modified toshiba sd-4960. very detailed, musical and non-fatiguing. |
Museatex Bidat with current upgrade supplied by John Wright, which includes considerable work on the analog end. There is a thread about the amazing performance of this unit+mod as performed by Mr. Wright, who worked with Ed Meitner on the original design. |
Oracle CD-2000 Transport
Reimyo DAP-777 D/A
Stealth Sextet Digital Interconnect
Stealth Indra Analog Interconnect
Amazing combination |
Ram tosh 3950 with superclock 3...very analogue-like in its presentation..... |
Wadia WT2000S transport w/ XLO glass cable to a Wadia 64.4 DAC to preamp w/ Venustas XLR. Had 'em for 15 yrs. Haven't heard everything else, but haven't heard anything better. |
Sony 9000es as transport, running into Scott Nixon tube DAC. Surprisingly good and very inexpensive. |
Parasound CDP-2000 Ultra... |
Apple iBook into Audio Research DAC5 sounds pretty damn close to my VPI Scout into Audio Research PH3 phono stage... |
A cheap CD12. ala Linn Akemi... it kind of sounds analog like a CDP that a good TT maker would want to listen to, if it came to playing the Shiny silver stuff and it didn't break the bank.
Happy Listening! |
A Symphonic Line Reference one-box cdp -- for the last 7yrs.
It still works OK, a bit long in the tooth... it's satisfying AFA digital goes |
|
Sony XA9000ES with Audioquest NRG-3 power cord and home grown interconnect made from 24 gauge solid (1+ve/2-ve) OFC/silver coated wire-wrap by Alpha Wire.
Dum de dum . da di da |
Wadia WT 2000 with TEAC P2 VRDS mechanism upgrade, via Aural Symphonics ST Optimism V.2 glass fiber cable into Wadia 27 DAC. DAC to preamp: Purist Venustas XLR. Power cords, transport = Purist Venustas, DAC = Purist Dominus.(these are upgrades from my 7/05 post). The changes have brought my digital system just nanometers from my analog sound. But a nanometer is as good as a mile IMO ;--)
. |
Linn Unidisk 2.1, or at least until around a week ago (I just sold it). If I get another player, it will likely be an Ikemi or a Unidisk 1.1. Right now I'm exploring wireless network options, and so far I must say I really miss my CD player. |
Ayre Cx7e, hopefully to soon be upgraded w/ Ayre C5xe. Wonderful players, IMO, and AMAZING customer support. |
That is a real consensus and I bet we all believe our CDP is the most "analog" sounding one...excellent thread! I use McCormack UDP-1 original and guess what, it is as close to analog as it gets (kidding!). |
>>I bet we all believe our CDP is the most "analog" sounding one.<<
I don't.
Nor do I expect my digital front end to sound "analog like". |
A Musical Fidelity Nuvista 3D, so smooth and detailed...still doesn't beat vinyl though. |
Esoteric DV-50 un-modified. |
Lexicon, yep I know you guys are jealous :0), truth be told it is smoother then my dads Esoteric DV60. |
Modified Sony SCD 777es, but it falls FAR short of decent vinyl and cannot touch good/great vinyl. It is listenable, but the only time I reach for a CD is if someone else wants to hear it, or if I'm gonna be reading, or writing while listening...
O
o
. |
Lector CDP-7TL, and an AMR CD-77 soon... |
A 12 or 15 year old Music Hall CD32. I use it as I expect my digital playback to sound like digital - I'm not disappointed... |
My response on 7-30-05 is no longer accurate.
I am now the proud owner of a McCormack UDP-1 Deluxe and I am very happy with it. It is an excellent player. |
Audio Alchemy DDT/DDC (early 90's) connected a TCC TC-7510 24bit/96khz D/A converter via River Cable Digiflex Gold Plus coax |
Hi folks, what is the holy grail here: to make a CDP sound like vinyl or to make a CDP sound like live music? To me vinyl doesn't sound the same as live music. Vinyl playback systems and vinyl itself are too inherently coloured. But I might be wrong of course. Chris [email protected] |
>Vinyl playback systems and vinyl itself are too inherently coloured. But I might be wrong of course.<
And of course, you are......
Oz |
Rotel RC-1055 - like to load an listen non-stop for 5 hrs. |
CJ DV2B, Meridian 508.24 and a Jolida 100. These are about as "analog" as you can get. |
I've recently changed to use the Denon A11 (5900 Asia model) as my digital source, with a stock power cord, power supplied by a PS Audio P300. The A11 universal player is sited on 3 DH Jumbo points and 3 DH squares which all but lifted its performance. What I now get is more dynamics and a very natural flow. Thoroughly impressed! |
|
Marantz SA8260 SACD/CD player. |
Updating my totally out-of-date post, I sold the Sony XA777ES (using a cheap Sony NS 500V for SACDs only). Just bought a tubed Raysonic CD128 and use an Ack dAck 2.0 with it for those CDs suffering from major "digititus." It's too early for a really informed recommendation, but so far this Raysonic is awesome. Dave |
Dopogue: Are you suggesting the Ack dAck 2.0 is more rolled-off in the upper-mids/lower treble (a.k.a. brightness) range? To my mind, that's where digititis makes itself heard. I was under the impression by other posters that the Raysonic was smooth enough to make edgy-sounding CDs at least listenable. I know it may be too soon for you to tell, but when you do have some thoughts on this, please post them here. Thanks! |
The Raysonic definitely makes edgy CDs listenable, more so every day. I may reach a point where the Ack dAck becomes "unnecessary" and, yes, it does sound a bit rolled, relative to the Raysonic. One problem is that the DAC has substanially less output at the same gain setting, so A/B switching doesn't do it any favors. Both tubes and cables (especially power cords) have a major effect on the Raysonic's sound, So I don't have its full measure yet. But clearly it's a winner, IMHO. Dave |
At the moment, I don't have a CD player hooked up. When I do listen to CD (which is rare--I'm guessing it's at least a month since I played one!) I use a portable CD player and Grado SR 60 headphones. My portables are mostly older--the best is probably a 1989 Sony (made before it became a priority to get five hundred hours of run time from a single AAA battery.) This doesn't give me the best sound I can get from CD. But, it works, and it's better in many ways than what I've heard in my system with the "real" CD players (all of which were, ah, modestly priced) I've had over the years.
I sometimes think of getting a better CD player. But, then, those players would take money from the analog budget. And we certainly can't have that. Can we? |
Correction - I now use Reimyo.. but still stick to Accuphase as another good option. |
My digital front end consists of a 47 labs Flatfish mk2 -> Apogee Digital BigBen (clock) -> Zanden 5000 mk3 dac. All is connected using Siltech G6 Golden Ridge digital wire.
I have no desire to look for a new digital front end. For Redbook CDs, this setup for me really stands out. There is a 'flow' of music that most digital front ends are missing. Hard to describe, but you know it when you hear it.
I have not listened to the EMM labs gear. I'm sure thats first rate as well. |
The first cd player that changed my mind about digital being music was an APL Denon 3910(lower-cost one). Currently, I use the APL's transport with an Oritek OMZ DAC(It's a combined preamp and DAC.). |
Zanden's Signature DAC with Zanden Transport (i2s connection) and Metronome's Kalista Transports. |
IBM x40 notebook-Apogee Rosetta 200. Cd is still cd, and has some brightness and hardness, which makes a difference to LP. But, I digitilise my LPs through the AD converter of Apogee, and that digital recording is practically indistinguishable from the LP, and at the same time very much differs from the "original" "factory made" cd-copy of the same LP. |
I've just upgraded to the Esoteric P-05/D-05 and its a keeper! |
|
Abbingdon Music Research AMR CD-77 |
Modded Sony SCD-1. Extensive rework of this CDP has kept RBCD within one pubic hair of vinyl spun at 45 RPM on the delta of venus. |
Mod. Audio Research CD7 , other tubes , and a special
Clock ( TentLabs , Dutch brand ).Sounds very analog , but
can 't beat the Sphinx PJ 6 TT with ET 2.5 arm and TE KAITORA cartridge .
Greetings from the Netherlands .Hans |
Used GNSC modded Wadia 830 for a long time - loved it. Now using an Oracle CD-1000 transport into a Maui-modded Tact 2.0s. |
|
|
I recently bought my 'last CD player'. I spent weeks auditioning reference players from Audio Research, Audio Aero, Meridian, Classe, Linn, and Esoteric among others. I purchased the Sim Moon Andromeda CDP and have been very happy.
Regards, |
