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Cd's released up to 95' not remastered - DAC?

Is there any hope for these CD's? I have many great bands I'd like to listen to but unless I find vinyl I can't tolerate it.. not to mention I have some of this media and would like to protect my investment.. not to mention they are cheap to buy used..

I just upgraded my Onix XCD-88 OpAmps and it was a wonderful upgrade.. but short of canning that player and spending $2k min. on a new player I am about out of ideas.. While my Onix has digital outs I would not be adverse to using a PC to send to a DAC if that is an option.. but I dont want to waste my time and money..

I am sorry of this was covered.. I just spent 3 hours scouring forums and while there is tons of DAC info I did not find a thread that addressed this directly.

Inevitibly someone will ask so:

Onix XCD-88 Op amp mod
Harmon Kardon 825 and Eico HF85 Preamps
Threshold 400a amplifier (and another on the way)
Vandersteen 2ce biwired with RCA 12 gauge (scouring for a wire upgrade)
B&O beogram RX MMC3 cartridge
jprinz

Showing 3 responses by jprinz

jprinz OP
31 posts
 
Anybody have experience with this?
jprinz OP
31 posts
 
To be clear what I am asking is: Can old annoying CD's be "fixed".. but I am not really looking for speculation.. looking for someone who has played with this.. I have seen MANY references to improving CD's on a PC via upsampling..etc.. I dont know what the results are and I also wonder what a DAC could do.. I keep hearing non upsample dacs are BETTER? Its very confusing and thats why I would love some real life information.

I hope that makes sense. Questioning my musical taste is definately not what I am asking for, and if you recall I mentioned I am trying to take advantage of my CD's... so suggestion to me to go out and find vinyl (especially when it doesnt exist as is the case of many mid to 80's on up CD's) is not what I am looking for either.

I guess what I am saying is dont kill me cuz I love "The Tubes" or heaven forbid the 80's hair band RATT! :) Definately laughing out loud right now!

I'm guessing I am going to be waiting for the master tapes to be dusted off some day but I thought I'd ask.
jprinz OP
31 posts
 
KB54:Shine Ola huh? Never heard of it.. but did just google it. Seems like a joke to me.. but so many reviews cannot be overlooked. I guess I will be forced to order some up.. makes 0 sense to me.. 0's and 1's are 0's and 1's.. you cant change that.. weird. Also; I did not know Cd's were "pressed".. I guess I assumed they were simply burned.. I have much to learn.

Metralla: Boy, you really want to help me dont you? :) I guess I am assuming everyone knows what a bad cd is.. you can't listen to it for more than 30 minutes tops.. it is basically a buzzsaw effect you can hear just barely.. and it just grinds on you after awhile.

On RATT: I have that one on vinyl.. damn thing is soooo compressed.. but that was the cool thing to do back then I guess. I'd love to remaster that one.. hopefully the tracks are laid down clean with no processing.. ahhhh I can only dream. I guess I will have to find the CD u have.. I heard much about the "target" cd's but own none.

On a related note: I have a Tascam US-122 I am setting up to copy some vinyl to CD.. but it probably had a really marginal DAC in it.. we shall see..

Anyhow.. my question still sort of stands.. wondering if someone has tried to improve these old cd's with success..
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