[Alex Altorfer]

TEMHEM,

Quote:

Originally posted by temhem I have actually. That is the good thing about hanging out at this site. I got to learn a lot about who record good music and who doesn't. I got the "After Hours" of Joe Pass, Previn, and Ray Brown. !989 recorind, and it is very nice indeed. I listen to a lot of jazz, but this is not normally the stuff I listen to, but it is worth having any of the telarc recordings just because of the recording quality. But the majority of the recordings out there is complete crap. I am lsitening to Jimmy Hendrix Blues now, and it is soooo bad. When I mean bad, I mean bad. Whoever got it digitilized was a complete idiot.

Dude! I just totally love the Ray Brown Trio. I've got four TELARC Ray Brown Titles, all live recordings, and they are amaaazing! I gotta look up this "After Hours" cd. If good ole Ray is in it it's gotta be good. Too bad the man's gone to the afterlife.

Cheers,
Alex

 

[rsaavedra]

Quote:

Originally posted by fyrfytrhoges maybe the entry level sacd players nowdays are better, but i would not go anywhere near the ns500v. you will simply not be satisfied with it's performance. i checked out sacdmods.com and it seems to me to make that player even close to a planet or arcam you would need to spend around 350.00, no way would i spend that kind of money on a low end player like the ns500v. and as for the old discussions on headfi of the ns500v, all i can say about that is that the shine wore off very quickly on it, it was a flavor of the day player, and i admit to falling for it myself. the only redeeming quality it has in my eyes is that it makes for an ok dvd player. if i were you i would check into one of the pioneer players, the ones that play sacd, dvd-a, dvd, mp3, like the one i mention in my thread about the yoshimi dvd-a review. that player was 179.00 at best buy and is of far far greater quality in sound and it's progressive scan for dvd, compared to the ns500v.

NS500V is my current DVD player and main audio source for my speaker rig (its 6ch analog outs actually). This comment of yours above makes me consider auditioning that Pioneer.

 

[Rizumu]

Any comments on how the redbook of the SCD-CE775 is? I really have nothing to compare to.

 

[kuma]

Quote:

Originally posted by soundboy According to the review of the Sony NS500 SACD/DVD player in The Absolute Sound, its redbook CD performance is the equal of the original Rega Planet.

yes. They are equally sleepy.

 

[Tuberoller]

Beat up on the NS500V all you want but there was nothing else at anywhere enar the price that performed as well. Yes,it can be bright and it does not have the best redbook playback but it played SACD and was the first foray into Hi-res playback for many of us. On those merits it ain't a bad player. Stack it against more expensive audio-only or dedicated redbook players and it gets slapped around real good,. I use mine in my shop and I have one as a backup DVD player still.

I have been playing with the Musichall Maverick (It was called the MMF-50 when I first got it) for about a year on and off and if it were more reliable I would have long ago given it an "Awesome Budget Component Alert". The three players I have attempted to audition all failed but they all sounded awesome. Every Shandling and Musichall player I have owned has had problems and I refuse to recommend any player that fails to hold up during an audition. It's a shame because this is a really,really great player.

I have the new Sony NC555ES 5-disc changer breaking in right now and so far I like it a lot. I'll try to get my reviews posted faster but I like to give gear time to show its true colors and perform over a wide range of conditions.The Sony changer is built very well and the remote is much better than any Sony remote I have ever used. I particularly like the redbook playback and so far SACD playback sound very good. After talking with the Sony guys in the SACD and ES programs I was thrilled to see so many real audio buffs. It shows in the latest players and the choice of products they are releasing.

If you can find a Denon 2900 cheap,buy it. It's a good player with a very good DVD picture and good redbook sound but it's not worth $999 IMHO. It's easily the best of the Mid-priced "Universal" players I've heard.

 

[nebuchadnezzar]

Quote:

The three players I have attempted to audition all failed

that stinks, Tuberoller...I was really looking seriously at that machine... I liked everything about it: two channel, upsampling, no video poo to get in the way
do you have any sugesstions on something similar, Tube? (in or around $2000)

 

[rsaavedra]

I did audition the pioneer and I think is probably as good a red book player as the NS500V, actually with a bit better bass probably, so comparing stock units, probably the Pioneer is slightly better. I also auditioned a Cambridge Audio Azur 640C, clearly better bass than the Sony, but noisy transport though. So actually I returned the Pioneer, I'm returning the Azur, and I sent my Sony NS500V to SACDmods, I realized yes indeed the bass can be improved, probably that's what makes it bright for so many, the fact that the bass is thinner than it should be. But compared to the Pioneer and the Azur, the highs in the Sony CD playback are at a very similar quality level imho. Well, I made this comparison using my speakers, not high-end headphones though. But I liked my NS500V before, so I expect with the mods the sound, in particular the bass, will improve quite a bit, and the overall balance will be improved against that relative brightness everyone mentions.