I own B&W CDM 1NT speakers and often I want to sell them. The first impression was good but after 20 minutes listening to them I didn't enjoy my music, I bought a phono-amp and started listen to some LP's, away was the hard sound, now they sound smooth and warm and I can listen hours to them. I own this speakers for three years, now I enjoy them. I don't say CD is bad but analogue is better, it's not as clinical or cold. I will not sell my speakers.
Digital tends to sound "harsher" than analogue. That is, until you find well designed components that use good quality parts and / or band aid poorer performing digital units. Sean >
Suggestion...put a Taddeo Digital Antidote 2 between your CDP and PreAmp. It smooths out the CD edginess, ends the listening fatique without changing the music AND is cheap. A neat little tweak that helps your listening experience while you explore or experiment with the other great tips on A'GON.
My turntable is a very modest pro-ject debut 2 and a pro-ject phono box, that isn't the best gear in the world but to my ears it's an improvement, my CD-player is a very accurate machine: the rotel rcd 971, but in combination with my CDM 1NT's the turntable sounds smoother. My amp is a rotel 971 mk2.
My personal experience has been similar to yours, Willy, that analogue music is more pleasant to my ears, even with modest pro-ject or rega 2. It is too bad that some of collections are available only in CDs, otherwise, I would have sold my CD gears long long time ago. No doubt, there are great CD players, but my personal preference is still analog.
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.