[GirgleMirt]

Well.. Simply, howcome some cdplayers are better than others?

I mean, the music on the cd is basically just bits. Basically about 650 000 millions of 0's and 1's. So any dumb 20$ computer cdrom can read all of those zero's and one's without making a mistake. Thats child's play.

So, I presume that what makes a good cdplayer is not the actual data reading, unlike vinyl and tape players where that would make a good difference, but it would be how that data gets manipulated, while it passes thru the different electronics.

So I think I'm figuring this out as I'm typing..

But what makes a good cdplayer is the way the bits are converted to an analog electrical signal? Or would that be the job of the amplifier....

Hmmm... Anyway, anyone has any good ressource for that kind of info?

 

[markl]

Where do you start-- this is a broad question. Shortest answer I can think of: Parts is not parts in the audio world. You could make this analogy with any piece of audio gear whether its a CDP or an amp, or a speaker, etc. Same design with better quality parts will sound better all things being equal. The components in the digital section of the more expensive player will be built to a higher standard than those in a cheap CDP. Components in the analog stage will be built to a higher standard in the analog section. The transport itself will be superior in the more expensive CDP. The power supply in a good stand-alone CDP will be much much cleaner and better built than the one that powers your computer sound card and CD-Rom (which is going to be very noisy due to proximity of all the rest of the noisy stuff in your PC running off same power supply). And so on...

All this results in serious gains in fidelity, resolution, and musicality for the better-built stand-alone CDP.

There are still people who will argue that literally "there is no difference" between any two CDPs, using the reasoning you state above-- hey it's just ones and zeroes. But IMO, they argue this because in their minds "there *should be* no difference" (and they don't want to have to become dis-satisfied with their cheaper CDP), but if they ever bothered to actually listen to a better CDP, the differences would be quite undeniable.

Mark

 

[kentamcolin]

Well spoken. I'm no technical guru, but I would think that it's not so much the reading of the ones and zeros, which any player can do easily and why many old players still make great transports and are used with newer DAC's. The important stuff happens when the player changes the ones and zeros back into music, or the digital to analog conversion. How well it processes this information has everything to do with the quality of the components.

 

[elnero]

To add to what Mark already said about quality of parts I would like to also state that all bits are not exactly equal. You see when converting a signal to digital the signal is sampled. Errors can occur in both the analog to digital as well as digital to analog conversion. The analog to digital conversion is done at the manufacturing end so we as listeners are more concerned with getting the bits off the disc and converted to an analog signal again. There are different kinds of digital to analog converters (DAC’s) and each takes a different approach to try to recreate the analog signal with as few errors as possible. This is a very general explanation. For something that is more in depth and makes more sense than I do I found this link which should explain things more clearly and graphically than I can here. More links can be found here in the digital audio section. I just found this site and haven't had a chance to read through it but it looks quite interesting and informative. Hope this helps.

 

[crazychile]

See my post in the "How important is the transport" thread.