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Arcam, Musical Fidelity questions...

So I need a CD player, mostly just concerned with good redbook CD playback. Mostly rock with jazz on occasion. I had narrowed it down to the Arcam FMJ CD36 or the Musical Fidelity A5, but as I've been doing research the thing that keeps sticking out to me is the Arcam FMJ CD23T with the ring dac.

So my question to anyone with experience with these players (or other suggestions for players I'm not looking at) in the mid price range (trying to stay around $2K). First do like the Arcam CD23 better than the CD36/33 and then how do you compare it to the Musical Fidelity A5. I realize this is subjective but would appreciate any opinions you'd like to give.

Thanks in advance for your input.
trestles

Showing 2 responses by trestles

trestles OP
4 posts
 
I really appreciate all the responses, I agree that the Ayre would probably be the best of the bunch but while my amp to my pre does run via a balanced connection. The pre does not have a balanced input for the CD player, so I think the 5% bump in performance I'd get over the CD23 (running single ended) is probably not worth the $1,300 more (used) that I'd have to pay.

As a pure value proposition it appears the CD23 is the way to go. I'm waiting for the FMJ CD23T to surface and then I'll try to pick one up.

Thanks again.
trestles OP
4 posts
 
Thank you Jkalman you've sent me off in a whole new direction and I'm now very interested in the Denon DVD-5910 (which is surprising because I never thought I'd by anything Denon). You're right the Burr Brown 1792 is getting great reviews everywhere. I also really like the idea of having one box for everything that performs at at an audiophile level.

One question I have after doing some research on the unit: there is an outfit that advertises here on audiogon called Underwood Hifi and they do a a mod to the 5910. The mod brings the price up to around $5K. It is obviously difficult to audition an upgraded unit so my question is does anyone here have experience with these upgraded units or are they able to discern whether they appear to be worth it. I certainly don't have the techinical skill to do so...

Thanks.
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