HI
I demoed a 840 from a dealer a while back and thought it was quite good. However for me, I still prefer my 20 yr old CAL aria. It has been modded with better output caps but thats it.
The 840 is clearly better at resolution and has a better dac chip set. However In comparison with my cal; instruments and orchestras just sound more real, have more life. Low end extension was better with the cal, but high end better with the 840. Resolution is not the most important thing for me, realism of timbre is . I mainly listen to classical music.
To be clear I found nothing offensive with the 840, and have not tried any 5k players as that above what i would spend on a cd player. I would be quite disappointed if I could not get something better for 5K.
I demoed a 840 from a dealer a while back and thought it was quite good. However for me, I still prefer my 20 yr old CAL aria. It has been modded with better output caps but thats it.
The 840 is clearly better at resolution and has a better dac chip set. However In comparison with my cal; instruments and orchestras just sound more real, have more life. Low end extension was better with the cal, but high end better with the 840. Resolution is not the most important thing for me, realism of timbre is . I mainly listen to classical music.
To be clear I found nothing offensive with the 840, and have not tried any 5k players as that above what i would spend on a cd player. I would be quite disappointed if I could not get something better for 5K.