ARC CD1 vrs ARC CD2

I have never heard the CD2 but I owned the CD1. I did not think it was a good player at all, but I thought it was a fantastice transport. i used it with a meitner outboard dac and a Stan Warren modified Monarchy 22b dac. The unit as a player is thin, harshc and compressed (to my ears) but when used as a transport with the right dac, it is superb. Mike

haven't heard the CD1 but i did audition the CD2 and was not impressed at all. i felt it lacked detail and involvment. for less money you can do much better. if you can find a Resolution Audio CD50, check it out. This is what I ended up with and it's fantastic. For me it does everything well, great detail and clarity without being at all analytic, sweet midrange, extended bottom end. Just very musical.

I couldn't agree more with Jcs!!! My Resolution Audio CD50 is knocking on the door of my vinyl rig's performance (even string tone, depth, inner detail!! You need to spend some $$ on line conditioning, MIT interconnects, and AC cord, though). I had to buy a Benz Micro Lo4 cartridge ($1200) just to put adequate distance between my vinyl and "lowly" 16/44.1 CD's. THE RA CD50 IS TRULY THE BEST CD PLAYER YOU'LL EVER OWN! (Jeff Kalt is THE digital hardware designer to beat!!!!) I run mine straight into my Krell amp, and would put it up against ANYTHING that doesn't upsample (and a few that do...and, all of those would have to be coupled with a TRULY superior linestage like the Conrad Johnson ART, or a Burmester, or the Dynaudio Arbiter, TO ADEQUATELY APPROACH THE PERFORMANCE OF A PLAYER LIKE THE CD50, THAT DOESN'T NEED A SEPARATE LINESTAGE). These would include the Wadia 830, 850, 860; and also the Levinson 39. AND IT SOUNDLY BEATS THE SONY SCD-1 when playing "only" CD's.