2. digital
  3. 1007413157

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 2 responses by ultrakaz

ultrakaz
187 posts
 
I agree with the above posts that high end cd players are grossly overpriced and that your money is way better spent on speakers and amplification.

Like with all components there is a point of diminishing returns, where you have to expend significantly more to get a little bit better sound. With cd players this point seems to be around $500. To be sure there are differences between players in this price range and up to $2000, but they are minor.

What you are really paying for in a more expensive player is better construction (hopefully), hype (likely) and lack of efficiency (the smaller the company or production run the more it costs them to build the player). I've heard cheap dvd players from mainstream manufacturers sound better than "megabuck" cd players from small high end companies.

The most important thing is to satisfy yourself and not follow blindly what you read in the magazines or this or any other discussion forum. Therefore, it really should not matter what your dealer says, simply trust your ears. And if you are lucky you will not care about the minor difference in sound that a $2000 player will give you.
ultrakaz
187 posts
 

Yes you made the right decision to go with the Panasonic.

The RP-56 has a superb picture and very good sound. I recently had a discussion with a reviewer who lives in my neck of the woods and he told me that it measures more accurately than any of the Sonys that he has tested (for video, of course) and even better than the more expensive Panasonic he reveiwed that has DVD Audio. He believes that the Sonys have some extra processing/emphasis in the chips that cannot be turned off. To some, however, the extra processing gives the picture more punch, but at the expense of accuracy. He also told me the reason why the Panasonic is better is because there is less processing and features in it. As for the sound you will have to be the judge, but at the very least you have an excellent dvd player.

Keep this in mind when you go shopping for speakers and amplication.

In the long run you will find as you get further into audio that often times, less is more; the fewer things you have in the circuit the more pure the sound is (it should be more reliable too). Most of the time efficient speakers have a very simple crossover or none at all and lower powered amps have less transistors or tubes and an overall simpler circuit design. Therefore, when you go looking for your next set of speakers consider its efficiency. This will allow you to use an amp with less power. Like the Panasonic keep it simple.
More to discover