The best CD Player for the money

hi audiolabyrinth:

i did not say that i favored the marantz over the vincent.

the two brands have a differnt house sound.

the vincent has a tube circuit which is tube sensitive. i have tried many combinations of tubes. i have owned the cd-s6 for 6 years and reviewed the cd-s7 dac.

i also reviewed the marantz sa-14s1.

i know its sound. i will not say one is better than the other. it is like apples and oranges. it is a matter of taste.

when you are a reviewer, you become less judgmental about sound, and let others decide which is better.

you have strong opinions that i respect. please try not to misinterpret what i say in the future.

this message is for ghosthouse:

i finished the TEAC review. it should be on the web site shortly.

I'll definitely check. Thanks Roy.

Audiolabyrinth, I know of that 2 dimensional soundstage you speak of and it went away when I got my Marantz SA-15S2b. My soundstage is now the same height from extreme left to right (higher, in fact), extends further into my listening room, and has much better layering as you go back. It's not 'Star Trek' holographic but conveys a really nice soundstage, depending on recording.

As for body, that was the first thing that hit me when I first played the Marantz. There was more weight, gravitas and strength in the music, allowing more headroom for that soft pp to loud ff. As it got stronger, realism increased dramatically as playing became more natural. I don't know how else to say it.

As for the resonance tuning, could it be that the Marantz has a more solid build quality that what would tame negative resonance problems? I just tried a quick study with some heavy books on my Marantz and couldn't detect anything amiss no matter where I placed them. Could it be the Vincent isn't as robustly built as the Marantz and therefore benefits from the additional dampening?

All the best,
Nonoise

hi ghosthouse:

the review of the teac cd-3000 is on the website.

my take on the Marantz vs the teac:

the teac, while "neutral", is somewhat smoother in the Redbook mode.

they are about equal playing high resolution files, and the Marantz is a better SACD performer.

Mr. Tennis - Thanks for notifying of the Teac review. I've read it a couple of times. A lot of information conveyed. I do have a question. As I read, I see use of comparative adjectives throughout the article. In several places it's obvious comparisons are between the Teac's playback modes (e.g., redbook Vs SACD). In other places, not quite as clear. In the below excerpt from the "redbook listening session", is the sound from the Teac being compared to "CD players [you] auditioned recently"; i.e. the Vincent and Marantz? That seems the case but please confirm.

"I observed greater density of the strings, greater impact, greater fullness and greater extension in the bass region. The instrument also sounded larger in size. The piano sounded fuller and had more weight…."

Thanks in advance.