This question has two parts, in my opinion. The first part deals with technical superiority of new CD players (and superiority...or the Big Dog Syndrome among the new players). The second part deals with pure musical enjoyment, i.e. are new CD players more enjoyable than CD players of 10 years ago, or more.
I was recently involved in a less-than-scientific listening session involving a universally accepted state of the art digital playback system and a considerably less expensive contender. To avoid future arguments about the merits of these two players, I'm not going to mention them by name. What is interesting, though, is during the session the players were level matched and switched. The participants had a difficult time identifying which player was selected, and several times we were just plain wrong. Interesting! After a couple of hours, we could identify particular sonic cues that enabled us to correctly identify each player. To me, this simply proved that modern CD players are REALLY close in performance and sonics. It wouldn't surprise me if any individual might prefer different players on different days depending on mood and/or external influences...like having recently read a positive review.
Now, accepting that my modern player keeps up with the best of digital, I can offer an opinion regarding its performance versus a 15 year old Sony CD changer. I've had the new player out of the system at least once during my ownership, which required me to use my old player. Could I detect a difference? Yes. Was my old player less musically enjoyable? Definitely and emphatically not! In fact, I often use the changer during parties not just because of it's changer capability, but because it's somehow more relaxing and satisfying in that environment.
Now, are modern machines superior technically to older machines? Yes. Can one detect sonic differences? Yes. Are they more musically enjoyable? That...is a less clear answer.
I was recently involved in a less-than-scientific listening session involving a universally accepted state of the art digital playback system and a considerably less expensive contender. To avoid future arguments about the merits of these two players, I'm not going to mention them by name. What is interesting, though, is during the session the players were level matched and switched. The participants had a difficult time identifying which player was selected, and several times we were just plain wrong. Interesting! After a couple of hours, we could identify particular sonic cues that enabled us to correctly identify each player. To me, this simply proved that modern CD players are REALLY close in performance and sonics. It wouldn't surprise me if any individual might prefer different players on different days depending on mood and/or external influences...like having recently read a positive review.
Now, accepting that my modern player keeps up with the best of digital, I can offer an opinion regarding its performance versus a 15 year old Sony CD changer. I've had the new player out of the system at least once during my ownership, which required me to use my old player. Could I detect a difference? Yes. Was my old player less musically enjoyable? Definitely and emphatically not! In fact, I often use the changer during parties not just because of it's changer capability, but because it's somehow more relaxing and satisfying in that environment.
Now, are modern machines superior technically to older machines? Yes. Can one detect sonic differences? Yes. Are they more musically enjoyable? That...is a less clear answer.