no difference between 4k meridian & 400 DVD?


hi,

i am really starting to doubt this whole damned industry. today, i tried a little experiment. i burned a copy of my favorite k. jarrett CD. i put the CDR into my 508.24 and the original into my 2-year old sony DVD player. i cued the players up simultaneously and did an extensive A/B for about an hour.

guess what? the differences in sound quality were so minor as to be almost inaudible. if anything, the 508 had SLIGHTLY better response at the frequency extremes and SLIGHTLY better dynamics. i'm not sure if i honestly could tell them apart in a double-blind test.

i always believed my main system was fairly transparent. meridian 508 CDP & 502 preamp, bat vk-75, AZ silver reference IC's, decent copper speaker cables (forget what kind), avalon arcus speakers. the IC connected the DVD to the 502 is cheap audioquest copper. i am using a monster hts-5000 power conditioner with vibrapods under the front end and BDR cones/pucks under my amp.

given that the 508 COSTS 10 FRICKING TIMES MORE, i wanted to hear a major improvement over my cheapo DVD but there just wasn't one. my ears are fine...for example, i heard substantial improvements after installing the pods and especially the BDR cones. so...wtf is going on here?
s2k_dude
I know the differnce between my 37 36 combo from levinson and the theta miles was huge. No comparison that the levinson rig was better. It actually almost made the theta unlistenable. So i know there are differences..... thats for sure. There have been other times when i a/bd the denon 1650 AR a very good class B budget player to an old sony 5 disc cd changer and could tell no difference at all. Now the system i was using was pretty bad and that could be an issue. Also speaker wires are very important in showing the differences. Once i upgraded my wires differences were much more apparent. You might want to do the same and compare again. - Ian
geez...look at the controversy i've created!

a few follow-up points:

(1) i realize that i should have used two origianls or two CDRs to make the test completely fair BUT...the DVD player doesn't read CDRs and i didn't want to spend $20 on another original CD just for this. that said, i highly doubt it would have mattered anyway since they sounded identical and i doubt that would be the case if the CDR was inherently inferior.

(2) to those who suggested my ears are broken, why is that NO ONE publishes the results of any legitimate DBX testing with two digital sources, cables, etc.? i think docwarnock is right...the industry prefers to avoid such experiments as 'they' probably know the results would be inconclusive most of the time.

(3) why do people like 'natalie' feel the need to attack me for being honest? maybe i am naive but i thought we were here to share information that might benefit each other. in other words, get a life natalie.

(4) as for the meridian being '"overpriced", well, that seems to be the consensus among those who bought other players and want to justify their decisions. i highly doubt that the meridian is substantitally more overpriced than any of the supposedly high-end players at that pricepoint....and i am starting to wonder about all of them.

i had hoped to start an open discussion about the reality of digital versus the hype..instead i get a bunch of semi-personal attacks and useless flag waving. let's try to stay on topic, ok? thanks.
S2:

I predicted the flames. It is the only response that the "true believer" is capable of when presented with contradictory evidence.
I've had the same experience, took out my cd player which lists for $5000 and sounds great and replaced it with a $79 apex ad1500 dvd player!!!! I listened to 'On Every Street' by Dire Straits I swear the apex was every bit as good my music cd player on the first 2 tracks. But on the 3rd track 'When it comes to you' my cd player vindicated itself, with the apex the rhythm and pace was off almost as if the song was playing in slow motion, it just didn't sound 'right'..is it really worth it to pay 10-20 times more for a component for a small incremental gain in performance, that depends on your finances..But anyway I learned a lesson from now on I only buy products for which I can hear audible diffrences so for me that would be speakers & preamps, amps I won't be paying extra for digital or cables since I can't hear the difference....of all the comments here I concurr the most with Docwarnock
Sorry you felt I attacked you.All I wanted to say is your method left you open to attack.Make another CDR and do the comparisson with both.Then I will respect your comments.
Audio truth is very welcome.