[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

What is your source on the very bad quality of Cambridge Audio? I'm thinking about getting the CXUHD at some point as a blu-ray player, and it can double duty as a CD-player as well.

No source because nonsense.
The CXUHD is great and can also act as music transport for all your files on stick, nas etc

 

[crazychile]

What is your source on the very bad quality of Cambridge Audio? I'm thinking about getting the CXUHD at some point as a blu-ray player, and it can double duty as a CD-player as well.

I hope @D2Girls responds back, but I've personally known people that have owned ~5 - 8 pieces from Cambridge and in only once case have they made it past 3 years without a problem. Many have failed soon after the warranty expired. About 15 years ago I considered starting a small audio shop given that I spent more than a decade in the industry working for a manufacturer and also a couple of retailers. I had established some relationships with regional product reps and inquired about Cambridge as a possibility from a rep I had known for a long time. He said he was dropping the line as soon as inventory was gone because there were too many service issues.

I'm sure some people have owned Cambridge gear and it has worked reliably. I'd rather give my money to Schiit, who makes solid gear in the USA and has excellent service. I know that if the gear turned out to be problematic, they would be serious about fixing the issue.

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

I hope @D2Girls responds back, but I've personally known people that have owned ~5 - 8 pieces from Cambridge and in only once case have they made it past 3 years without a problem. Many have failed soon after the warranty expired. About 15 years ago I considered starting a small audio shop given that I spent more than a decade in the industry working for a manufacturer and also a couple of retailers. I had established some relationships with regional product reps and inquired about Cambridge as a possibility from a rep I had known for a long time. He said he was dropping the line as soon as inventory was gone because there were too many service issues.

I'm sure some people have owned Cambridge gear and it has worked reliably. I'd rather give my money to Schiit, who makes solid gear in the USA and has excellent service. I know that if the gear turned out to be problematic, they would be serious about fixing the issue.

This is the biggest BS I read in a long time.
(not being personal mind you)
I know the bizz from the inside (in Europe) and know this is absolutely not the case.
It's a fine trick for sellers to up the sales or disguise a conflict with the manufacturer.
I know lots of people with CA who play daily for many years.
A company like CA would be long out of business if the stories where tru.
This is the way to start an internet-hoax-false-news-story against a company with no basis whatsoever.
Please don't do that.

 

[FLTWS]

I'm CD only so the quality and feature set of a player / transport are very important to me. While it may be of no matter to rock and pop listeners, motor noise is a problem I experience with my ERC-3 on my living room rig when listening to classical works and volume levels drop to the lowest (pppp) dynamic levels, especially with open backed phones. I have a NuPrime CDT-8 on my bedroom rig which is dead quiet at all times (and a solid little unit) but has very quirky operating characteristics in conjunction with the remote as well as a limited feature set compared to any other CD player I'm familiar with. And when a CD is first inserted into the NuPrime my Yggdrasil's (new "B" unit) lights that indicate the sample rate blink/click on and off every time (doesn't happen with the ERC-3 and my still original "A" unit). I think it has something to do with the CDT-8's own internal upscaler ("from 44.1kHz to768kHz or DoP256") which I leave set to 44.1 at all times because any higher setting triggers Yggdrasil's "buy better gear light". But I think the NuPrime does some sort of self check on the selected source rate of the CD (or input signal) and this results in a fraction of a second disconnect on the data streams output. But I could be wrong about that.

 

[barondla]

There are major differences in how well cd transports read defective or damaged discs. With the many used cd's available this could be a big consideration. There are cd drives adored by rippers because they read discs many can't. This can also affect sound quality. If an under performing player struggles to correctly read a disc, it can start inserting redundant data to make it "unnoticeable" .

 

[ScubaMan2017]

The Cambridge Audio CD transport is one of the best tested ever.
.......{snip}........The chance that Mike can build something level with it is very small.
I hope he does but we have to see if.....

Mike mentioned it on the forum that shall not be named.

I really hope Schiit releases some kind of CD/DVD/...?... player. I have a mish-mash of different sources feeding my DAC. About half of my music/movies/media are on physical discs. As these discs degrade (physical scratches), some kind of repair mechanism would be great. I'd rather give my $ to Schiit; however, if Cambridge Audio's the way to go, I'll relent (and pick one up for my 50th birthday in 2 years).

Last September, Mike posted the following on his thread:

"In product news, we have a working proto transport running. The remaining development work is an arm based processor to run the various traffic cop aspects of the transport, the operational buttons and display. Our current proto uses a Raspberry Pi zero which, of course is an arm based processor. It would be unfitting of us to include an overly complicated Raspberry Pi so we have begun our slimmed down Schiit Pie which Ivana will be baking. "

God, I hope you're right... and I hope the product get released before I retire and run off into the bush. Ivana -- don't let us down!

I am looking forward for CD Transport from Schiit.

There are not many affordable CD Transport out in the market.
Cambridge Audio, CEC, Cyrus, Sound Warrior, Olasonic,
and any others?
Transport from Schiit would be definitely promising.

I have only compared 3 players as transport but it had huge difference in sound.
And it's funny but had some similarity to their sound out of their built-in DAC.

My impressions
(Transport -> Yggdrasil A2 -> Freya (TungSol) -> 2 Vidars -> Magnepan MMG)

1. DENON DCD-1500AE SACD player using COAX (audioquest Carbon) circa 2005, approx. $600?
   Apparently the best of the three. Using this now in 2ch system.
   More focused sound and better staging (positioning) than Gen5 USB, but narrower width.
   Can’t decide which is better Gen5 USB or not in standard CD, but better than Gen5 USB when playing Jazz on UHQCD.
2. Pioneer TD-T06 turntable CD player using COAX (audioquest Carbon) circa 1993, approx. $800?
   Broad pyramid type sound similar to that of sound out of built-in DAC, but to my surprise, it apparently lacked detail.
3. Pioneer DV-410V DVD player forgot the cable (coax or TosLink, but not Carbon) made in 2009, approx. $200?
   Completely cheap sound. (light, weak, no body) unlistenable to me.
4. iMac Late 2009 (Audirvana) -> audioquest Carbon USB cable -> Gen5 USB (Yggdrasil)
   Very open wide sound but staging not well focused as DCD-1500AE. In general, I slightly prefer this over DCD-1500AE coax, but depends.

Furthermore, putting weight on the top of the DCD-1500AE changes sound as well. (even position and material of the weight matters)

I know it might depend on system, but to me, I felt like above.

I appreciated these brand ideas, @Licht ... Denon... Pioneer. Cambridge Audio. These brands are easy to get here in Ontario. My Yamaha platter-pizza-spinner's motor eventually died (and I stupidly sold it at a flea market [without repairing it]). Tsk.
As long as my desktop's CD-DVD-RW keeps working, I can limp along.

There are major differences in how well cd transports read defective or damaged discs. With the many used cd's available this could be a big consideration. There are cd drives adored by rippers because they read discs many can't. This can also affect sound quality. If an under performing player struggles to correctly read a disc, it can start inserting redundant data to make it "unnoticeable" .

Some of the worst discs I've seen come from my local library. It's almost criminal to see how poorly these items are treated (... and it wastes taxpayers' funding). My hunch is the library pays a significantly higher price than me for physical data (I also shudder to think how much they have to pay for access to services like Naxos Online). Once I figured out how to handle its quirks, I'm a big fan of EAC's ability to read chewed up discs. EAC was even able to read some of the data off a disc with a spider-web-cracked CD... before my desktop locked up and had to be hard-rebooted.
I was lucky with my past disc purchases... no bit rot (de-laminating surfaces). I baby my discs.

I feel like a broken record: Schiit Audio, please release a digital spinner ... something ... hell, anything ... before I turn 50 {by, 2020).

 

[golfbravobravo]

I really hope Schiit releases some kind of CD/DVD/...?... player. I have a mish-mash of different sources feeding my DAC. About half of my music/movies/media are on physical discs. As these discs degrade (physical scratches), some kind of repair mechanism would be great. I'd rather give my $ to Schiit; however, if Cambridge Audio's the way to go, I'll relent (and pick one up for my 50th birthday in 2 years).

Some of the worst discs I've seen come from my local library. It's almost criminal to see how poorly these items are treated (... and it wastes taxpayers' funding). My hunch is the library pays a significantly higher price than me for physical data (I also shudder to think how much they have to pay for access to services like Naxos Online). Once I figured out how to handle its quirks, I'm a big fan of EAC's ability to read chewed up discs. EAC was even able to read some of the data off a disc with a spider-web-cracked CD... before my desktop locked up and had to be hard-rebooted.
I was lucky with my past disc purchases... no bit rot (de-laminating surfaces). I baby my discs.

I feel like a broken record: Schiit Audio, please release a digital spinner ... something ... hell, anything ... before I turn 50 {by, 2020).

I don't understand why folks keep playing the physical CD instead of ripping to a hi-res digital format?

I got about 50 CDs form our local library sale recently and all ripped fine. I, too, use EAC and also MP3 tag to prepare stuff for a server that Roon reads from. Works really well. All the CDs are stored in 4 huge storage cases and the jewel cases given away.

Cheers

 

[Paddlefoot]

This is the biggest BS I read in a long time.
(not being personal mind you)
I know the bizz from the inside (in Europe) and know this is absolutely not the case.
It's a fine trick for sellers to up the sales or disguise a conflict with the manufacturer.
I know lots of people with CA who play daily for many years.
A company like CA would be long out of business if the stories where tru.
This is the way to start an internet-hoax-false-news-story against a company with no basis whatsoever.
Please don't do that.

I have at the Cambridge Audio CXC Transport, sound great, looks good. Most of the reports I've seen on this player have been outstanding, i was really taken how great this Transport makes the cd i own sound this good thru my Gumby, i have never heard it better.

 

[Robert Wortman]

The transport doesn’t send just bits to the DAC. It sends a series of electrical signals to the DAC. How “proper” those signals are makes a difference in the analog output of the DAC.

It sends bits in the from of electrical signals. Did you think I meant it mailed it a piece of paper. As long as the DAC isn't seeing data errors they are "proper" enough. The bit stream out of a cheap CD player is not likely to be any more error prone than that of a overbuilt audiophile transport. Redbook CD has robust error correction. Unless the CD is chewed up, there should be no problems.

 

[Robert Wortman]

I don't think the Sony UBP-X800 has a DAC, it has no analog output; at least that's true of the one I have.
That makes it a universal transport, although I have read the audio quality is good ...

My mistake. You are correct HDMI and SPDIF outputs only. My Yamaha is more "audiophile" in looks and has balanced and unbalances audio outs but both are connected to my AVR via HDMI and I can't hear any difference between them. I only use them for movies and multichannel audio disks that the AVR won't decode as a streamed file.

 

[D2Girls]

Personally I find CD players using Chinese DVD drives (single speed or otherwise) to be of inferior sonic quality compared to a player designed around a classic Philips or Sony CD mechanism. I have owned and heard a lot of different transports and the difference between even an early 2000s Arcam or NAD spinner using a decent quality Sony mech was leagues better than the Marantz and CA units I heard.

When I say the Cambridge Audio is “bad quality” I’m referring to the Chinese DVD drive that is inside the unit. The Servo 3 thing is neat but it is unrelated to the actual cd mechanism.

Sorry to burst your bubble but all of these CD players made in China are using a DVD drive. Aside from a few manufactures that make their own CD drives still (TEAC/Esoteric, Meridian, Marantz, amongst others) there are no more CD mechs being made by Sony or Philips anymore. And in the case of said manufacturees, they only include their custom CD mechs in their ultra high end 5+ figure flagship modes. Don’t ask me how manufactures come by new mechs, but they do, and they certainly make a point to advertise it in the marketing.

If you can’t tell, I’m a firm believer that the type of mech used in a cd transport is very important. I mean it could be the single most important thing in a transport.

What I think Schiit is trying to do is challenge the ultra high end transport market. There are quite a few manufactures of CD players and transports that use a Philips pro mech, but they are almost all in the mid to high 4 figure range. (Ayre, Naim, etc)

Your best bet to get a good transport is a second hand Sony ES series, an older Arcam or NAD, or a Proceed or an older Pioneer Elite. (The newer Pioneer Elites use variable DVD drives) but, being a used product you will have the worry about the laser dying. If schiit comes out with a transport I believe it will certainly sound better than anything CA has to offer and approach performance that you can only get from 4 figure transports. Which is totally in line with Schiits philosophy.

Let’s hope Mike stumbles upon a hidden stache of Philip cd mechs!

 

[valiant66]

I'm CD only so the quality and feature set of a player / transport are very important to me. While it may be of no matter to rock and pop listeners, motor noise is a problem I experience with my ERC-3 on my living room rig when listening to classical works and volume levels drop to the lowest (pppp) dynamic levels, especially with open backed phones. I have a NuPrime CDT-8 on my bedroom rig which is dead quiet at all times (and a solid little unit) but has very quirky operating characteristics in conjunction with the remote as well as a limited feature set compared to any other CD player I'm familiar with. And when a CD is first inserted into the NuPrime my Yggdrasil's (new "B" unit) lights that indicate the sample rate blink/click on and off every time (doesn't happen with the ERC-3 and my still original "A" unit). I think it has something to do with the CDT-8's own internal upscaler ("from 44.1kHz to768kHz or DoP256") which I leave set to 44.1 at all times because any higher setting triggers Yggdrasil's "buy better gear light". But I think the NuPrime does some sort of self check on the selected source rate of the CD (or input signal) and this results in a fraction of a second disconnect on the data streams output. But I could be wrong about that.

I just realized I am actually quite curious about the “buy better gear” light. Are there other people that experience this turning on on a regular basis? This post is actually the first time I’ve heard anybody talking about it…
.

 

[ToTo Man]

@Jason Stoddard ,

Apologies if this has already been asked/suggested, it's been a while since I last checked in on this thread (my New Year's resolution is to catch up on hundreds of pages I've missed!).

I was wondering what you thought about incorporating more output impedance facility in your future amp designs? I recently reviewed the Audio-Technica AT-HA5050H, which provides a total of four different output impedances (0.1, 31, 82 and 120 ohms), and it was very interesting to hear how each of my headphones reacted to the different settings. I was surprised to discover that I was not as wedded to the 0.1 ohm setting as I'd anticipated.

I know many of your amps already provide two output impedance options, which are tied to the gain. I was thinking more along the lines of separating these so that the output impedance and gain could be selected independently of each other? I think the four options provided by the HA5050H are a bit too extreme, and that it would perhaps be more useful to provide a toggle switch with, say, three options that were bunched more closely, e.g. 0.1, 15 and 50 ohms.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this? Oh, and Happy New Year!

 

[Robert Wortman]

CD drive, DVD drive, who cares? I have owned more universal players than CD only players and I don't see why a CD only transport mechanism would be superior. I have a BD and a DVD drive in my PC and both will rip a CD into the computer error free on the first pass.

 

[Robert Wortman]

@Jason Stoddard ,

Apologies if this has already been asked/suggested, it's been a while since I last checked in on this thread (my New Year's resolution is to catch up on hundreds of pages I've missed!).

I was wondering what you thought about incorporating more output impedance facility in your future amp designs? I recently reviewed the Audio-Technica AT-HA5050H, which provides a total of four different output impedances (0.1, 31, 82 and 120 ohms), and it was very interesting to hear how each of my headphones reacted to the different settings. I was surprised to discover that I was not as wedded to the 0.1 ohm setting as I'd anticipated.

I know many of your amps already provide two output impedance options, which are tied to the gain. I was thinking more along the lines of separating these so that the output impedance and gain could be selected independently of each other? I think the four options provided by the HA5050H are a bit too extreme, and that it would perhaps be more useful to provide a toggle switch with, say, three options that were bunched more closely, e.g. 0.1, 15 and 50 ohms.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this? Oh, and Happy New Year!

Raising the output impedance causes the frequency response to track the impedance curve of the transducer. If you want an equalizer, buy one you can actually adjust.