[radrd]

Newbie alert...

I listen to my Etymotic ER4 out of my Sony D25S pcdp. Since it isn't portable anyway, I'm thinking that I might as well buy a home CD player and listen from that. I assume the sound quality of a modern home CD player should be much better than the D25S, right?

I'm a little confused about what I want/need. If I get a headphone amp, do I need a headphone jack on my home CD player? Keep in mind, there would be no receiver, just the CD player.

Assuming I got a CD player with a headphone jack, would I want/need an amp for my Ety ER4S?

I know this is probably a common question, but since I'm a newbie I hope someone can answer my questions as well as tell me what is out there for $500 or less. I'm not going to buy it tomorrow, money's tight anyway, mostly I just want to start researching what to get.

 

[puppyslugg]

Quote:

Originally posted by radrd I assume the sound quality of a modern home CD player should be much better than the D25S, right?

Yes.
Quote:

Assuming I got a CD player with a headphone jack, would I want/need an amp for my Ety ER4S?

Even if the cdp comes with a hp jack, I would still get an amp. Most hp amps that comes with receivers, cdp's, are genrerally not very good. Seeing how your budget is $500, am I correct in assuming that's for both the cdp and amp? If so, how about a Denon 370 cdp and a Meta 42 amp?

 

[dougli]

A CD player plus a headphone amp will give you better sound than a CD player with a headphone jack in the $500 and under range. You can also get a Corda HA-1 amp and a Sony DVP-NS500V DVD player for about $500.

 

[radrd]

I'm not really interested in a multi-disk player. 2 would be nice for classical music, but I don't know of any 2 disk players.

From the little I know about CD players, carousel models tend to break faster. I could be wrong though. Plus, I don't mind changing my own CDs every hour or so; but I wouldn't mind getting one if the sound is better than single disk models .

That Sony NS500 looks interesting. Since it doesn't have a hp jack, I would most definitely need an amp. I'll probably get a Meta42 built for me fairly soon.

Any other suggestions would be great too.

 

[jerikl]

Not sure about the source... as there are a number of nice options available there. I would recommend the Meta42 though... it's an incredible amp for the price. Plus... I love the option of being able to change the sound w/different opamps.

 

[Dev]

CDP with headphones output (may we call it "intergated cdp"?

) is always worse than 'cdp + external phones amp' sheaf.

First, it's because elements of intergated amp is suck, how it was said above

.

Second, it's because these elements is installed into CDP output signal and have meddle to it.

Hope you understand me... Sorry me for my foolish english

.

So, from the rational (optimal?) point of view, you must to buy one of very good (excellent) CDP without headphones output (and their volume regulator of course) and separate headphone amplifier (may be DIY variant). It's the best choice unambiguously

.

You must can not guess what multi-disk (carousel) CDP sounds worse then single-disk CDP. Pick-up mechanism construction and principle of operation of both is the same.

A thousand apologies from my language

.

 

[acs236]

It's been my experience that the heaphone amps in CD players are particularly bad when compared to the headphone amps of receivers -- and they're not so great either. In short, I'm going with the bunch -- CD player + ext. headphone amp.

 

[dngl]

Quote:

Originally posted by radrd I'm not really interested in a multi-disk player. 2 would be nice for classical music, but I don't know of any 2 disk players. From the little I know about CD players, carousel models tend to break faster. I could be wrong though.

Sony players have good warranties and reliability. Trust me, once you get spoiled by a 5 cd changer, you won't want to go back. It's not laziness or anything... there's just something great hearing hearing the entirity of St Matthew's Passion or the Messiah without a break in the music.

 

[radrd]

Thanks for clearing up my newb questions.

From what I have read here, it looks like I want a CD player without a headphone jack, and I will have a Meta42 built for me sometime in the near future.

Now, how about other CD player recommendations...

So far, I'm looking at the Denon 370 or the Sony NS500. Any more to consider?

 

[puppyslugg]

Quote:

Originally posted by radrd So far, I'm looking at the Denon 370 or the Sony NS500.

I'd personally be more inclined toward the Denon 370 because the Sony NS500 uses a switching psu. Which I don't think belongs in audio use. Switching psu are inherently noisy. And I do understand your bias against cd changers, particularly the Denon 370, they have had problems the with the changer. If you get the Denon, I would cook it for the first 30 days, 24/7, just in case there is a problem with the changer. Well, maybe not 30 days, but at least the first 2 weeks.

 

[dougli]

If you get the Denon 370, you might find this thread interesting...

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showth...+and+headphone

 

[NewportGeek]

radrd, Don't make the mistake of overlooking the NAD C520 cdp.

Also, the headroom little is in your pricerange for amps. But the meta42 will probably do you better.

 

[Billfort]

Might want to consider a Sony CE775 SACD player. It has a headphone jack with level control but an external amp sounds way better. It's low bucks (I got one for $230cdn) but getting pretty hard to find as I believe its been discontinued. It's a pretty good CD player (after a long break in) but the best part is you can also play SACD's - these sound fantastic, in a whole different league than conventional CD's

Billf

 

[BenG]

Quote:

Originally posted by puppyslugg I'd personally be more inclined toward the Denon 370 because the Sony NS500 uses a switching psu. Which I don't think belongs in audio use. Switching psu are inherently noisy.

How could this player sound better than a CE-775 (which uses a linear ps & is without video circuitry) ?

 

[TimSchirmer]

bah!! SACD so few titles!!!! I'd go for the music hall MMF-CD25. It costs around 500$

http://www.store.yahoo.com/decibelch...halmmfcdc.html

I don't sony unless it is an ES model, because their ES models have a much higher standard of quality controll.