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Is my dealer lying to me?

This past weekend I went to listen to some speakers. I've been planning to buy CD player also, but that was not this weekend's purpose.

At first we were using a YMB player, McCormick amp, and Soliloquy 5.3 speakers. The speakers is what I was auditioning.

The CD player he is trying to sell me is the Cambridge Audio D500ES, I beleive. Price:400

Big difference I know between the YMB ($2500)and the Cambridge ($400). But it wasn't $2100 in difference in sound I can tell you that. What concerns me is the difference between his comments and the perceived opinions of people on this board. In other threads, there are quite a bit of "ditch the Cambridge" comments.

The dealers comments were "best player under $2000"... "chris sold his $2500 Theta and picked this one up because it's that good, and pocketed the money"... etc.

I'm not asking if this is the best player under $2000. But how does it compare to Arcam and Rega models at $500-700?

Obvisouly, he recommends the Soliloquy 5.3 also. I liked them but wasn't as impressed as much as I thought I would be. The guy has a small shop and seems honest, but it seems this cambridge is not very well respected in this forum.

I've gotten rid of alot of my gear. What I have left to use is a Yamaha RXV-995 receiver. An amp will come, hopefully sooner than later, but I need speakers and a CD player now unless I want to continue to use my DVD player for CDs.

Any comments?
gunbunny

Showing 1 response by rbirke

rbirke
144 posts
 
The following is my experience, and where I think more money makes the most difference

Most important -- good amp/preamp
Next -- good speakers
Next -- wire
Next -- cd player

If items 1, 2 & 3 are top-notch, you will notice the difference in item 4.

For me, high quality sound can be found if you spend 2K on electronics, 1500-2500 on speakers (less if used, and it's hard to get high quality for under a grand), 500+ on wire (but at least 250) and 500 on a cd player.

So the cd player is probably the best bang for the buck. I.e., you get a lot without spending a lot, while that is not the case with other components.
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