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Please Help

I'm new to this hobby. I have a Bel-Canto Evo 2i and need a cd player or dac/trans combo. I've done as much research as possible which explains why I'm totally confused.

I've been told by someone respected in the modifications industry that if I go with seperates he would recommend a better transport than DAC. I've been told the complete opposite by others. I've also had many folks tell me that a one-boxed player is the way to go for the money.

I've got about $1,500+ to spend and would prefer to buy a good used product. I listen primarily to aggressive music but Norah Jones and Bob Marley are also regulars.

My speakers are JmLab Chorus S and have not been broken in yet, therefore they are still a little bright. These may end up front speakers for Home Theater and a 2 channel speaker upgrade will probably be in my not to distant future.

Any help would be appreciated, as well as any recommendations regarding cables and power conditioners. I'm in the vibration and shock isolation industry so hopefully I'll be able to handle that end.

Thanks for any help.

Scott
shimanole
aball
1,994 posts
 
I am afraid that this website will only add to your confusion. lol! My advice is for you to experiement. You already know that you will get all kinds of answers so why belabor the point? Find something that is a good deal and try it out. If you don't like it, sell it at basically no loss, and try something else. You just won't find YOUR answer any other way.
reubent
3,587 posts
 
Scott,

Aball offers some good advice. This site is indespensible for doing exactly what he suggested.

Do some research. Decide on a product and keep a lookout for a good deal to come up on that product. If you don't have the time to devote to research, you might want to considering using the blue book portion of this site to get pricing data for used components.

For $1500 or under, you could get a very good sounding one box CD player. I've owned several in that price range that were very good. If I were going to spend up to $1500 today on a one box unit, I would buy a Quad 99-CDP or 99-CDP2 and pocket the rest of the cash. I've seen these for $695-$1100 depending on model and condition.

Some other good choices would be Cary CD-308T or 303/200.

Anyway, decide what you want to try, wait for a decent deal, try it in your system, keep it or re-sell it here for little (or zero) loss.

Enjoy,

TIC
hbarrel's avatar
hbarrel
275 posts
 
If I had a Rega dealer close by I'd be auditioning the Rega Apollo one box player.
The price is attractive and from from what I've heard the sound marvelous.
mikesinger
572 posts
 
Transport/dac vs. one box vs. one box (modified) -Very good question.

One of the biggest problems in digital is the mechanism in all cd players/ transports. The manufactures that supplies the audio companies will discontinue production. So your unit has to go in for repair (plan on it) and there are no parts available (read the previous wadia thread). This happens to all manufactures (including reimyo) with the excection of cec and teac (sorry if I missed a couple).

In regards to modification. There are some great sounding units. However, I would NOT invest big money into it.Why ? You void the warranty and there is very, very poor ROI. Dont get me wrong, spending $100-$300 for a minor mod that is reversible is fine, but the more you spend - the less you will get back..

Transport / dac (my favorite) generally cost a little more, you will need 2 power cords and a digital interconnect. However, if/when your transport goes down. You can still get by on with any player with a digital output.

depending on your taste...if you were going to go the daac/transport route. I would consider the electrocompinet dac and a cec transport or a japanense multiformat player. you might spend a little more. but the electro dac is world class @ $1100-$1200 used and the cec 5100 is pretty nice transport.

like anything....ymmv..

good listening,

mike
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