're here, would you upgrade to this CDP or the HD650s first?  Current rig in sig!

 

[thebigcanman]

see which DAC (inbuilt or V-DAC) sounds better out of the two and use that
 
I have a Marrantz CD6003 and i really like it, although I use it with my speaker system

 

[sushantV]

Hey man, were you able to do some kind of comparison ??

 

[ssportclay]

Quote:

Thinking of leaving the computer as source world and enter a new level in my digital audio transport.
 
Looking at the Marantz CD5004...thoughts?
 
With this CDP, would it be best to run analog>amp or CDP>DAC>amp? [use CDP's DAC or utilize my Musical Fidelity V-DAC]
 
And while you're here, would you upgrade to this CDP or the HD650s first?  Current rig in sig!

I have an older Marantz CD5002. As a transport, this machine is just OK at best. Some of the people over at DIY Audio think poorly of Marantz transport mechanisms in general. You might look at something like a TASCAM CD-200 with the TEAC designed CD-5020A transport.Early reports seem very positive.

 

[nick_charles]

Quote:

Looking at the Marantz CD5004...thoughts?
 
With this CDP, would it be best to run analog>amp or CDP>DAC>amp? [use CDP's DAC or utilize my Musical Fidelity V-DAC]
 
And while you're here, would you upgrade to this CDP or the HD650s first?  Current rig in sig!

 
Frankly this is a superb piece of kit,  at any price.
http://www.stereophile.com/content/marantz-cd5004-cd-player-marantz-cd5004-cd-player-measurements
 
but I am not convinced it would actually be an upgrade on what you already have in any meaningful way ?

 

[I3eyond]

Why not?
 
Quote:

 
Frankly this is a superb piece of kit,  at any price.
http://www.stereophile.com/content/marantz-cd5004-cd-player-marantz-cd5004-cd-player-measurements
 
but I am not convinced it would actually be an upgrade on what you already have in any meaningful way ?

 

 

[nick_charles]

Quote:

Why not?
 
The V--DAC is already a very good DAC and if you have good rips played back from your PC hard drive (more or less bitperfectly) you will get a nice clean bitstream to the very good DAC , dont get me wrong I like Marantz CD players and have owned several going all the way back to 1984, I still have one among my 4 home CD Players, but I almost never play CDs anymore , I have my music ripped and played back from a streaming device or PC and apart from a tiny bit of computer noise my computer---DAC setup sounds the same as my CD Player transport-----DAC setup (ymmv and so on.....) and it is a lot more convenient

 

[baka1969]

I had the Marantz 5003 with the DacMagic and didn't feel there was a large (if any) gap between my PC and Marantz. I used the Marantz a a straight source and also as a transport only going to the DM. The 5003 is supposed to be very close to the 5004 and believe they use the same transport.

That said, I now have the Cary Xciter DAC that is a better DAC than the DacMagic. The DM is supposed to be better than the V-DAC so maybe you can make a judgment based on that?

 

[mtntrance]

Have you considered the new emotiva ERC-2 for a transport?  On sale at $399 and free shipping through the 4th of July with a 30 day free trial.  I just picked one up for the office.  I emotiva.com