2. digital
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CD player how much to invest

I sometimes wonder should I invest more in digital playback in the future. My current CD transport is a CEC TL51x with a Wadia 12 DAC.
From shows and visits to friends I have learned that there are better CD players out there then my combo, but at what price. The AMR CD-777, is a little better but at €4000 twice the cost. The AMR CD-77 and Nagra CDP are even better still but they cost 10 times or more then my combo.

But is it worth the investment even if I had the money. I believe that with say €2000 you can buy a good CD player That is maybe 90% of a €10.000 CD player.

However I do think that speakers and turntables have a higher return on investment sonic wise. A friend of mine will bring his Jadi Symphonia with Electraglide powercord + Harmonic Tech Magic Link I interlink. To compare. I somehow doubt it will be much better, it may be different but better I don't know.

I am wrong to think that? Are more expesive CD player really a lot better then mid priced and if so how come?

Sorry for my rant, but when I was thinking about upgrading my set and maybe buy an other CD player would it be worth the money? Will I hear a difference etc.
mordante
foster_9
1,638 posts
 
Look for a used Cary 303/300. Should be able to find one for less than $2,000 USD
09-24-10: Jburidan

I have all Cary electronics (SLP 05 preamp and A306 amplfier) I ran them balanced into the Cary 303/300 player. I no longer own it. I like Cary products and wanted to love it, but the 303/300 was sonically very disappointing in my setup.
mordante OP
511 posts
 
Today I was at the an audio show there I heard the Pink Faun DAC 2 connected to a Mac mini. The sound was better then I had expected. Streaming audio had come a long way it seems. I spoke with the technical man behind Pink Faun. He preferred the burr brown PCM 1704 over the Sabre DAC. He said the Sabre has a lot of nice features but the burr brown sound better. The DAC doesn't have any digital filtering or oversampling it does upsample, I was explained why this was good. It sounded plausible. I'll think I will try one out for a few days.
karelfd
476 posts
 
Hi Mordante, thanks for the update on Pink Faun's DAC2, I went to the white paper on Triple M's homepage straight away. Back in May when I bought my DAC3, Clemens had told me that they were building a reference DAC, I didn't know they were showing it in Utrecht (makes me regret even more I couldn't go). Did you speak with Mattijs there?
Btw, I seem to recall you were looking for power cords some time ago. Pink Faun's PC line are quite superb, should be a perfect match for both drive and DAC (makes me wonder how good the new PCX cords may be ... at a price, sadly).
Have fun auditioning the DAC2, I'm sure you will.
mordante OP
511 posts
 
Ho Karelfd,

Yes I spoke with Mattijs there. He seems like a really friendly fellow. To be honest I'm not really sure how to procede from here. I also want to see if I can try out the Olive 4. If should upgrade to the Pink Faun DAC, buy a Olive 4 HD, go for a MAC mini or upgrade my speakers.

To many options.
mordante OP
511 posts
 
And yes I was looking for some powercords. I bought a NBS Omega III for my DAC. IMHO NBS cables are really good for digital source components. For amplifiers I would look somewhere else, maybe Shunyata will do better there.
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