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Your experience:a cdp that gets best of lesser cds

I'm looking for a cd player that will get more out of the playback and sound of lesser quality recordings and/or poorly remastered cd's from the past (example: 70's soul/ 50's and 60's jazz remasters. By "more" I mean less thinness, leaness, in the sonics and more weight and lows, yet not rolled off or muted in the highs. In other words, a player that will dig deeper- do more with a lesser cd. I currently have an excellent player, the Modwright Sony 999ES, fully loaded, but synergy-wise it's not maximizing in my system. I'm looking for a used player in the $2500 -$3k area that will improve the sound quality on some of the lesser cd's I own. The one thing about this hobby that frustrates me no end is the synergy thing which can take away great performance from a quality piece of gear. My system: LSA/DK Signature int, Reimer Wind River GS, Modwright Sony,Acoutstic Zen cabling, Shunyata Hydra- various aftermarket PC's. Do you know of such a player?
foster_9

Showing 3 responses by newbee

newbee
4,751 posts
 
Foster 9, why have just one CDP. You can get an inexpensive tube CDP, stuff it with different tubes until you get the tone you want, then play your bad CD's on it and use your good one for the reference stuff. :-)

Other than that, you can't have it all in one player. Tvad is right.
newbee
4,751 posts
 
Well, on the cheap you could do worse than the Raysonic 128 as a 2d unit. It really responds well to tube changes and turns in a very credible performance. I retired my old Cal Alpha/Delta without a tear.

I'm not as as fond of the use of an equalizer in this function. IMHO, you can shelve down the frequencies where the 'digital glare' occurs on 'bad' CD's but you don't change the fundamental glare - at least I can still hear it anyway. But using the right tube CDP (or an outboard buffer as suggested by Beheme) you can by selecting the right tubes soften the glare itself.

FWIW.
newbee
4,751 posts
 
Foster 9, You have restated your desires - I completely read thru these and went to the obvious complaint so many folks have about 'glare', so common in early CD's. Sorry 'bout that. Noting your desires, my recommendation would be the same. A well broken in Raysonic, using stock EH 6922's, has a full, reasonably tight, warm bass/lower mid-range, lots of detail without brightness, and of the 3 CDP's I'm currently using it provides the best imaging. It ain't perfect but its dammed good, and in MHO it fits your description of what you want in a 2d CDP. BTW, no commercial interest in the success or failure of this unit. I just think its a hell of a value when I see them selling used for as little as $1200. :-)
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