Your experience:a cdp that gets best of lesser cds

03-14-07: Aball
Tvad - You should avoid making condensending remarks about people's "colored" suggestions when you are guilty of it yourself. You start off by suggesting that anything other than the Modwright is colored and then keep suggesting these tubes to effectively change (i.e. color) its sound.

Arthur, I never intended to suggest that the Modwright is uncolored and all other players are colored. If I gave that impression, then I needed to be more precise in my writing, because it's absolutely the opposite of what I believe, and I certainly had no intention of being condescending. So, let me correct it here.

Yes, the Modwright is colored. I happen to like it's coloration, and even more so with some tubes other than those provided with the unit. In fact, I made the following statement in a post above:

Even the Modwright has information either missing or colored differently from other digital sources I have owned. It's a matter of preference.

The Paradisea is also colored. Wonderfully so. In fact, it's exactly the meat-and-bones coloration that might fit Foster_9's goal perfectly.

The only digital source that I have ever owned that I believe showed the least amount of coloration, and yet was amazingly musical with tremendous meat on the bones was an APL Denon 3910.

Now, I'm going to re-read my posts to see where I wrote that the Modwright is uncolored and all other players are colored. It bothers me that you read my post as such, because it was not my intention to convey that message. Further, I did comment that the rectified tube power supply added to the naturalness of the Modwright's sound (freedom of grain and an added liquidity), but I don't believe I ever stated that the Modwright is neutral.

Frankly, in my opinion several of us are on the same page, and yet there is a continuing debate among us as though we are on opposite sides of the topic, and I cannot figure out why this is so.

Foster 9, You have restated your desires - I completely read thru these and went to the obvious complaint so many folks have about 'glare', so common in early CD's. Sorry 'bout that. Noting your desires, my recommendation would be the same. A well broken in Raysonic, using stock EH 6922's, has a full, reasonably tight, warm bass/lower mid-range, lots of detail without brightness, and of the 3 CDP's I'm currently using it provides the best imaging. It ain't perfect but its dammed good, and in MHO it fits your description of what you want in a 2d CDP. BTW, no commercial interest in the success or failure of this unit. I just think its a hell of a value when I see them selling used for as little as $1200. :-)

Chadnliz...While the Behringer DEQ2496 can be used like tone controls to fix individual recordings it is not very convenient to use this way. Its primary benefit is to fix problems of room resonances, and secondarily, frequency response of your system...in other words, things that don't change from one CD to the next.

Tvad - ok, now I see that we are on the same page. I figured that had to be since there is no other way. There is no need to ever use the word "colored" since everything is. I just had the impression you were saying I was wrong in making "colored" suggestions. Anyway, truce.

Foster - I am now a little confused by what you are after. Is the Jolida not good in your system either? YOu could just use it for bad recordings and seemingly get what you are after. I am assuming it is a good bit more forgiving than the Modwright (I've had two JD100s).

If you want to replace the Modwright with an equally detailed cd player that also has more body, then you may have to spend a bit more to have your cake and eat it too. Try the Sylvania tubes (I have always loved mine) and see how that goes. Also, have you tried different interconnects on your Sony? Some Cardas or van den Hul might work for you.

Arthur

Aball, the Jolida is good but I'm looking for more extension at the frequency extremes. My opinion is that it's a nice music-maker but I feel that it's possible to get more "meat on the bones" in a player at the price point of $2500-3k used and add more foundation to the performance of lesser/older cd's. Right now I'm using Acoustic Zen Ref Matrix II interconnects. The Rega Saturn is a player I'm curious about.