whats a good older hdcd cd player?


i had a chance to listen back in the mid 90s a system that blew my mind. didnt have the money for it but remember the cd player was a nad player and the speakers were psb stratus golds. i now own stratus silver i speakers and a old school pioneer elite 39tx pre amp. the cd player now is a old elite dv37 which is dvd also. i would like my own cd player but dont wanna spend a ton since my equip is pretty low fi stuff. do non hdcd players equal out at all to a non hdcd. i would like a nad c541 but cant find one. thanks for any info. newbie kevin
flyin2jz

Showing 3 responses by kijanki

For digital source almost anything sounds the same on Benchmark as long as it is "bit transparant" - even Benchmark says so. Video is nice benefit - I use Sony DVD player with DAC1.
FMJ-23 used RINGDACs same Dacs used in expensive Elgar. (ARCAM got license for them). Because of production problems (low yield) they switched to regular DACs in next generation. Get one if you still can. Ringdac has 4 current sources built-in that randomly add noise (16 levels)to increase resolution in filtering. As for HDCD - it is 16-bit compressed format where least significant bit 16 switches dynamic range od remaining 15 bits. Some studio engineers say that it sounds weird and was introduced to promote media with very strong copy protection. I would stay away - it's dead format.
Bob - your Denon might be the best solution for Kevin if it's not too expensive.