[LSU_Tiger]

EDIT: Typo in title.. It's HITACHI, not HITACH. D'oh.

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I'm looking for information and / or opinion about these two vintage CDPs. I'm not sure when they were manufactured, but I'd guess late 80s for the Hitachi and early 90s for the Emerson.

I know Emerson is a budget, low-quality brand, but was hoping a model this old might be decent.

I'm totally cluess about the Hitachi. I haven't heard opinions on way or another on them.

I'm looking to possibly use these as sources for a home headphone setup and was wondering if they are worth keeping or not.

Any ideas?

 

[Duncan]

Bump...

<edited title>

 

[markl]

In general, you should avoid CDPs that are older than 5-8 years of age. The digital technology has come so far during this time that cheap modern machines will often beat out yesterday's high-end stuff. The two units you mention appear to be mass-market machines anyway.

Mark

 

[tanfenton]

I have no definite information to offer you, LSU, on either of those two machines. Chances are, however, that, if they were of low dollar or class in their companies' lines, they weren't good by the standards of their period. But, virtually, to blanketly assign designs from the eighties poor fate is an ignorant thing to do, as a more thorough appraisal of that decade's hardware will confirm time and again.

NGF

 

[LSU_Tiger]

I guess I'm a bit confused now.

I've heard that older versions of CDPs are sometimes better than current stuff. Or am I extrapolating what I've heard about PCDP over on the Portable Audio board incorrectly?

Older PCDP > Newer PCDP

but

Older CDP < Newer CDP?

Straighten me out, someone.

I'm a confused.

 

[markl]

Well, I did try to make it clear I was generalizing.

I did it thinking there wasn't likely to be anyone here who knew specifically about those machines, so a general answer was best. Of course there are great machines from the 80s that can stack up to the better machines of today, but probably not by mass-market electronics companies, though no doubt Sony made some very expensive CDPs in the 80s.

Of course, only way to know for sure is to listen to them! Or better yet, see if you can get a loaner of one of the low-priced CDPs talked about here to compare head-to-head.

Mark

 

[markl]

LSU,
IMO, FWIW, the analogy of older PCDPs being better than new ones definitely does not apply to CDPs. CDPs built since roughly the dawn of DVD and coming forward will generally have better DACs in them than similarly-priced models of yore.

I'm sure there are many examples of great old machines from the past, but IMO, those are likely to be much more expensive units, not ones priced comparably with today's better budget CDPs ($300-$500 range).

Speaking BROADLY and in GENERAL terms of course.

Mark

 

[LSU_Tiger]

Very interesting info. Thanks for that.

Now that we've got the general rule about older CDPs, what about older amps, speakers and turntables?

I've inherited a the following gear:

Hafler DH-220 amp (circa 1982)
Technics SL-1600MK2 turntable
2 Audio Research AR-3a's (circa 1968)

I'm guessing this was a mid-fi setup back then.

How would this gear perform against today's standards?

 

[tanfenton]

No, the older machines aren't tagged comparably. While their factory figures were often in the range you indicated, they are now priced with great sanity, especially for today's market, anywhere from forty to one hundred dollars. Not all of them were over-engineered in the way we think of the high end being today, some even of modest construction and equivalent price. In all honesty, they were not so different from, say, the Philips everyone now ogles. Denon, Yamaha, Pioneer, and company produced these types of machines consistently, others got lucky, and some, by my own measure, dragged digital to horrendous lows. In any case, and laughably so, in this hobby, better doesn't always mean better.

NGF