Does anyone out there NOT hear a difference in CD

who's mis-information Joe?

I hear changes in and employ after market cords, isolation feet and play with signal cables and have been in several truely jaw dropping demo's of varied products and devices that I wasnt prepared for and skeptical at best to what I figured would be the result. When I hear it I tell the world but if I dont I tell that also, for example my Lexicon player (laugh now) is notably better than a Sony or basic big box store offering but my fathers Esoteric model 60 player doesnt trump it by much if any at all, I have used a couple DACS with several wires and varied players as transports along with power cords but I just cant justify them for the price, rack space and added wire expense. Maybe its about this magical synergy that I cant find or my system or ears is crap, my system isnt great but my hearing isnt bad and neither is sub-par but if this digital synergy is so hit and miss then it needs to be stated that more than likely the chances are many items simply cant be detected as better or worse...and that saves money and this hobbies troubled cred with the new folks entering.

It still bends my mind to see these responses, for the sake of watching there name come up on line. Please stop misleading the younger generation with unwise advise. It will help to build up the integrity of this site, not tear it down.
Lithojoe

I respectfully disagree. I thought many of the posts were good. I found myself agreeing with Tvad, especially his last post. I thought Grant hit the nail squarely on the head. Great advice for anyone.....
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Steve Nugent of Empirical Audio thought highly enough of the PD-65 as a transport to offer mods on it (click on Component Mods>Transport Mods for details).

Empirical Audio does not offer PD-65 mods any longer, but that doesn't negate the fact that it's a good basic transport. Add a nice $1000 (or less) DAC. You'll be ahead of the Cambridge.

You can always use the new DAC with your next, better transport.

Incremental upgrades. Improves sound. Saves bucks.

Mostly good responses.

I agree on the system's resolution part which suggests that a system with higher resolution will yield a bigger difference in sound with respect to better CDPs. When I had a fairly low-end system, I couldn't seem to hear audible differences between entry-level sources. To my ears, the Arcam Alpha 8 and Marantz CD-63kISig that I had at that time all sounded the same. Just when my system progressed further to some mid-end stuff, I replaced the Arcam with a Sony XA7ES and heard an audible improvement, a sound that was much focused and refined. I could hear more details in the recording, and the bass was of higher quality. That was the point when I believed that a better CDP would give a better sound. After a few years later I picked up the Krell KPS-30i. Again, I heard a difference but this time it was not as significant compared to the jump in sonics between the lowly Arcam and the Sony. This just proves that difference in sound between players can sometimes be fairly unpredictable as it varies from noticeable to almost negligible.

The poster of this thread has some great gears, and I think he'll benefit with a better CDP. I'm not too familiar with the Pioneer Elite PD-65, but I think it's a fairly low-budget player -I may be wrong. I think the real question that should be asked is how much improvement he can expect if he were to upgrade his Pioneer to the Cambridge Audio 840C, or something else for that matter. Unfortunately, no one can answer that for him except the listener himself.

Good luck.

Interesting discussion. I can only offer my own experience. I love music but I also love playing with audio equipment. For the latter reason, I have swapped a few CD player or Transport/Dac combo in the past. Every piece of my system costs between $500-1000 (nothing much by Audiogon standard). I moved from good old NAD to Acurus ACD-11 to adding an external Aragon DAC (D2A2), and multiple moderate tweaks (Upsamplers, anti-jitter device, power cords, etc). None of the "upgrade" gave me much satisfaction--I tried hard to convince myself that the "subtle" changes are what upgrade means. Until I got a used EAD T1000/Dsp1000 Series III combo. Immediately, I noticed music coming out of my system. To be honest, I was shocked as I really had no expectation other than the need to buy more equipment (pathetic, I know). So much details, blacker background, etc. All the stereophile lingos began to make sense. Currently, the rest of my system consists of Aragon 18K preamp, Mcintosh MC122 amp, and Magnepan SMGc (the maggies have been in my system since day 1; the preamp and amp have been swapped in and out a few times). May be I am lucky but I think I have found my synergism (for now). I guess this is a long version of saying Yes, CD player makes a difference but it does depend on system matching. When it really works, it will not be subtle (kinda of like having found your soul mate after all these years of dating).