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My beloved California Audio Labs Alpha finally begged off duty this week.
I love its sound so much its sound so much its actually a replacement of the same such unit.
I'm looking for bargains from great performers from yesteryears, my budget is more or less $1500, could be DAC or player
I'm considering the Meridian 508.2x series or Audio Research CD2
or Levinson 36 or 360?
Any recommendation?
Follow Ups:
For me, one vintage cd player and transport/dac combo stand out as exceptional bargains today, firstly the JVC XL-Z1050 cdp from circa 1991. I owned one of these player for 18 years and it never skipped a beat. That player was extremely well made, had a good transport & JVC's proprietory K2 processing. Hence, XRCD's unsurprisingly sounded very good. The sound is very smooth, clean and musical. Great for long listening sessions. Today, if you can find a well cared for example, they can be had well under your budget.
On the high side of your budget, the Accuphase DP90 transport & DC91 dac from 1992. Imho, this combo is better than the current 900 series and an outright high end bargain if you can find a pair. They were $21k+ way back when, but would be worth $5-8k today depending on condition. Unsurprisingly, they rarely come up for sale. Just had to throw that one in :).
Vitus SCD025MkII, SIA025, Oppo BPD-103AU, Magico S5's, Taoc ASR racks + SCB-RS50g, Stillpoints Ultra 6's/Mini's/LPI's, Furutech GTX-D(G), Gigawatt PC-3 SE Evo, Jorma Prime pc's + xlr's/Statement sc's/Unity pc, Siltech Classic Anniversary rcas + HDMI
Edits: 10/30/15
The Accuphase is one sweet combo.
and any decent transport. Good luck. Other possibilities: Dodson 217, Theta V.
Meridian and AR of course also good!
There's a Dodson on the Asylum Trader right now. Price a little steep IMO, but hey.
Broadly speaking, DACs/players featuring either the 16-bit TDA1541, the 20-bit PCM63, the 20-bit AD1862, or the 20-bit Ultra Analog D/A converter module were frequently considered to be among the best.
_
Ken Newton
Edits: 10/27/15
then Meridian 508.x or AR CD2 won't sound similar enough.
When I owned the Alpha, I really liked it midrange on up, but even with better tubes, I wanted more bass definition and dynamics.
An older generation of Audio Logic tube DAC (say 24MXL or earlier) or one of the Audio Note tube DAC's with 18 bit DAC chip will sound somewhat closer..
May I ask what you replaced your Alpha with and what improvement you heard?
I believe it was a Cary CD301 tubed CD player with modifications to the output stage. I don't recommend it because once the laser or drive mechanism goes bad, it's hard to find replacement parts.
These go ob back a while but any of the older Arcam with ring dacs.I e Arcam cd 23 t
Help me find a Laser Assembly for my Ancient/ 14bit Philips Player and I'll SHOW you a bargain from the dawn of time.
Too much is never enough
Buy a new TASCAM Broadcast-Duty-Rated CDP (under $250), and an Enlightened Audio Designs DAC.
That way you get a fresh start on the service life of the CD transport and don't face the prospect of a CDP for which the transport in only available used, and substantial labor costs to make the swap.
But if you want a more modern but completely listenable sound, Grace Design will sell you their m920 DAC/pre (research discussions on AA, it has been talked about) for $1895, free shipping, with MBG.
But I know that digital nostalgia exerts a strong pull, and the gold faceplate EAD DAC on eBay looks great, and for a few hundred dollars more, Greg Palma can go through it and replace old parts subject to aging, such as capacitors and diodes.
But then again, the Grace comes with a 5-year transferable warranty.
Decisions, decisions.
The Once and Future John Marks
Just looked at Guitar Center because we have one near. The CD-500 was over 400 and the CD-500b was more. With Balanced outputs. Very little detail provided.
What model is the loss leader?
Too much is never enough
Search in Stereophile; I covered it in my former column there.
jm
What's interesting is they make several sub-models, one of which has BLUETOOTH. The BT function is of interest since I could transmit FROM my confuser to the stereo. If it supports the latest / greatest alphabet soup, so much the better.
Too much is never enough
I am aware of the one with the dock and the BT one too.
I wanted to zero in on an affordable transport that was quiet (the one I had was dead quiet) and so cheap that you could buy one and put it in a closet as backup insurance.
A few people wrote in to say how happy they were with their purchases, but IIRC, they all bought the plain Jane.
John
I just checked @the Tascam Website. The BT player DOES support APT-X and A2DP which are the prototcols most likely to result in the best audio.Cambridge Audio gets 100$ for The matching BT dongle for the DACMagic+. Wacky high price.
I've been exploring 'options' and this one makes reasonable sense. AND has the added benefit of upgrading my CD playback from a PS3.And in looking at the pictures of the other players in this series, it appears the additional features are 'modular' in the sense that they all go in the SAME place on the front panel / chassis. Reminds me a little of the add-on boards you can get for some NAD equipment.
Too much is never enough
Edits: 10/26/15
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