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CD player to compete with my vinyl rig?

Greetings,

I find that I have stopped buying CDs, which I regret because there is so much great new music out there.

My player is a Cambridge 640c and listening to it just doesn't do the 'suspension of disbelief' thing. It has all the right stuff: black backgrounds, dynamics, PRAT, detail, air, frequency extension, but as soon as the orchestral strings well up or the horns start, I want to turn it off. The timbral qualities are weird (especially massed strings, voices) and the sense of real people playing instruments isn't there. There's a sheen and confusion to the soundscape. My vinyl rig offers by far the more realistic experience. I have multiple copies of Mahler's 2nd Symphony on both CD and vinyl, and I never listen to the CDs any more.

I would like to find a CD player that makes me want to listen to CDs as much as vinyl!

I'm looking at reviews of the Rega Apollo R, the Teac PD H600, Audiolab 8200CD and the Decware Zen triode player. (Yes, around $1000 budget).

My rig: Pro-ject 2 Xperience/Shure V15-IV, Jico SAS, Cambridge 640c, Rogue Cronus Magnum/KT120 tubes, LS3/5a speakers, Kimber, Zu cabling.

Music tastes: Sibelius, Mahler, Bruckner, Bach, fifties torch singers.

I would love to hear suggestions from members!
Thanks
sumaato

Showing 2 responses by timrhu

timrhu
2,779 posts
 
The Resolution Audio CD50 convinced me to stop listening to vinyl and go strictly digital seven or eight years ago. I did extensive comparisons at the time and what I decided was well mastered cds beat vinyl for me. Poorly mastered cds sounded better on vinyl but not enough for me to keep it.
I have owned 10 or 15 cdps trying to beat the CD50, including the Jolida mentioned above, none of them came close. One of these days I may break down and purchase the Resolution Audio Opus 21 as from what I've read, and through discussion with Opus 21 owners, it has the same characteristics as the CD50 only better.
The other option is to find a dac you like and rip your cds to a hard drive and work from there. It's where things are going.
timrhu
2,779 posts
 
I think you are looking at this the wrong way. My experience tells me the sound/flavor/character of a cdp is in the design/implementation of the analog output section much more than in the data conversion section. Not saying the conversion is unimportant but you can find three cdps using the same dac chipset with totally different sounds. Where does the difference come from? I say the analog output stage.
As stated above, I have used several different cdps, many of them were well reviewed, high quality players but they did not meet my criteria for smooth, listenable, non-fatiguing sound.
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