CD Help

What are you using to drive the speakers? The amp might be clipping due to an input overload. 11o`clock is meaningless by itself.

For now i am using the CD input of my Nak-av-10 which i use for my HT set-up. suppose to put-out 110 watts. i am in the process of redoing my two channel system, but i never thought that this amp (if it is the amp) would sound this bad.

1)Have you tried another CD player to see if you are getting the same result? 2)Also have you tried another input on the pre-amp? If no to 1) and yes to 2) I would consider the Sony is producing a lot of distortion which reveals itself at high listening levels, try taking it back to Circuit City and exchange it.

If your amp is clipping the bass will become mushy and the mids and highs will sound hard. It's very easy to clip a small 100wpc amp. Where the volume control is means nothing as this can vary alot but I'm not going into why here. Suffice it to say you are probably clipping your amp. I'd turn it down to where it sounds good and leave it there before you blow your tweeters.

Agree w/ Warnerwh...and the basic issue unlikely to be the CD player but amp-speaker set up

I can play my dvd's at 11 on the vol dial easily, even higher but it then tends to rock the house a bit. However as mentioned, when cd is on, i am runing the unit through analog inputs, everything just starts to get distorted at a moderate level. I have a nak DVD-10. forgot i had that, i'll hook that up this morning and see if theres a difference. i'll get back at ya, once done. thanks everyone. I don't really want to shell out $1000 or so for a nice cd player.

Just a follow up. I bought a Audio Research LS-7 and also purchased a Rotel 1080 200 watt amp to go along with the Von Schweikert VR4 jrs, Well that seemed to help everything. Even the cd player is sounding good. Not great but its not crapping out when the volume is turned up. Next step is to upgrade the cd player. Thinking of Marantz Sa11s1 or the new Wadia, what is it the 301 or something like that. I think i might go with the marantz since it offers the sacd in two channel where as the Wadia is strictly a CD player with no SACD. Any thoughts. Really didn't want to spend that much on a CD, but any opinions would be appreciated on a cd player. There isn't too much here in tucson to audition.

SACD can sound great, at least certain discs "sound great," but that isn't always the case, I'm afraid. Worse, SACD prices are considerably higher AND the selection may leave you unimpressed. I'd check this out before investing in the format.

I'm thinking it's the amp, too.

does that have line level outputs? is there any chance it is hooked up wrong?

I would check out the Wadia player and would consider it probably over the Marantz. Also look at used ARC CD3.

Arkprof observations are true but then you can same thing for any format in terms of not always sounding great. Depends on the recording engineering as always: what DSD and thus SACD does allows for more potential for the recording engineer and thus us. I would recommend looking for a CD/SACD player but given SACD titles are not nearly enough, make sure you make reg redbook play back quality the guiding principle for auditioning: then you have SACD capability to explore as an add on. What is your price range?

Henryhk: My price range is around $2500 I have heard great things about the marantz SA-11s1 i think thats the number. Its suppose to be great for regular CD's as well as two channel SACD. It will not do multichannel SACD. Don't care about more than 2 channel anyway. Any thoughts?? Thanks Arkprof.

Check out the TRL Marantz SA-14 thread. For about $1800 inlcuding mods you can have an excellent CD/SACD player.

TRL has modded my digital equipment and I can say their work is top notch. You will be amazed at the increased detail. If interested, you should check with them first, but I believe they offer a mony back guarantee on their mods.