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Top of the line old technology VS Newer technology

Hello everyone , the purpose of this thread is to have your general opinion regarding what you would consider better regarding updating a digital front end.

As a background history, let me start by telling you all that I am Mexican and live in Mexico, I do have the means to go to USA like 2 or 3 times a year and could easily get my hands on used or new equipment, what I don´t have is too much money to spend on Hi-Fi these days, for one the Dollar vs Pesos currency is much higher than 2 or 3 years ago, I had 2 twin boys in 2005 as well and had to move to biigger house . So that resumes that I am a Family man trying to get the best for them, but once in a while I need to indulge myself on this hobby...

So this is my question......

I own "top of the line" technology of 1990´s , regarding digital front end:

-Goldmund Mimesis 12 DAC
-PS Audio Lambda Transport
-Madrigal Audio Labs MDC-1 Pro AES/EBU Coaxial Cable

This set up draw me back about $7,000 USD around 1995, I purchased all new, full retail price.

Since then , I have had a few CD Players as a secondary line up or back up, that I later sold them amongst them:

-California Audio Labs Aria MK III
-Rega Planet 2000
-Metronome CDV1

And to be honest NONE could match my current set up of Separate Transport and DAC.

So I stopped trying for a while to replace the Goldmund/PS Audio for a few years...

But along came new technology such HDCD, SACD, DVD -A, 24-bit 128 times oversampling, and all that kHz configurations.

So I am tempted again to try a new CD Player (Not ready for a Music Server) so my concern here is what dou you think is a better option these days

1-Stay with my "old school-top of the line" but obsolete technology in a separate configuration such as the DAC and Transport.

or

2-Trying a "modest" newer Cd Player with perhaps 20, 24 Bits 128 Oversampling o HDCD, that even could be used on the $2,000 or less range.
Such as:

Burmester Rondo 992
Gamut CD1-R
CEC TL51XR

In other words:

What do you think is better , Newer technology even if it is not a separate DAC/Transport, and even if its not "top of the line" or stick with my current set up of "top of the line" DAC/Transport of the 1990´s???

Any Comments?
kapa11
lostbears's avatar
lostbears
479 posts
 


That is hard to say. I still have an old California Audio Labs Delta and Sigma II that I bought in the early 1990s. some years ago I replace the Delta transport with a Theta Jade and that made a big difference. Eventually the Jade stopped working and I started looking for a replacement. I auditioned quite a few players as I used my old Delta again. Finally I bought an Audio Research CD7 which I have been very happy with. Recently I heard an old California Audio Labs Tempest II SE that had been modded. I owned one of these in the late 1980s. It was in a lot of ways similar to my CD7. I have found that both the transport and DAC can make a big difference in the sound and that new is not always better. Though in general transports mechanisms in both the "top of the line" players and stand alone transports have improved quite a bit in the last few years.

Do you have many SACDs or DVD audios? I did not so I chose to go with a dedicated CD player. Thanks to Microsoft HDCD is pretty much dead. SACD and DVD Audio never really caught on. The number of SACDs available is very limited.
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
1,368 posts
 
I would check out players/dacs with a significant new technology, Minimum Phase or apodising filters. Meridian, Ayre, PS Audio and a few others have players/dacs out with this technology.

These filters eliminate or reduce the pre-ringing or pre-echo that is an artifact of the cd recording process. Pre-ringing is the reverse of echo, you have echoes of sounds before the sound itself.

Pre-ringing is measured in microseconds, so you don't actually hear echoes, but to my ears sound quality is greatly improved when they are removed. If you are trying to avoid harshness, glare or listener fatigue you would be especially interested in this technology.
rrog
1,958 posts
 
Marketing for CD players is all about numbers. There really isn't anything else to talk about with CD playback and the prices aren't getting any cheaper. In order to get better sound than you have now you will have to spend a lot more than you did when you bought the Goldmund and the PS Audio. If you do decide to buy something else let me know how much you want for your Mimesis 12 and Lambda Transport.
shazam
204 posts
 
I agree with most of the comments, you aren't really going to do much better than you have on CD performance. If you intend to stay with CD, then I wouldn't worry too much about missing out on anything because you probably aren't.

However, if you are interested in other formats and high resolution, I would consider 2 options. First, try the $500 Oppo Universal Blu Ray player that does just about every disk format out there right now (SACD, DVD-A, Blu Ray Audio, CD, etc.) Second option; wait until you are ready to try file based playback. I am a big believer that this is where digital playback is headed, but there are a lot of competing ideas, hardware configurations, and file formats right now. The good news is that we should have clearer choices emerging in a couple years.

I agree with the choices Tomcy6 mentions (Meridian, Ayre, PS Audio). I own the PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC and absolutely love it. I'm doing high resolution playback with a laptop and looking forward to the new Bridge card that will stream from a network drive (no computer needed!). The convenience can't be beat, and though setting everything up is not that easy just yet - the major players are in the process of making it simple.

Were I in your position I think I would give the Oppo a try and see if it floated my boat. You won't loose much money on it as you can turn it around here quickly if you don't like it. I think Oppo even has a 30 day trial period.

Cheers!
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
hi shazam:

i own the perfect wave dac and perfect wave transport. the cal aria, cal tempest, wadia 2000, zanden, audionote cd 2. the ps audio is a fair performer.

i owned goldmund gear. i think some of the older tube gear is competitive with the goldmund.
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