How can we settle for digital?

there was a cd player, vintage 1994, that i auditioned in an all naim system. the naim cd player was the cd x.

i remember being startled at the sound coming out of a pair of naim speakers. what i heard seemed to surpass most vinyl set ups.

the problem with comparing vinyl to digital is that one cannot generalize. some cartridges and recordings are so bad that i would not want to listen to such a set up.

i personally prefer an old koetsu black cartridge to almost anything out there.

the point is that there may be a cd player which is more satisfying than some turn table /arm/ cartridge combinations.

The Linn DS changed the way I think about digital.

Are you asking us if it's foolish to spend $3K on a CDP? Just keep in mind that a price point is where the manufacturer stops adding any more value to something. If you take two identical boxes and fit them each with the same laser/transport, filter and DAC you can get two different sounding CDP's. Just use better transformers, filter caps, wiring/PCB's, output transistors and hardware. That one would cost more and (should) sound better. Will it sound good enough to justify the difference? That's where you come in to the equation.

I think what your friend is trying to convey is that the actual retrieval process hasn't changed over the years and the differences in parts and engineering are the polish. I happen to disagree - for what makes one CDP sound better than another is the same reason why one amp sounds better than another: power supply, voltage/current regulation and linear output devices. They cost big money as you move up the food chain and account for a large percentage of the overall cost. Add to that dampening, shielding and circuitry layout that minimizes signal path distortion and you get the idea.

My point was less about CDP's, which can be quite great, and was more about digital recording itself and the CD format. I own and listen to many CD's because either they do not exist on vinyl or the CD beats the vinyl (which happens time to time). If I want to hear Webern played by the Arditti Quartet I must enlist my trusty Meridian 507 24 bit player. That's not the problem. The problem is the engineering behind the recording. Many digital recordings and transfers made in the 90's are truly terrible, and one would get the impression that until quite recently digital just sucks. Granted, it got better, but I still do not hear it competing with the best analogue out there and I doubt it ever will.

Gs5556 said:

"I think what your friend is trying to convey is that the actual retrieval process hasn't changed over the years..."

Well, the upsampling schemes and clocks in DACs have changed a lot in the last 24-months or so.

Dave