A Discerning CD player......

[pastoralguy]

I have a friend who has one of those - and not only that be he's fitting bottom shakers in his seats to get ludicrously severe vibrations when something bad happens in the films he watches .......

Not too subtle, I think.

http://www.bassshakers.com/faqs/aura...us-buttkicker/

Wow! I want one!!

Imagine the beginning of Gorecki's Symphony No.3!

[jayne lee wilson]

Why not replace the Sony with a bottom of the range Cambridge system? Richer sounds are selling Cambridge Audio TOPAZ CD5 for £150, maybe less if your local branch has an "open box" offer.

A better more future-proofed option might be a separate Cambridge Transport/Dac.... it all depends on how you listen (or watch). But if all you need is CD (i.e not DVD, SACD etc etc) replay plus various software options (stream, download etc), it would get you a better result musically.

Some of the Cambridge Universal payers were very similar to the Oppos (and reviewed very well) - perhaps take a look at those, if that's what you need.
In 2019, the first thing to decide always has to be: what do I need now, what might I want later...?

[Mal]

I have a friend who has one of those - and not only that be he's fitting bottom shakers in his seats to get ludicrously severe vibrations when something bad happens in the films he watches ...

What happens when the heroine is snubbed by the lady of the manor? A gentle downward motion?

[jayne lee wilson]

I have a friend who has one of those - and not only that be he's fitting bottom shakers in his seats to get ludicrously severe vibrations when something bad happens in the films he watches .......

Not too subtle, I think.

http://www.bassshakers.com/faqs/aura...us-buttkicker/

That T.Rex in Jurassic Park has a lot to answer for...

[Mal]

"I doubt an external DAC will do anything to improve the sound. Even the cheapest players nowadays have specs way beyond the range of human hearing. The reason to choose one player over another is features, for instance the ability to play SACDs, not sound quality." - Big Shot #22 @ https://www.talkclassical.com/35919-...-player-2.html

[Mal]

"I doubt an external DAC will do anything to improve the sound. Even the cheapest players nowadays have specs way beyond the range of human hearing. The reason to choose one player over another is features, for instance the ability to play SACDs, not sound quality." - Big Shot #22 @ https://www.talkclassical.com/35919-...-player-2.html

IF Big Shot is right, and if all you need is to play CDs, why not go for the cheapest CD player at Richer Sounds?

[Dave2002]

See http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...413#post686413 , bought new from the Eton branch of Richer Sounds.

I remember from the time. Nearly nudged me into buying an Oppo 203 ....

Note that one of the reasons you gave for buying it was the failure of a Cambridge Blue Ray player, and apparently not even a very old one either.

[Dave2002]

IF Big Shot is right, and if all you need is to play CDs, why not go for the cheapest CD player at Richer Sounds?

If Big Shot is right in all things (!!) then you don't need to hear the LSO, or the Berlin PO, or listen to Echt Mozart, but this is just as good - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2QtOqf20qg

Probably got all the notes (plus a few more) and roughly in the right order.

[jayne lee wilson]

"I doubt an external DAC will do anything to improve the sound. Even the cheapest players nowadays have specs way beyond the range of human hearing. The reason to choose one player over another is features, for instance the ability to play SACDs, not sound quality." - Big Shot #22 @ https://www.talkclassical.com/35919-...-player-2.html

God. God! Totally ignorant and completely out-of-date, sorry!

The rise and rise of Computer Audio has meant that it is precisely Dacs and digital processing that have seen the most inventive and innovative technology over the last 10 years; having auditioned and lived with a number of them (from Perpetual Tech to Musical Fidelity to Cambridge to my present, much-loved 4-filter T&A, I can speak from ears-on experience....

They go on getting better and cheaper. The implementation of switchable Filters in DACs is very useful, because you can tailor the sound-character to suit individual recordings, systems, rooms and ears....(several replay systems in one - in fact, once you've heard a "minimum phase" setting, it is quite hard to go back to the standard redbook Linear types... they can sound a bit flat after that...there was always a trade-off between frequency response (smooth reproduction of highest sounds to lowest) and impulse response (timing, i.e. rhythmic attack and coherence )...but that's another very long story...)

One or two earlier CD players had these (the legendary Marantz CD-7, for example - I still regret never getting hold of one) but it is rare before about 2009....
After which, with so many digital sources and codecs, it was a no-brainer to fit them to any digital processing unit. Mind you, it can go too far - the Audiolab M-Dac offered seven of the damn things... (even the designer admitted some of them were "just for fun...")

I wonder if any owners enjoyed playing with all those... or did the choices keep them awake at night..?

[Bryn]

I remember from the time. Nearly nudged me into buying an Oppo 203 ....

Note that one of the reasons you gave for buying it was the failure of a Cambridge Blue Ray player, and apparently not even a very old one either.

Not a total failure. It just lost the ability to read CD-Rs properly. As mentioned, I retained it for its DVD Audio compatibility. Its other weakness, from new, was the restriction of its USB input to the playing of mp3 files. Cambridge refused to offer a firmware update to offer further CODEC compatibility. Its 6-year guarantee had expired by the time it lost its CD-R reading functionality. I would add that my understanding was that the Cambridge Audio badged devices were cit-down versions of the Oppo products they were based upon. Perhaps the emergence of the CD-R compatibility was the result of using a lower cost transport.

[richardfinegold]

"I doubt an external DAC will do anything to improve the sound. Even the cheapest players nowadays have specs way beyond the range of human hearing. The reason to choose one player over another is features, for instance the ability to play SACDs, not sound quality." - Big Shot #22 @ https://www.talkclassical.com/35919-...-player-2.html

Big Shot's views are idiosyncratic in the least. Among other things, he believes that all amplifiers that measure equally sound the same, and that the DACs that are contained in the typical PC are as good a DAC as anyone will ever need. Virtually no one on the TC Forum of in Audiophilia in general agrees with him