At what price range, do CD players gain a major jump in sound quality?

[memepool]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CamelBackCinema Just the answer I was looking for. Well I want to start out small so is it correct for me to assume that any CD player that will be used with analog out will pretty much sound the same from 300 to 1000 dollars?

not quite. I would favour the NAD because it's a good no nonsense quality machine but I have only heard it through a few different amps and maybe it won't be to your taste.
It will also depend on what kind of music you listen to and what other kit you will plug it into. Here is a good review three of the main contenders in the 300 ish catagory.
http://www.audioenz.co.nz/2005/affordablecd.shtml
This guy gives a pretty fair account but a lot of people will disagree about the relative merits of the machines in question and the only way to really be 100% sure is to use your own ears and go to a store where they allow you to compare some of these players side by side.
Spending upto 1000USD you will certainly find dealers who have proper demonstration facilities and will allow you to sit there for hours listening to your favourite music on a range of different players.
In the budget end of the market this is getting more and more difficult as the margins involved don't support this kind of luxury but really it's the only way to be 100% happy with your decision.

 

[Vic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CamelBackCinema Just the answer I was looking for. Well I want to start out small so is it correct for me to assume that any CD player that will be used with analog out will pretty much sound the same from 300 to 1000 dollars?

CBC,
your Woo > RS1 is quite a good set up and you would definetely, without any doubt hear the difference between a good $300 player and a good $1000 one.
You don't need to spend $1000 though.
In my opinion the best bang for buck at the moment is the E5 which, at around $700, betters many $1,000 players; you can check several recent threads on this same forum.
Another one that impressed me a lot is the Original I was quoting before with double output: tube and solid state for $700. They have the same CDP with single output for $400; I haven't tried it, but looks very interesting.
But first of all, if you have a chance, give them a try before buying

 

[hciman77]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hershon2000 I Make sure your receivers input settings are identical. Now play say 45 seconds of a song on the DVD player & then 45 seconds on your CD player. See if you don't notice a difference in tone, brightness, presense, warmth, etc, even if you don't hear any different instrumentation. If you still don't, so be it. I really think you'll notice differences if you consider that.

Well I have been doing this on and off for the last few days. I am afraid that what differences I *think* I can detect are subtle at best, maybe the NAD it is a little more loud and I cant reliably say that the NAD is really that much better (to me anyway) . I tried a couple of different CDs viz Classic Yes and Crowded House Recurring Dream Live Bonus CD and the results were the same. To me the NAD is not twice as good as the DVD player let alone the 5x more it cost me used.

I am not saying that others could not tell more of a difference just that I honestly cannot tell that much difference. Given that the Philips DVP642 has known long term reliability issues I will not be selling the NAD but the two can share duties for now, well that is my upgrade path finished and my days of offering any audio advice over

- ho hum as Kurt Vonnegut says...

 

[Hershon2000]

Can you please say the brand name & model number of this player. Thanks

 

[hciman77]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hershon2000 Can you please say the brand name & model number of this player. Thanks

EastSound E5 - a Chinese CD player that can be bought through one USA importer "Cattylink" - there are several threads on this player - do a search on EastSound E5 - costs about $750 including shipping - several members here own one of these.

 

[Vic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hciman77 EastSound E5 - a Chinese CD player that can be bought through one USA importer "Cattylink" - there are several threads on this player - do a search on EastSound E5 - costs about $750 including shipping - several members here own one of these.

Exactely, it has been a very hot product in this forum in the last few months and many consider it one of the best value products at relatively affordable price.
I had a chance of trying it recently and was very surprised by the sound quality at this price point

 

[michael.collins]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ruppin I'm not sure what the intent of the original poster was, but I would like to know at what point, if any, a CD player sounds better than a hard drive based set up to a $1000 DAC (say Benchmark). For example, upload in Apple Lossless or AIFF with error correction to hard drive, over airport express with toslink, benchmark. At which price (or which CDPs) does the dedicated red book player provide better sound (assuming the rest of your system is good enough to hear it.

I have a similiar question...I considered making a serious upgrade to my digital transport device...but, instead decided to invest my money in a solid DA and cables. For me, the assumption was the digital source/transport I use could very well change in the next few years. It seemed more logical to spend my dollars on how the bits were decoded and cabled to my ears, than necessarily it's original transport source.

What's the general consesus here? If one is using a CD player, DVD player or HD device merely as storage and device to output a digital signal...does a high dollar transport have that much impact?

Thanks,
Michael

 

[hciman77]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vic I had a chance of trying it recently and was very surprised by the sound quality at this price point

Just out of interest what does it go for in Blighty ? ah how I miss the warm beer, cricket on the green and crappy weather (well not the last part)

 

[Vic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hciman77 Just out of interest what does it go for in Blighty ? ah how I miss the warm beer, cricket on the green and crappy weather (well not the last part)

Sorry mate, but I did not undertand your question: I live in London but am Italian, as you could probably detect by my dreadful syntax.
What is Blighty? (I am very curious now

).
I bet you miss the great food too

.

Anyway I do love London in spite of all that

 

[hciman77]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vic Sorry mate, but I did not undertand your question: I live in London but am Italian, as you could probably detect by my dreadful syntax. What is Blighty? (I am very curious now ). I bet you miss the great food too . Anyway I do love London in spite of all that

1) How much does the E5 sell for in the UK ?

2) Blighty is a fond name for the UK and stems from the days of the British Empire http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bli1.htm

3) English food is pretty dull but it is curries I miss most of all

 

[doctorjuggles]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hciman77 1) How much does the E5 sell for in the UK ? 2) Blighty is a fond name for the UK and stems from the days of the British Empire http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bli1.htm 3) English food is pretty dull but it is curries I miss most of all

1) There's no retailer for the Eastsound in the UK, you have to buy it directly from Cattylink, of course risking import duties etc.
When I contacted them they quoted a very reasonable $800 including express delivery, but you may want to contact them again, as although mine was extremely recent, they change their prices all the time.

2) There's no place like Blighty.

3) English food has its moments, but I wish the steaks were better here. I miss good steaks.
I like the curry though.

Vic, you don't get kebabs in Sicily like you do in Crouch End.

 

[Hershon2000]

I researched this online (EastSound E5 CD player) & was almost tempted to take a chance but a poster on a forum made a great point: If you're not happy with it, it will be very difficult to sell online on Ebay for example because the brand name is not well known & therefore you won't be able to recoup most of your cost. For me, that's too risky. Good point by that poster, I never would have though of that.

 

[doctorjuggles]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hershon2000 I researched this online (EastSound E5 CD player) & was almost tempted to take a chance but a poster on a forum made a great point: If you're not happy with it, it will be very difficult to sell online on Ebay for example because the brand name is not well known & therefore you won't be able to recoup most of your cost. For me, that's too risky. Good point by that poster, I never would have though of that.

While I understand this point and agree to a certain degree, you'd probably have no shortage of takers in the 'For Sale' forums of this board, and quite a few other audioboards for that matter.
The E5 has made an impression on more than a handful of people.

It's definitely a point worth considering though, but maybe not as serious as it appears on first glance.

 

[hciman77]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hershon2000 I researched this online (EastSound E5 CD player) & was almost tempted to take a chance but a poster on a forum made a great point: If you're not happy with it, it will be very difficult to sell online on Ebay for example because the brand name is not well known & therefore you won't be able to recoup most of your cost. For me, that's too risky. Good point by that poster, I never would have though of that.

Cough... Audiogon....cough

 

[memepool]

Quote:

Originally Posted by doctorjuggles English food has its moments, but I wish the steaks were better here. I miss good steaks.

Check out this place for steaks. They import everything from Ireland. http://www.oconordon.com/.

gotta agree agree on the kebabs. Those Sicilians really have no idea!