Budget Source Showdown

[Iron_Dreamer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pbirkett Personally, although I havent heard the DVD players in question, I am not really that surprised that it may rival the budget NAD, Cambridge CD players. Quite frankly, the budget CD players I've heard, I couldnt see what the fuss was about (and FWIW, they are only really hyped up on this forum, out of the ones I visit), to be honest these CD players were at best no better than, and at worst, considerably worse sounding than a £100 soundcard. Someone said in this thread that the likes of CA and NAD are getting away with robbery. I agree. However, they are not going to stop doing this until people question what they are getting for their money, and that isnt happenning at the minute.

The only time I heard one of the Toshibas (the 3960), it undeniably sounded worse than the $25 Chaintech soundcard. A few of those CDP's fare better, like the NAD 521, which is at least not much worse than the stock EMU 1212M. I wish I had a use for a stand-alone DVD player now, it would be too much fun to pimp out one of the Toshibas with mods

 

[pbirkett]

Well I've auditioned the NAD 521 BEE on 3 occaisions now, and I found it worse sounding than my Terratec. That cant be right though can it, after all, my Terratec is poo. Everyone knows that

 

[Duncan]

lol.. my budget source cost me less than $100...

...to me, worth more than five times that, what its done to transform my RS1

Enough of that though, if I say too much more.. i'll get flamed

 

[Robert Seletsky]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pbirkett Personally, although I haven't heard the DVD players in question, I am not really that surprised that it may rival the budget NAD, Cambridge CD players. Someone said in this thread that the likes of CA and NAD are getting away with robbery. I agree. However, they are not going to stop doing this until people question what they are getting for their money, and that isn't happenning at the minute.

One cannot claim that either the Toshiba SD-1800 (I do not like its identical-sounding but DVD-oriented successors--3950/4900/3960 for CDs) or the NAD C521BEE is superior in sound. They are just different. Toshiba has a more liquid, sweet, transparent sound, NAD has a tighter (though less open) bass and better detail. Toshiba has a legible readout without remaining-disc-time, NAD has an illegible readout without remaining-time-per-track. NAD loads faster, Toshiba loads slowly since it is a DVD player--but it reads absolutely everything. NAD has a little transformer hum--like all the UK units apparently (the CA 640C was pretty monstrous in this regard), Toshiba is dead silent except for some faint motor whir if you press your ear up to it. The point is that the Toshiba SD-1800 can be had for about $50 while the NAD C521BEE is $240-300 new. Considering that a number of my friends have had all sorts of problems with NADs (and, Lord knows, CA)--skipping, selective reading of CDs, etc., while the Toshiba seems to go merrily on from year to year, it might be advisable to save $200. And by the way, I was surprised that the black NAD 521BEE has plastic fascia and a loose-fitting CD tray. At least the CA units, overpriced too, and very treble-aggressive, are metal throughout.

Robert Seletsky

 

[pit_head]

Has anyone experienced problems with output clipping on the SD-3950? Any notions about what may be causing this sort of problem???

I bought one a few weeks ago and have been using it with a Bada PH-1 and a set of CD-3000's - the setup is addictive and makes all my other gear sound craptacular.
- EXCEPT for this problem. The mid-range cracks/breaks up whenever there is a steep increase of music volume on the disc. I thought the phones or the amp were the problem because it was only happening on one side - but when I switched the L/R output jacks between the player and the amp, the problem switched over too. The phones don't display this problem (phew) on my Denon integrated amp - (they just sound lousy). The amp works ok with my discman as a source (but sounds lousy too - 192/24 ==

).

I was planning to mod this thing eventually but am wondering if the mod's would fix this problem or not - I know, not a lot of information here but any feedback is appreciated.

[Oh, and before you start telling what to buy instead - I just surrendered my wallet to Audiogon in order to get a modded-I Jolida] However, if you can re-assure me that the Toshiba's 'problem' can be cured by mod's, I'll forge ahead just to see if this thing gets any better...

Thanks and happy listening.

 

[Jahn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duncan lol.. my budget source cost me less than $100... ...to me, worth more than five times that, what its done to transform my RS1 Enough of that though, if I say too much more.. i'll get flamed

bah on your review recommendation i just got my <$100 budget source - a D-777. Here's hoping it will be fine for a semi-portable home rig!

 

[Robert Seletsky]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pbirkett Personally, although I havent heard the DVD players in question, I am not really that surprised that it may rival the budget NAD, Cambridge CD players.

I replied to this before, saying that the NAD C521BEE and Toshiba SD-1800 (a more CD-friendly version of the later 3950/60) are neither better nor worse, just different--the Toshiba more liquid and transparent, the NAD more detailed and present.

I bring it up again because I bought an NAD C521BEE new for a rather good price. After a few weeks, I really must say that although my earlier observations still hold to some extent, the NAD seems to have the edge insofar as really captivating music reproduction. I love the Toshiba because it is such an easy listen. But, to be entirely honest, it's so non-comittal, "pleasant," and a tad dull, that the music can easily fade into the background. The NAD, after play-in (it takes a while to reveal itself fully), extracts the genuine passion and drive of the performance from CDs, creating a really gripping musical experience for the listener, not unlike good live music. It has depth, clarity, sweetness, detail, amazing speed of response, accuracy of vocal and instrumental color and placement: in all, that rare, indefinable "musicality."

Unlike the competitors in this price range--well, somewhat more costly, the nasty, harsh, uneven Cambridge Audio Azur concoctions that play *out* over time rather than playing *in*, the NAD has no unnatural aggressiveness in the top or ugly, glinting metallic edges in the sound. Moreover, the NAD is built like a tank, the remote is ergonomic and instinctive--unlike the enormous, tendonitis-producing, slow-responding, overly narrow-focused nonsense from CA, and it has no stupid design flaws like CA's loudly humming transformers, motors that don't turn off when the power isn't shut down in the right sequence, the occasional, blindingly bright power indicator, or CD-rattling slamming drawers. The NAD C521BEE just sounds and behaves *right.* After so many revisions of this design, it seems that NAD has found a sweet spot. One hopes they will now leave it alone.

The Toshiba SD-1800 is a bargain at about $60 (when you can find one), yet the NAD is still a very honest deal for $239-299 (I paid $239).

Robert Seletsky

 

[Jam_Master_J]

Comparing my Pioneer player to the Tosh 3950 in my living room was pretty interesting. Both sound very good I noticed a few things:
Like others have said, the Tosh seems wider. The Pioneer has a slightly darker tone it seems, that matches well with my SR-325s. I found it to have more and deeper bass than the 3950. The 3950 does have a slightly sweeter sounding mid-range though. The top end of the Pioneer seems to "sparkle" a bit more with my Grados without being fatiquing. I've noticed my results differ a bit from what others have got, I wonder if the new Pioneer has been changed a bit?