Need New CD Player or new DAC

"Should I switch cd players or get a better DAC or keep what I got because there won't be that much difference. Any help would be much appreciated.
Dylanfan (Threads | Answers | This Thread"

If you let other people make the decision for you, you'll have another CD player to add to your collection. Why not just demo some new players?

I understand your questions but what you're asking can't be answered 3rd party. Its all subjective. I could give you a 10k CD player and a 1k player to compare and you may like the cheaper one better. And that would not be a rare occurrence either.

What were talking about here is not better or worse, its about different. I think that to give yourself the best chance of finding something you like, you'll need to do whatever you can to narrow down your choices. Maybe start by setting some goals as to what you want the new CD player to do sonically. What are you missing in your system that needs improvement? Also, and just as important, is to come up with qualities that you don't like. Set goals like this, you'll have a much easier time finding something you like.

It would also be a good idea to list your system and taste in music.

Dylanfan,

I just remembered that it in some other threads about getting the best sound from your Klipsch. Horn speakers can be very difficult to deal with when it comes to high frequencies. You may be asking too much of your CD player.

Here's a different option that I think will work better then just a new CD player. Use one of the players you have now as a transport. Go digital from your transport to a Behringer DEQ2496 digital EQ. You're probably going to need something like that to make digital listenable. If you go with just a CD player, its like buying an EQ with just 1 setting, so you might as well get one. Then go digital from the EQ to a to a dac. The Behringer sells for about $300-350, and you should be able to pick up a nice dac with whatever is left over. There's plenty of good sounding dacs in the $600-400 range.

"09-19-15: Dylanfan
I read the Behringer has problems with overheating."

I never heard that. I've had one for 4-5 years and never had a problem with overheating. I know several people on Audiogon have one as well, and I don't recall any complaints of overheating. Its been out for a while. Maybe they updated the unit.

"What DAC in the 600.00 range do you recommend? "

Pick the one that sounds the best to you. lol. In all seriousness, though, your dac selection becomes much easier if you go this route. Like I said before, if you buy a dac or CD player to try and fix the highs in your system, you're basically buying an EQ with 1 setting, and you just have to hope it works. That's no way to fix a problem. As a general rule, using components for what they were originally designed for is the best way to ensure that you will be happy. I know some people love to through tubes and cables at problems, but that seldom works.

Here's a good example. If you currently had solid state gear, everyone would tell you to buy a tube preamp to fix the problem. That didn't work, so now they would say buy a tube amp. You already have a tube amp and preamp, but if you didn't, and went out and bought them, we would still be having this conversation because you still have the same problem. Now the recommendation is to buy a tube dac. Then they will tell you to buy cables, then roll tubes, then A/C products, then room tunes, then, then..... You'll eventually end up with the "then" that broke the audiophiles bank account, and walk away from the whole system in frustration.

The upside, is that if you fix the problem in your system the right way, picking a good sounding dac becomes much easier. You're not asking it to do something it wasn't designed to do. I already have gear that I've been happy with for a while, so I'm not current on all the different models currently offered. One that stands out for me, is the Parasound Z series. I like this one because you don't need special drivers. It works with Mac, PC and Linux. I'm sure that there are others like this as well. Some of the other posters will probably point them out.