Finally got my system where it sounds great to me. Have Primaluna power amp and preamp. Power amp now has KT 120 power tubes. Have a great turntable and a pair of Klipsch Cornwall's with Crites crossovers and a pair of Dynaudio 1.1 monitors. Some room treatment now and working on cables. My weak piece now is my CD player. Older CDs still sound bad. Newer well recorded CDs sound great. I have been using a Marantz 6005 CD player. I wanted to make some of my rare albums into CDs so I dragged out a 15 year old at least Pioneer cd recorder. Hooked it up and my wife and I did an a-b between it and the Maranrz and neither of us could tell a difference. So in 15 years CD players haven't improved or are they both mid fi CD players? I do have an Emotiva dac and some things sound marginally better through it and some things sound worse. Long story to get to my point. Should I invest in s high dollar CD player (I have probably 6000 CDs) or a high quality DAC or a DAC and transport. Most of my listening is done on CDs. My albums sound great through my system but I don't have room to replace CDs with lps. Any suggestions of brands to look at or things to consider? Thanks for any help.
Hi, Dylanfan. I have one of the 1st iterations made of an unspectacular soundind, Sony 5 disc (rotating, lazy susan-style transport) that offers a pretty decent method for loading, holding, shuffling & moving abouts 5 discs of your choosing. However, the built-in DAC is @ best a primitive affair with underwhelming sound. I bought an early version of a Musical Fidelity DAC, the now discontinued V90 with a 24 bit 96kHz capable Burr-Brown chipset, and the sound of all my CD playback was very audibly improved.
I'd say look for a DAC with a good core chipset, like the Burr-Brown (Lord knows they rapidly advance with ever higher sampling rates and better bit depth. Just choose a DAC W/ the flexibility to connect to your player's raw digital output whether digital coax, optical, or USB or even firework if your Apple centric. Let me know what you find. I probably could use another dedicated converter, since I often find myself switching it from duty translating the digital out of my macbook pro & mac pro tower in the office by day & night duty getting the Sony out to my Manley Stingray integrated tube amp. This and a pair of Anthony Gallo Reference 3's make for a pretty well dimensioned soundstage. I prefer spinning my tables, but the 5 disc transport sees significant use, and I don't have to garage sale the collection for pennies on the dollar. Good luck! Happiness, Andy chomicz
There are many high-end CD players with their own high-end dacs E.g. REGA ISIS valve, NAIM, Meridian, DCS, Mark Levinson, among numerous others. They are all north of $10k , but maybe a used one may fall into your budget
These are not mid-fi or entry level hi-fi. Any of these will smoke the suggested comps.
Trying to keep it at 3000.00 or less. Just wondering if digital is just going to sound digital no matter what. I have so many great CDs that are just so bad on a good system.
Time to load up. I'm convinced that a sizable investment in a CD transport is now futile. A music server should be your course as it will outperform a transport. It also provides the convenience of having your library on you iPAD. Good luck.
Celtic66, A music server is the ultimate way to go. But, before he can make that move, he still has the problem of a CDP playing back with a high jitter rate.
Dylanfan, In your other thread you asked the same question, "new CD or DAC?" First, forget about the Emotiva; it will never sound close to analogue. Second, $3000 will get you a very good "close to analogue" sounding CDP such as a used Ayre or ARC. Is it worth it, probably not, since you will have spent all your money and eventually you will want a DAC in your system.
Start researching DACs. I see your Marantz 6005 has a digital coax output, get a high quality coax cable for input to the DAC.
I own a high end cd player (Vitus) which makes old cds sound musical and enjoyable, so given my music collection is mostly comprised of cd's, it is a great friend. The Vitus is also a great dac. Though unlike you, I have a relatively small collection of cd's & plan on continuing to collect cd's until storage becomes an issue. At that point I plan on adding a Server transport to feed off my Vitus dac, then start the process of archiving my collection onto the server - with backup hopefully to a mirror drive in the same product (like Burmester), or to an external drive.
Then there are products like the Bladelius Embla which has a good built in dac & slot drive which allows you to rip or play cd's like a normal cd player. To me, servers and streamers are the future. With that said, I plan on keeping my cd player for the long haul (mainly as a dac, but also to occasionally play cds). I don't think i'll ever lose the enjoyment of spinning shiny discs.
I am with Lowrider and Melbguy on this. Purchase a quality DAC having more than a single SPDIF input and start by using your 8005 as a transport. You will have the flex to upgrade the transport if you find desirable and/or add a server.
I am leaning towards a really good DAC. Thanks for all the advice. Any recommendations for a DAC. I will eventually go the server route and load CDs on it so it has to have a usb input. A friend recommended a Schiit. What do you think
Dylan, it depends on your budget & whether you want a tubed or ss dac. A lot of people think highly of the PS Audio DirectStream dac. There are also a lot of good tube dacs like Lampizator and PS Audio. I'm obviously a fan of Vitus Audio.
You can't go too wrong with a MHDT or Eastern Electric Minimax DAC for less than $1,500. Plus, in addition, if you add in an inexpensive re-clock jitter fixer you will be in great shape. Best, Rob
Mikirob is right. You can go for a mid-priced DAC and add in a reclocker for smoother playback. You could then keep your Marantz as the transport (which is the weak link). The higher up the DAC chain you go, the better the master clock is. (jitter control).
Thanks Mikirob and Lowrider57 for the suggestions. Those are in my price range. Do you know a good dealer to work with in the U.S.A. Any preference over the two?
10-28-15: Dylanfan 6000.00 is out of my budget. PS Audio looks great but....I need something for 1/2 of that.
Dylan, Music Direct have an ex-demo PS Audio DirectStream dac for $4799 if you're interested which you should easily be able to negotiate down to $4500. I can't get markup quotes to work today for some reason, but google is your friend. In/around your price range, that's the dac i'd shoot for. It does DSD right, is modular in design & upgradeable through free firmware updates making it future-proof. I know Paul is very committed to ongoing product support & connects with customers through the Community section of his website. Paul also posted a thread how to build a Mac Mini server for less than $1k fyi.
I agree with Melbguy, mesch, and Lowrider - go for the great DAC and use the 6005 as a transport for now. I would recommend an earlier used EMM - in my view, better than the PS Audio DSD for much less (~$3.5k, which is around your budget, but a huge step up in performance from where you are now).
Well I bought a Wyred 4 Sound dac2 from a guy in Texas. Not one that was recommended but got a good deal on it and it gets great reviews. Gonna try this and see what happens. Thanks for all the help and advice
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