Big source improvement using CD player


I borrowed a friend's esoteric dv50s CD player.  I could not believe the difference between it and streaming Spotify premium.  I am now in the market for a CD player.  One thing, the esoteric does not play DVD-R.  Can anyone recommend a comparable CD player in the used market that does? I'm looking in the $800 - $1500 range.  
puffbojie
I find if I use the Sony server, I don't listen to the entire album.  I am always skipping around.  With the CD player, I listen to the entire disk.  That in itself is much more relaxing to me.
It's one of the reasons I listen to radio during the day. If I stream, I am too easily distracted to change the song.
Actually, to add to that, I use SONY server probably 90% of the time for Internet radio. First I was lazy enough to change CDs, then I became lazy enough to even change songs. To make it worse, some days I am lazy enough to turn it on. I would need to get two remotes and click two buttons. What a drag...
"Sorry, but that thing just uses a cheap $20 slot load media disk spinner, like this.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/TS-632A-GATEWAY-M-SERIES-SLOT-LOAD-DVD-RAM-DVDRW-DRIVE-TS-632A-GRADE-A-/264547058626?_trksid=p2385738.m4383.l4275.c10

Try going back to a real CD transport, with some cred."


Actually the above is inaccurate and tells me you don’t know what you are talking about here.


It’s doesn’t require rocket science 🚀 to show that scattered CD laser light hurts sound. You can demonstrate it for yourself. All you need is a GREEN Sharpie or any brand chisel tip permanent marker. Paint the outer edge of the CD green. Voila! The sound is better. That’s because some of the visible red portion of the scattered laser light gets into the photodetector and is detected as “real signal.” And the color green absorbs visible red light. The sound would be even better if the invisible near infrared scattered light is absorbed as with New Dark Matter. Recall the laser wavelength is 780 nm, near infrared. I did not create reality.

The visible 👀 red portion is only what, about 1/3 of the total CD laser bandwidth, thus when the other 2/3 of the scattered light is absorbed the sound is much better still. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, “But my system already sounds fabulous.“ Pseudo skeptics never roll their sleeves up and investigate for themselves. That’s because they aren’t real skeptics. They’re rather argue until they’re blue in the face.🥶

Actually the above is inaccurate and tells me you don’t know what you are talking about here.
I think it’s the other way around.
Sorry?? but that’s very rich from someone that has these sorts of hearing problems!!
https://forum.audiogon.com/posts/1686434
glubson, at least you're not too lazy to wake up. You're on the right path. 😄👍
@puffbojie
You could use EAC (exact audio copy), download it for free.
Copy some CDs to a USB flash drive, stick it into the USB port in the back of your NAD C658, play some music and please share your experience??
A 256 Gb Sandisk cruiser will run you $30-35. If you have one already, this little experiment can cost you just your time. That's 365 full CDs, one for every day (except of course a leap year)

@georgehifi
I have a Cambridge CXUHD (I know, it’s not what you specified) sounds for all intents and purposes the same on "spinning silver" as it does playing WAV files through my system. Yeah of course I do like Cambridge gear also.
I have a Cambridge CXUHD
Not quite as good as the CXC for spinning CD's.
As the CXC has a dedicated linear power supply, and dedicated CD drive, with it's "legendary" ‘S3’ servo design. (whatever that is).

Where the CXUHD uses a SMP (switch mode) power supply and  universal DVD/CD drive, and no S3

Cheers George     
@puffbojie
I still use a DV-50S for playing CD’s, SACD’s and Audio DVD’s on my main system and think it sounds great even after all these years. However, I haven’t used it as a video source since blu-rays came along.
That said, I just tried an old DVD-R and it played fine. The DV-50 was billed as a "universal" player back in the day and although I seem to recall it getting cranky with some -RW discs, this was rare and everything else seemed to work with no problem. How was the DVD-R you attempted to play created?

Question: sometimes I stream YouTube music through my Oppo105 using the USB interface. Why does that sound so much more full than streaming Tidal lossless?