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CD Player newbie questions

I am in the process of choosing CDP. Please help me to understand what makes CDPs different. I am just thinking that CD-ROM player in my computer is pretty reliable unit. It reads software from CD-ROM disks and never fails. If it reads a word (double byte - 16 bits) with error it makes another spin to read it, and so on until it reads it successfully. Same process goes on in CDPs, but CDPs are a way more expensive. Well, another job of CDP is to convert bits into analog signal (DAC) and make the signal flow uninterruptedly (there buffers for that). Seems like not too much to do, but price diff between CDPs is huge.

1. The transport mechanism does not make much of difference as long as it is quiet and reliable. Correct?

2. DAC is the key, to my understanding. But some units have same DAC chip (like Burr-Brown 24/96) but significantly different in price and sound reproduction. What DAC chip should I look for?

3. Is THD makes difference, e.g. some say 0.005, others 0.05? Should I look at it as criteria?

4. Is Noise to Sound ratio (S/N ratio) makes big diffrence? e.g. Linn Classik - 110, Arcam FMJ CD23T - 100, ADCOM GCD-750 - 106.

5. What is HDCD (High Definition CD), do they have special label, are they much better than regular CD, how many of them out there?

6. I met this word several times and I do not get it - 'redbook'.

Thanks in advance,
Konstantin
konstantin_agon
bomarc
501 posts
 
In some circles (not this one) you will get a good deal of debate about whether ANYTHING matters much in CD players. Certainly the specs you mention are irrelevant (because virtually every player on the market measures so well that the distinctions are meaningless).

HDCD is a specially encoded CD that supposedly sounds better when played back on an HDCD-compatible deck. Only a small minority of CD releases are HDCD disks (see www.hdcd.com), but there are enough out there that this feature is worth considering. (Not all encoded HDCDs are labeled as such.)

"Redbook" simply means that a CD conforms to industry standards. "Redbook CD" is practically redundant, but it's used sometimes to distinguish CD from SACD.

As for the price differential, that is justified by the market's willingness to pay. In many cases, high prices in this field reflect the lower efficiency of small manufacturing runs. Caveat emptor.
konstantin_agon OP
15 posts
 
My int amp McIntosh 6500 has S/N Ratio 110db and THD 0.005%. So should I look for CDPs that have characteristics not worse than those?
rockvirgo
587 posts
 
Use the noise and distortion specs to compare units within a single manufacturer's range. Along with original price, it is a way to determine which model may sound better than another. But whether Macintosh's spec is relevant to another maker's spec is anybody's guess. Once you choose a manufacturer to investigate, all you can do, apart from listening, is to find the best one they decided to make and work your way from there.
viggen
817 posts
 
I guess high end cd players not only have better chip processors, they also have better analogue outputs, and they take some mechanical engineering properties into consideration, which I think is the main reason why digital(s) sound different.
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