Is my dealer lying to me?


This past weekend I went to listen to some speakers. I've been planning to buy CD player also, but that was not this weekend's purpose.

At first we were using a YMB player, McCormick amp, and Soliloquy 5.3 speakers. The speakers is what I was auditioning.

The CD player he is trying to sell me is the Cambridge Audio D500ES, I beleive. Price:400

Big difference I know between the YMB ($2500)and the Cambridge ($400). But it wasn't $2100 in difference in sound I can tell you that. What concerns me is the difference between his comments and the perceived opinions of people on this board. In other threads, there are quite a bit of "ditch the Cambridge" comments.

The dealers comments were "best player under $2000"... "chris sold his $2500 Theta and picked this one up because it's that good, and pocketed the money"... etc.

I'm not asking if this is the best player under $2000. But how does it compare to Arcam and Rega models at $500-700?

Obvisouly, he recommends the Soliloquy 5.3 also. I liked them but wasn't as impressed as much as I thought I would be. The guy has a small shop and seems honest, but it seems this cambridge is not very well respected in this forum.

I've gotten rid of alot of my gear. What I have left to use is a Yamaha RXV-995 receiver. An amp will come, hopefully sooner than later, but I need speakers and a CD player now unless I want to continue to use my DVD player for CDs.

Any comments?
gunbunny
aiwa, huh? i was looking at the possibility of a cheap transport upgrade - after this cheap di/o i got made such an improvement, why not take it to the next level? ;~)

doug s.

I've just run into something similar while looking for speakers on the various audio sites. A respondent told me that my Cambridge Audio D500-SE was nowhere near up to the task as regards to the speakers I was considering (Vanderteen 3a sigs, Theil 3.6, Von Sweikert VR4 GenII, B&W Matrix 802 S-3, Snell C/V, etc.) He said he wouldn't match this low of a quality cd player with speakers with a retail list price of $500.00 (good $500.00 speakers)
He did recommend however that I could get a pair of Mission 782's ($900.00 list) and upgrade my cd player later.
Is this cd player that bad? I'm pretty new to this stuff and don't really know much about it, although I try to research all components before buying. (I bought the Cambridge on recommendations from members of this site as well as others)
What I've got so far:
Citation 7.1 amp for music
Citation 7.1 amp for movies
Adcom GTP-760 Pre/proc
Cambridge Audio D500-SE
For me this represents an effort to step up from my Denon 2801 receiver.
Say, on the strength of some of your components, it looks more like a full ladder up from the Denon. And indeed the Vandies, Thiels, B&W (don't know the others) are strong and revealing players... which does not mean the cambridge should be trashed. It means, IMO, that you can easily upgrade your cd source without losing out elsewhere along the chain, i.e. you won't have to upgrade other components to hear the best out of a reasonable cdp upgrade. When you upgrade.

True, there are other cdp's or crafty combinations of transport + dac that can produce better sound. Don't worry though, if you're happy with your present tunes!
Why would that matter? If the transport is not up to it then the signal is already corrupted, according to your theory :))
While I agree with the basics of signal retention from the very start of the chain, synergy and matching are big factors in how your system sounds. I also do not agree with new technology being superior. Many older CD players out there sound extremely tactile and musical in a decent system, players such as Marantz CD80 still perform very well, and wipe the floor with most cheap DVD players out there.
DPA Dacs are another favourite, musical and warm, get yourself a PDM1 MKII or a bigger bit for a bargain basement sound.
At the end of the day, how it sounds in your system is far more important than its specs or how new the technology is.