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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

Showing 9 responses by mordante

mordante OP
511 posts
 
Cmalak,

I know it is a highly subjective question. It was or better yet it is something I myself am struggling with. I all boys I like new toys. So I would love to buy a new CDP, a shiny new toy. But then?
If I were to buy a Wadia 12 plus CEC TL51x I would have to spend about €2000, a Nagra CDT is about €12000. I think in most cases spending the difference of €10k anywhere else in an audio system, amps, turntable, phono amp, speaker etc will yield a better result
Now I'm not saying this is true. It is something I currently believe, and like all believe whether religious or audio believes need to be challenged.

So who will challenge me?
mordante OP
511 posts
 
For about $12k you can buy a Nagra CDT. The Boulder 1021 is about €24k I have heard them both at a dealer show. Now to be honest I don't think the Boulder is a lot better. Not even sure if it is better at all. So the difference is about $12K. That difference will buy a set of Sonus Faber Amati instead of the Guarneri, etc. The difference between $12k and $24K speakers is IHMO a lot bigger bigger then $12k CD player and a $24K CD player. I think at a certain price point audio doesn't get much better just a different taste.
mordante OP
511 posts
 
The difference between the Nagra CDT and the DCS Puccini is about €3000, the DCS being the more expensive one. So what are according to you the digital specialists? If I were to improve my current digital set, where would you look, what brands models etc? For say a budget between €1000 and €2000 plus what I can get if I were to sell my CEC TL51x and Wadia 12. I don't mind 2nd hand but I don't want anything older then a few years. There are a lot of decent CD players out there that once they are broken they can not be repaired since the parts are all gone. Players that come to mind that might be better are Naim CDX2, Luxman D-05, Symphonic Line any model, etc but I have no idea if the actually are better, just sound different or sound the same. I'm open to suggestions.
mordante OP
511 posts
 
So lets for arguments sake say I have my transport and DAC modded.

I did some browsing and it seems there are 3 major players for clock upgrades.
Trichord, Tentlabs and Audiocom So who is the best? Or are they all good?

As for the DAC Bigkidz suggested I have the power supply improved if I understand correctly. Any more suggestions for the DAC?

What else?
mordante OP
511 posts
 
Thank you for all the replies. Out of curiousity, what does affect the sound more, the DAC or transport? I thought about replacing the DAC for a Audio Note 2.1 or something like that.
mordante OP
511 posts
 
I have been looking at a USB DAC. A DAC that USB and coax and maybe spdif optical etc.

The best contenders so far are Audio Note and Pink Faun, maybe BMC as well. But what else do I need. A harddisk device I guess, something like a NAS then we need an interface and a DAC. My main problem is the interface. Should that be a laptap or something else. But I want something with decent size screen so I can browse my CD collection.
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.
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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