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I have a Creek CD 50 which I bought on the recommendation of a retailer friend that is usually fairly spot on however he lives in the otherside of Canada (same width as the US)& does not really get my system or room. The problem as I have mentioned here before is that I am a partial shut in due to a chronic illness .So between the advice of a few eastern audiophiles & coupled with some advice I have very gratefully obtained here, I have tried to cobble together a new system which is sibilance free & was a improvement over my last one. When I could travel…not a problem because I could ether get a good idea listening or as we often do here in western Canada let folks try demos at home. At one point I was also in the business & still have some other retail friends that will send me things now & again. All this made it easy to buy a new system because I definitely know what I like & don't like & many use to seek out my opinion going way back into the 1980s.I am now thinking of trading my new RA Tempest II because it does not play a pair of speaker (the Silverline 17V3) with much dynamc range or energy due to the 84 db actual rating as oppose to the advertised 89. I wish reviewers would tell one these things however they usually have the mega buck high watt stuff so they do not see that guys on LTD like me use medium powered tube amps like my great sounding RA Tempest II .Essentially ,in no way no way does it have even enough bass to match up with my PSB heavily modified sub,.nor enough dynamic range to play rock music .I also need something softer on the front end than the Creek CD50 MkII plus I am in the throws of trying to trade up the TII for a Plinius 9200 to run my 17v3.
This brings me to the point at hand. A red book CD player between $1500 to $2000 USD range (at retail) that has a nice tube like upper midrange the softens down the sibilance one find on most commercial CDs & a surprising number of so called audiophile disks.I have heard from my pal Lyle down at the Hifi Attic in Vernon that the new Quad CDP possesses this quality as a example of something to try. Also do folks who own the Creek CD50 MKII find it has trouble playing scratched disks?This was supposed to be one of it’s strengths due to the prereading format that error corrects prior to the sound being loosed from the unit so to speak. Do these units have repair issues? ..again I heard they were well built & quite hardy..these last two point aside from the reported excellent sonics that drew me to the player. Just some questions the odd owner might be familiar with.
Again,I am open to suggestions .In the past some of the insights & led I have found here have been invaluable.
Thanks in Advance
Follow Ups:
It's tubed and a bargain IMHO at $1700. Its new on the market but its been reviewed favorably. Tube changing can make a sonic difference and its easy to do. Check out 6moons reviews. If after you do some basic investigation this unit interests you send me an e-mail and I'll give you the benefit of my experiences with it compared to my other digital stuff.
Audiopath, I'm a music lover with MS and I'm no longer very mobile as well. I was investigating the newest digital players as best I was able to. With a cd player I would still have to get up after at most 60 mins approx. so I pitched the idea and went to computer audio as my only real front end. MacMini to a Scott Nixon USBTD Tube Dac with 30 + days of a music before I need to get up!! HAHa Plus the Tube Dac really cuts sibilance and smooths out bad cd's. And if that's not enough I stream internet radio at 128Kb or better for background music. I can also transfer Apple Lossless to an iPod that's not bad either and portability. It comes down to the best digital sound or the most convenient that's certainly very listenable. I have about $1200 into it and there isn't anything in audio that sounds as good is easy for a disabled audiophile. Please dont get hung up on a computer as a cd player like some do or you may miss out on a great thing-
Thanks for the tip & good luck with your system.I have heard that of all the ube based components that a CD player that is tube based does the best job on sibilance.I am looking into a few affordable units.
IMO, tubes are more beneficial when used within the pre or amp.I’ve spent some time listening to various cdp designs including some with or without tubes. Many tube players use tubes as a buffer stage after (as opposed to instead of) the opamps. To me, they’re masking the digital edge by adding some "tubeyness", rolling the highs, etc. Much is depandant upon the design and suggest you look into some non oversampling units as well as the stuff from BAT, Cary, Jolida, Rega.
The Quad and the Naim Nait are both more musical than your ordinary up/oversampler. They are all digital-SS. No tubes. You can get up/oversampling CDPs with tube output stages. I think (just think) Carey, Jolida, Vincent are among those who make these. I own an Arcam CDP-192T, but that does NOT sound tubey.
The main culprits for bright sound in CD replay seem to be 1. oversampling and 2. inherently poor data extraction from CD transports running in real time. 1. is supposed to help with the poor sample rate of 'redbook' CD, but also adds a glaze and shrillness to the sound and 2. is why great transports make a difference.Switching to a laptop with a USB out to a good nonoversampling dac, will probably solve the brightness problems.
Once you load the CD onto the HD, then you are playing from the hard drive not the optical drive and the digital to analog converter is able to decode all of the data that exists on the disc.
in the view of many here on the board, especially over on the PC audio section, there in no reason to either or buy manufacture CD players anymore (especially not the pricey ones), except consumers buy them out of sheer habit and companies build them because they are set up to do so.
The burwen bobcat DAC is an interesting product ( a signal processer as well as a dac), though you do not need to spend 2000 for a DAC with a USB input.I have not tried the above but i am playing with a nos dac right now (from mhdt labs) that is a pleasing listen, though perhaps a bit too 'analog' sounding overall - soft and pleasing but not the last word in dynamics.
one day I will learn to spell or use a spell check or both...LOL..
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