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CD players for soundstage depth

Recommendations please!

What CD players give the best soundstage depth, and layering?

I listen mainly to classical, a lot of orchestral, and I like to hear that the brass and woodwind are sitting towards the back of the stage, *behind* the strings, not floating in air above them.

Thanks.
128x128twoleftears
tvad
9,467 posts
 
Speaker placement is a good place to start for improving soundstage depth, as Sugarbrie stated above.

Also, reducing the system noise floor using some power conditioning and/or good power cords goes a long way to improving resolution, thereby making the image sound larger and deeper.
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears OP
1,457 posts
 
Thanks guys!

The thing is, I *am* getting good soundstaging and layering from LPs, but CD playback falls short in this regard, hence my question. The CDP in the system currently is an older 777 Sony model, which is to be replaced soon, but by what?
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
Just get a better CD player period. If it outputs nice clean detailed sound, that will in itself produce the good soundstage, if you have the rest of the system in good order.
bar81
754 posts
 
ime the Meridian 808.2 is excellent in that regard.
reubent
3,587 posts
 
Twoleftears,

I'm in agreement with Sugarbrie. Any highly resolving CD player should provide the type of soundstage you seek if the rest of your system is already proven to have these qualities.

I was just at a friend's house to hear my CD player in his system. He has a highly resolving system and was demoing the JMLabs Micro Utopia BE speakers. His system produced a beautifully seamless soundstage that was both deep and wide. The speakers just diappeared leaving the sound of the venue where the recording was made. We used his analog rig and his Meridian 802.24 CD player. We then istalled my EVS Level 2 mod'd Oppo 970 univeral player into the mix and it was also excellent at producing a realistic soundstage.

BTW, the only players I've owned in recent history that did not produce a decent soundstage were Sony DVP-S7700ES, Sony DVP-S9000ES, Sony DVP-NS999ES and a moderately prices Sherwood Newcastle unit. All were OK players, but did not produce the soundstage width and depth that I've heard when using higher priced dedicated CD players or digital seperates in my system.

What's your budget for a new CD player? Based on your budget, maybe some folks can recommend players in that price range. Also, are you looking for new or used?

Enjoy,

TIC
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