Tweekerman brings up a good point regarding quality. I have had in the past about 4k in a transport and dac. They both were returned some time in their life for sevice to make them well again. They sounded great, but they broke. I do not know if the two companies still service the units. One of them, the transport, no longer has the transport mechanism made. If the mechanism is not used currently in cd-rom or DVD applications, beware if you are going to keep the unit for many years. You can buy a cheap DVD player and treat it like kleenex:use it and throw it away when its finished. Vinyl seems like a better investment to me than digital. By the way, I sold my two units and bought a cheap dvd player...big drop in sound quality. I will be buying a VPI soon. Jallen
Whats the deal with CD players?
I have a hard time telling the difference between CD players, even ones that are cheaply made vs. 'hi-end', or even CD's vs. DVD players. I couldn't even notice a big difference between tube and solid state outputs. When i get a player home i'll set up a double blind a/b test vs. my inexpensive dvd player and have yet to find a player that i could honestly say was a marked improvement. When i read reviews, both amateur and professional, people make it seem like it's night and day. And what do people mean by jitter? Amps and speakers to me can be night and day, but Cd players? I currently use a pair of dynaudio 1.8's and some H/K separates and I'll admit I skimp on cables and use those plastic ones that came with my vcr and dvd player, but despite that, shouldn't I be able to at least tell which player i'm listening to? I'd upgrade my cables, but I don't think cables are to blame. I know this post will piss a lot of people off, but honestly, what is it that you hear that can make you drop tons of cash on a cd player?