sandchak
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Quote:
I have the Marantz CD17 (not MKII or KI), if I am not mistaken it shares the same DAC as Philips CD950 (TDA1547 SAA7350 ) although different transports, in this case Marantz uses CDM12.3 and Philips CDM9.
I have been giving the CD17 a good listen the last two nights ever since my Compass arrived, I have had very close listening to CD17 analogue out and CD17 coaxed with Compass (24-48 hours burn in only).
To my ears, The Compass with CD17 against CD17 on the very first listen (out of the box and fresh Earth opamp) had a slightly veiled sound, although the sound stage was at least a a couple of feets spread apart than CD17, tonality wise CD17 sounded more musical, while with Compass it was more neutral and natural to my ears.
On the second listen - 48 hours burn in, AudioGD power cables and old moon opamp installed, the veil just disappeared, making the sound stage not only wider but also more focussed, and three dimensioned, it was like everything became bigger on the stage, there was weight added to the piano, some leather the drums, ..
Ok, to cut this short, CD17 with Compass on the second listen with change of stock cables and matured opamp betters CD17 alone in imaging, tonality and dynamics..
I shared my findings with Kingwa and he wasn't surprised, there are many buyers of DAC100 who have compared and found better than Marantz CD16, which is a notch above.. in fact he went further by advising me some upgrades on the CD17 (upgraded power supply - clock and coax output) which will take it to another platform..
Anyway, these are just my findings which is based on my ears/taste and my experience.. to me it seems and without hearing that DAC 3SE should be in a different league all together.
| Originally Posted by ccschua /img/forum/go_quote.gif wonder if this is the 4x1704 or the 4x1702 version. I wonder how would this dac3se compare with the Denon DCD1 or the Philip CD950 / Marantz CD17 ? |
I have the Marantz CD17 (not MKII or KI), if I am not mistaken it shares the same DAC as Philips CD950 (TDA1547 SAA7350 ) although different transports, in this case Marantz uses CDM12.3 and Philips CDM9.
I have been giving the CD17 a good listen the last two nights ever since my Compass arrived, I have had very close listening to CD17 analogue out and CD17 coaxed with Compass (24-48 hours burn in only).
To my ears, The Compass with CD17 against CD17 on the very first listen (out of the box and fresh Earth opamp) had a slightly veiled sound, although the sound stage was at least a a couple of feets spread apart than CD17, tonality wise CD17 sounded more musical, while with Compass it was more neutral and natural to my ears.
On the second listen - 48 hours burn in, AudioGD power cables and old moon opamp installed, the veil just disappeared, making the sound stage not only wider but also more focussed, and three dimensioned, it was like everything became bigger on the stage, there was weight added to the piano, some leather the drums, ..
Ok, to cut this short, CD17 with Compass on the second listen with change of stock cables and matured opamp betters CD17 alone in imaging, tonality and dynamics..
I shared my findings with Kingwa and he wasn't surprised, there are many buyers of DAC100 who have compared and found better than Marantz CD16, which is a notch above.. in fact he went further by advising me some upgrades on the CD17 (upgraded power supply - clock and coax output) which will take it to another platform..
Anyway, these are just my findings which is based on my ears/taste and my experience.. to me it seems and without hearing that DAC 3SE should be in a different league all together.
