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Crazy to buy a 17 year old CD Player?

My ARC CD2 just died...I think the laser finally gave up the ghost.  Any how I've got thousands of red book CDs in my library and need a replacement player.  I'm thinking an ARC CD 3MKII or the Mark Levinson 390S.  Am I crazy to be thinking this?  Got a budget of around $2000.00.  My system, though dated, is made up of higher end stuff: ARC 25 pre amp, ARC VT 150 mono amps, VPI TNT IV, Wilson Witts, all running through Transparent Reference (Balanced).
cmcdaniel5

Showing 2 responses by georgehifi

georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
What is the advantage of R2R-based DACs for CD playback, you ask?
Nodicnorm is correct, this is from MoJo Music which gives you the reason why a R2R Multibit coverters are better to do RedBook (pcm) with, than a dsd (delta sigma converter.

"When a PCM file is played on a DSD or Bit Stream (Delta Sigma) converter, the DAC chip has to convert the PCM to DSD in real time. This is one of the major reasons people claim DSD sounds better than PCM, when in fact, it is just that the chip in most modern single-bit (Delta Sigma) DACs do a poor job of decoding PCM."

The reason why I said to the OP to get the earlier ML no.39 than the later ML 390s. Also the Linn CD12 and Naim CD555 are great older units for RedBook replay. All these are still very pricey on the used market for a good un-molested one..

Cheers George
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
cmcdaniel5
  Crazy to buy a 17 year old CD Player?
No, definitely not, not if you want the best from a RedBook (pcm) collection.
But you need one of the players that use R2R Multibit conversion to get the best from RedBook (pcm).
Your choice of the ML 390s is OK, but it's a Delta Sigma dac converter based unit, you'll be far better off getting the earlier ML No.39 as it's R2R Multibit PCM1702 and it has the HDCD PMD100 HDCD filter chip, a far better choice.

Cheers George  
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