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difficulty finding CD player match for Magneplanar

I have a California Audio Labs Mk II CD player (CAL) that has one channel going out. I might be able to get it repaired (if I'm lucky), but I wanted to listen to the latest CD players to see if I could find a replacement.

I home-trialed an Arcam FMJ-something at around $1000 U.S. Too bright, not enough bass, not enough "power" to drive rock and jazz/fusion.

I home-trialed the much-vaunted Rega Saturn. Not enough "power" or bass for rock/jazz fusion, upper midrange and highs OK, but lower midrange sounds like being in nosebleed section of concert hall (very distant and hard to understand).

I've got Magneplanar MG-IIIa speakers, original Adcom preamp and 60w/ch. amp.

It seems to quite troublesome to find a CD player for the Maggie's in my listening room that isn't too bright or too distant and has enough power/drive/authority and solid bass to really drive electronic music.

Neither player was really involving. They seemed to present information off the disk, but just didn't grab my interest. Pretty boring. Good detail, good this, interesting that, but in the end, not enjoyable.

Others have raved about Arcam players and about the Rega Saturn, but they haven't worked for me in my system.

Anyone had similar experiences with the Maggies and found any players that worked better with the Maggies?
timoteo
timoteo OP
21 posts
 
This thread is pretty old now, but if anyone is reading this now I have learned more about powering Maggies lately.

The folks on this thread who said that my amp was underpowered for the Maggies are absolutely correct. I hooked up a pair of PSB Alpha speakers which are 89db efficiency rating (twice as efficient as the Maggies). I put on a CD and very slowly turned up the volume until the clipping lights on the amp started to flicker, at about 11 o'clock on the volume knob. (I would have done this test with the Maggies, but they are at Magnepan being repaired).

From this I would guess that if I set the volume knob at 9 o'clock or so driving the Maggies, I am probably at or near the threshold of clipping. I wouldn't have thought it possible, but there it is.

I am going to find a much beefier amp now.

As for the CD player, I "fixed" it by adding DAC for now.
hotmailjbc
571 posts
 
have you ever connected your computer[ with good quality downloads or rips?] to your set up thru the usb/dac route? i would be interested in your opinion concerning the diference in sound quality. i use the mac with pure music with 500 watts per ch to magnepan mmgs and the sound is pretty good. i do have dual velodynes in the room also.
timoteo OP
21 posts
 
I have thought about playing music directly from my PC through a USB port into my DAC, but am not sure yet if that's the way I want to go.

My main concern is if USB output from the computer can provide CD quality sound. I bought a ~$100 U.S. headphone USB DAC that the audio mags and a lot of people on Amazon raved about. I plugged it into my computer at work, plugged in my Grado SR-325i headphones and found very little difference. Listening to the same music in my CD player at home us hugely better than the USB headphone DAC through my computer at work. I tried plugging the DAC into my laptop USB port and listening through my headphones again, and it actually sounded worse - I was getting noise as well as crummy sound quality. That, and some things I've read on-line, suggest to me that USB audio is not really ready for prime time.

I'd be very interested to hear what you find out if you decide to make the leap, and would be interested in hearing comments by others on this topic.

That said, you may get better information from people out there in a new thread on this topic.
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