High quality CDs

The CD Red Book sampling rates simply aren't high enough. The standard was fixed in 1983 to be the bits that would give 80 minutes of programme and fit on a 5 inch disc at that time.  Since then storage capacity has increased exponentially.  CD should be abandoned.

Anyway no digital system can eliminate dither and clock error.

Get a record player.

@retiredfarmer  Don't agree about Chesky CDs.  I bought one (classical, can't remember what it was, I played it once and didn't get to the end) when the company was young (?30 years ago) and it sounded so bad I never bought another.  Far worse than CD, even then.

@retiredfarmer 

On the face of it, a pertinent question but remember I said the Chesky disc was far worse than other CDs.  So you can deduce the player paid other CDs satisfactorily.

To answer your question the player was a Wada 16, an expensive leading high-end CD player at the time.  CDs did play much better on it than on cheapo Japanese tin boxes.  The Wadia was my first CD player.  I have only had one other, an Audio Research CD9.  It is a good bit better than the Wadia.

@retiredfarmer 

Well the Wadia was pretty good with other recordings.

Anyhow, you may not be right on these chips.  The first three Wadia 16 reviews I turned up say 'Super'.  'Simply the best'.  'One of the best CD players ever made.  Hmmm

Choice of chips can be personal and a company like Wadia ought to be able to be trusted not to use turkeys.  How come their engineers and listening staff couldn't hear the problem and you can?  Digital audio using solid state components will always be an issue.

All transistors were hard and grainy from the very get go and many still are.  It's not so easy replicating an analogue experience with a stepped digital representation and a jittery clock interface.

DACS are the main issue with digital sound and in my view the problem may never be solved.  I'm not sure I've EVER heard a good digital recording of massed strings - these are really prone to hardness and especially grain.  Many LPs have much more concert realism on this.

One could say that using digital storage to listen to analogue sound is like starting with an apple, changing it into an orange and then changing it back to an apple again so we can eat it.  Obviously the repeated conversions are likely to change the character of the apple and it may not be so good to eat.  In my experience fiddling with stuff rarely improves it.

On 'one duff disc' of course I hear what you say but if you pay a premium price for a bad recording/production/disc from what should be a reputable company, it kinda puts you off buying more.  They don't tax returns - indeed I bought it in the US at a show and live in UK.  It is important such companies as Chesky run very tight quality control for their own good as well as that of their customers.