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Superior sound from newer CD players?

I have a 12 year old Luxman DZ-111 CD player(dual 16-bit DAC's, 4x oversampling, 3-beam laser). It still sounds good but I've been putting togeather a new system and want to upgrade my player also. Will most of the newer players give me an upgrade in sound? I'm considering used players like:
Rega Planet 2000
Cal Labs Icon Mk11/HDCD
Creek 43Mk11
Adcom GCD 750
NAD S500
Arcam CD-72
Also considering a new Cambridge D500se(is it in the same league as the others?) One concern I have is that the older Luxman sounds much better(to me) than my new DVD player with
96 kHz 24-bit DAC. The DVD player is a Denon 1500 and when playing CD's it sounds cold, shrill and harsh compared to the Luxman although it has greater detail(or maybe just brighter detail). So now I'm worried that maybe these other player's I've mentioned won't really be an improvement after all. Also I plan on getting a pre/proc like a used Lexicon DC-1 or 2. Won't the dac's in a good unit like this be as good or better than most DACs in the players I've mentioned? I guess you can tell I'm new at this and still confused
say811

Showing 1 response by sean

sean
6,231 posts
 
I pretty much agree with Sugarbrie. To add to his comments, i have found that every DVD player that i have auditioned at home has always sounded colder, leaner, brighter, etc... than even a "decent" CD player.

The only point that i tend to disagree with Sugar's comments are about the Cambridge pieces. If you read the "general consensus" over at AR ( Audio Review ), there were a LOT of problems with Cambridge cd's in terms of reliability. I know that Listener magazine also liked these units a LOT, but i was "scared away" by reading more than a few negative comments from "the average consumer".

You could always check one of these out courtesy of Audio Advisor. AA also sells Adcom ( another on your list ). If the NAD CD Players are anything like their older models, they sound smooth and warm but are not very detailed. Can't say anything about the others. Good luck on your search. Sean
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