effect of tubes in cd players

I can't say it changes the sound of CD players generally--players are all different, and anyway you can't put tubes into a solid-state one to see if it changes the sound. (OK I lied, there was once an AMC unit you could do that with, and it was said to be an upgrade.)

Rolling tubes in a CD player does change the sound, though. I've owned two tubed players and they both sounded better (to me) with the right tubes. If that's what happens with a tube preamp (and many say it does) then I guess your answer is yes.

"Does it change the sound a lot?"

Obviously it depends on how you define 'lot'. I think tube CDP's do sound different from SS CDP's generically speaking, but there are some fine SS CDP's.

What makes the difference for me is the ability to fine tune the sound of a tubed CDP to match your system simply by changing tubes. Apart from vinyl, the best sound in my house involves a SS CDP direct to a tubed amp, its 'audiophile approved' so to speak.

However the sweetest sound in the house is a tubed CDP/Pre-amp/Amp in which I've paid careful attention to tube matching to make it all come together.
Its fun to tune your own system. To hell with 'audiophiledom! :-)

I agree, i have an Arcam dv29, and a Consonance sacd, which i have upgraded the tube in,2 totally different sounds, both are very pleasing,also use a tube headphone amp and the one in my benchmark dac, different sound both great with different music

Kurt

I have a solid-state CDP and a tube CDP. They are both very different and if you go by classical definitions, the SS one sounds more like tubes and the tubed one sounds like SS. So you can't go by that. There is a lot of overlap - you just have to experiement with many different ones to see which you like.

Arthur

Id you send out say Denon or Sony to get modded you can have some fun tube rolling but when it comes down to it having tubes as a buffer which introduces lower order harmonic distortion (the kind we like as opposed top upper harmonic distortion which is,well, distortion) in my mind is best left to a tube pre or amp.If one combos is most poular it is tube pre's with SS amps because you get warm euphonics ,bloom, etc of tubes but still your output has control of SS i.e.no rolled off highs or weak bass which CAN be base with some tube designs be they pre or amp but don't have to be.Recently solid state sounds more like tubes and tubes sound like SS.In a hybrid amp tubes are used to change voltage where they add chromatics and some designers say this what they do best but output is handled by SS usually Mosfet designs.

All this said you get IMHO better qualities of tubes in pre or if you really dig tubes,find the right amp or integrated go with tubes entirely as opposed to just adding a filter.Muical Fidelity sold more of it's little XV3(?)tube buffer boxes than any other item it ever made so there's lot's of folks out there who have solid state and want a touch of sweetnes.But generally speaking you'll get more and btter sound out of a glass pre and the most from a glass(tube) amp then you will than just having it as a ad on filter which is waht essentially you get strapping tubes onto a CD players output stage.Big in the aftermarket mod world but if you look at companies that produce both tubes and solid state their CD's are usually sans tube output which must sayt something.The very best CD players do not have tuber oputputs.On other hand you might like it and haved fun.I'd just rather it be part of circut design of my pre,amp,or intergrated.
Chaz
rtapping some tubes