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Looking for your impressions on a CDP (1 box solutions only) that will improve upon the sound of older cd's or today's poorly remastered cd's.Many of us have these "sonically-challenged" cd's in our collections: Some lack bass, or have harsh high end etc. In other words thin-sounding, lack low end, and/or harsh.
From what I've read, a player like the Cary 303/300 comes to mind. I'm looking for your opinions.
Follow Ups:
Hi Red –I know you upgraded your front-end recently and sort of go through similar on each systems resolution increase. Make sure the new intro is burned-in and try mauimusicman headphone suggestion to figure out if it’s exposing a weak link.
Used to think "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" stuff was great with audiophile grade recordings, but made my crappy stuff…crappier. However, some highly accurate stuff (Benchmark, DCS, Halcro, passive preamps) made my crappy recordings sound pretty good w/o feeling the need to add any artificial enhancements. Heard more details (good, bad) from my crappy recordings w/o the harsh, bright glare. So now I think a lot of the “absolute truth” stuff can sound bad b/c something upstream is less than optimal – maybe source or another component.
Anyway, I’ve yet to hear a rig (regardless of costs) do all genres well and don’t believe there’s a one size fits all component or system. Since I tend to listen to anything (past / present) regardless of recording quality, I had to make compromised to accomidate most - but not all of my cd’s. They’re just too much variation between era, genre, etc…some stuff like compressed pop (just plain sucks) and old mono recordings remain "sonically-challenged".
It’s hard to go back to a less resolving, more forgiving sound after tasting a very clean front-end, so the Behringer DEQ2496 is on my radar screen.
Red, my experience with so called "harsh, or bad" recordings tells me it's generally not the recording, but the speakers crossover adding phase shift to the signal. Try listening to the same recordings on some electrostatic headphones (stax) If they still sound harsh, it's the recording. If not, look at the speakers.
Try the Kavent line (www.kellsieavdesign.com). They offer very good performance for the dollar. With a bit of tube rolling, they can match the mid range of the MF Trivista (not the frequency exptremes, though.
Have you considered having the Kavent modified?
eventually I lined my player with ERS and changed the output coupling caps and wiring.. Minimal $$$ and quite a nice improvement in performance
decware has new device, zbox, apparently something you put between your CD and preamp. I guess the idea is that the tube-based distortions will sort of sweeten poorly mastered CD. Two wrongs make one not quite right but sort of acceptable, right?they have their own forum on decware site, so you can probably learn more about that box there.
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