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Digital Drive Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it. |
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Digital Drive Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it. |
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In Reply to: CD players going the way of the 8 track posted by jaydacus on June 18, 2012 at 16:47:08:
I've migrated to computer-based music, but still keep a few nice CD players, and a wonderful turntable, along with collections of CDs and LPs. I have three criteria for this issue:
1) Does it sound better? For redbook my Squeezebox touch with V-DAC sounds better than my $2,000 modified Shanling SACD player, my modified Jolida JD601 tubed player, and my Oppo BDP-95. My turntable sounds better than everything with only a few albums, and not as good as anything else on most records. Winner: Computer digital in a walkaway.
2) Is it more cost effective? I sold the Shanling SACD player for $500 recently, which paid for the Touch and the V-DAC. I buy used CDs online through Amazon, usually for $1 plus the cost of shipping, so I often buy several at a time from an online vendor. Usually they arrive brand-new, in the original packaging, and I can get a half dozen for around $10. I comb the used CD bins in Berkeley, CA for classic treasures, and rarely pay more than $5 for a CD. They will typically buy them back for around $2-3. I play new CDs once or twice on a CD player, than download them, playing them many times more from my Buffalo hard drive via wifi ('cause they sound better that way). Winner: Computer digital in a rout for the sound quality per dollar (free in my case, sort of), and a push for cost of media.
3) Is it more convenient? In my house Squeezebox receivers in three different systems are managed from the SB controller or my Samsung smartphone. I usually play my entire CD collection on Random, and try that on a CD player or turntable! Anything I want to listen to, in seconds, glitch free, from a handheld remote that shows the artwork and other info if I want it. Winner: computer digital in a slam dunk.
I have lots of SACDs and DVD-As, so the Oppo does double duty in the home theater. The higher res media sounds awfully good on the Oppo, as it did on the Shanling; a bit better than the Squeezebox systems for most redbook albums. The V-DAC is not what you would call a hi-end D/A converter, so I'm perpetually looking for a new D/A, which will surely level the playing field somewhat. They keep getting better and cheaper, so I wait.
I guess you could call me an old guy, as I've been through every media but 78s with some gusto. I sold vinyl shipped in via Greyhound in the dorms during the sixties. Computer digital is nirvana for me, and I'm hearing songs in the far corners of my collection that I've never heard, or only played once. The enjoyment factor is off the charts by comparison.
If I were willing to spend several thousand dollars for a state-of-the art CD player I'm sure I could up the ante somewhat, although I'm not at all sure how much better than the Oppo it gets. But $500 for a digital front-end that blows me away repeatedly is undoubtedly a game changer, and the technology is still improving.
The CD/DVD/SACD form factor is not going away any time soon in my opinion, but CD player manufacturers at all levels are going to suffer. There will be extreme industry failures and consolidation, particularly given the efficiency of the used CD player markets and the plethora of wonderful players out there that people are no longer using. Dead? The vinyl comparison doesn't hold water because of the sound quality advantage and legacy collections....for now. When computer digital sounds better than any CD player under $5,000 (or some inflection point $ number, maybe $2000, who knows?)then there will be very few new CD players made. There will be terrific CD player buys on Audiogon for many years.
When a $500 computer audio front-end sounds better in my system than the wildly touted Oppo BDP-95,which is a universal as well as a great CD player, then it seems to me that stand-alone CD player manufacturers are toast. I just gave away my gorgeous Nakamichi cassette player and matching Walkman, by the way, and tossed the cassettes. The Samsung phone will accept 60 uncompressed albums on a memory card, and sounds wonderful. Try doing that from a CD player!
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Follow Ups
- Better, cheaper, faster - Sturmey 16:26:34 06/21/12 (4)
- Intereting detailed observations - Audio Snob 06:43:39 06/23/12 (2)
- RE: Intereting detailed observations - Sturmey 18:03:19 06/23/12 (1)
- "established computer networker"...still running Vista....rolls eyes. - jaydacus 21:01:32 06/23/12 (0)
- RE: Better, cheaper, faster - Dawnrazor 22:20:21 06/21/12 (0)
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