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Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater. |
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Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater. |
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In Reply to: RE: Buying used I presume? posted by endusersolutions@yahoo.com on January 12, 2009 at 07:46:03:
...the comment on the CD player was because I felt it might possibly be the weak link in your chain, especially when you said *clarity* was important, as that isn't something that (as I recall) the Carver, in particular or older digital front ends, were particualalry adept at. Other things can affect clarity as well, including your cabling. But you gotta start at the start.
Digital playback has come a long long way since the first few years of CD players. I feel there have been more "significant" improvements in affordable digital playback than almost any other area, and I say that as someone who was a late adapter and no fan of CDs. Front ends are important - no matter how good your speakers and amps, they won't improve the original bits the player gets from the disc and the DACs convert.
The early CD players mostly came in two varieties - edgy and hard, or warmish and rolled off on top. There were a few exceptions, but clarity, harmonic timbre, air and tonal warmth weren't to be had without spending megabucks for a long time. And the flat soundstages were awful. I listen to a lot of large scale classical, and man those strings could sure get glassy back in the early days (the early digital recordings didn't help either.) I don't consider mass market "features", such as magazines (which have been out of fashion for at 10-12 years), digital processing, etc. to be of any use and these things won't be found on audiophile machines of any stripe - the budget goes into the innards and almost all of them are single play. I keep an old NAD carousel CD player around for parties, but it's not my main player. There are lots of good used players out there from a few hundred dollars up to...whatever someone can spend. :-)
I think you can do quite well with some vintage systems, I don't think you have to spend tons of money to get nice sound and I'm a big proponent of buying used. But I would at least consider upgrading your Carver somewhere along the line, or at least investigating an outboard DAC (I don't know what kind of transport the Carver makes). If you love your Carver that's fine, but I suspect you can do better.
I am down to one system until I move into new digs, so I sold my Cary 303/300, the Herron amps, the big ALon Vs and am using a CAL-Icon MkII CD player with power boss upgrade - it can be had usually for around $300 or even less on Audiogon and it's a wonderful, analog like player for very little money. No longer made, so I guess it's now "vintage" too, but it has a lovely openness and clarity, as well as warmth and bass heft, that does a good job on all kinds of music, especially the complex music I listen to. No digital nasties either. (I listen to rock, jazz, celtic, world, R&B too). You can get better these days, but this piece works well for me for now, and is fab in a second system. I don't feel like I'm missing anything with my vintage Luxman gear, the Cal-Icon and my beloved Nola Mini speakers (very open and unboxy sounding speakers, a recommendation for you too, although they only go down to about 45-50hz).
Trek on over to the Digital Asylum and ask the inmates there if you can do better for not much money than the Carver. If you still have a high end dealer in your town make friends with them and check out ehat they get in used. They'll usually klet you listen to various set-ups and it would be a way to educate your ears, as I'm assuming from your posts you haven't heard much new gear lately.
I'm afraid you'll risk getting dismissive comments here if you mention Bose, as they haven't made serious speakers for serious music lovers in decades, if they ever did. Their lifestyle systems are not good value to money, and their target market is folks who don't listen seriously or know much about music or electronics. Bose aer decorating decisions, not high end speakers. There are trolls about who post nonsense about Bose, and the inmates tend to assume if you mention the name you're either a troll or woefully uneducated. I guessed from your post you were sincerely looking for a different kind of speaker from the usual box cones and domes and thus responded with a serious answer. I apologize for the rude responses, and I hope you will stick around and read through this forum. There's a ton of knowledge here on this site and people are very helpful...generally. Don't get discouraged. Keep asking questions and giving information. The more we know the better we can help you.
You won't find too many typical HT buff types on this forum, maybe a few over in Video, but the posters here are generally into sound first, unlike the groups over at Home Theater Forum or AVSforum. So, I think you've come to the right place. Just hang in here with us a little longer.
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Follow Ups
- Not a criticism of your CDP but just as a point of info... - Harmonia 13:57:26 01/12/09 (0)
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