Neutrally sounding CDP with a good resolution?


...just decided to post it as a separate thread...

Recently I had not very fortunate experience with upgrade of NAD C541i to Marantz 8400: I discovered that I really miss NAD's neutrality. What NAD lacked was a resolution, it was too grainy on top-end. Marantz is warm, laid-back, more musical - but I need that NAD's neutrality back, with significantly better resolution then NAD had. And I don't want it to be not laid-back nor forward - I'd prefer somewhere in between. What CD player would you recommend?

System
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Source: Marantz 8400 (formerly NAD C541i)
Amp: Moon i-5 (fast and neutral or a little on a bright side)
Speaker cable: AZ Satori (love 'em)
Speakers: Revel M20 (fast and neutral or a little on a bright side)
dmitrydr

Showing 4 responses by dmitrydr

Socrates, your "can't imagine anyone missing anything from the NAD after hearing the Marantz" sounds interesting, considering that their sound characters are SO different, even opposite. Regardless to overall quality difference you can easely miss forward sound vs. laid-back, airy and light vs. fat and warm...

I made lots of searches and found quite consistent picture that Marantz is much more colored and dark then thin - neutral - weakly-resolving NAD.
I made a side by side comparison of NAD against Linn Genki which is commonly considered as "organically neutral", and in terms of musical character and tonal balance they are close, while Linn certainly a way better in resolution. I wouldn't like to consider Marantz as better or worse, it's just an opposite approach to a listening, ANOTHER CHARACTER, matter of personal preference.
Again, in terms of coloration and tonal balance NAD is extremelly uncolored and neutral and very close to the 4 times more expensive gear.
Hi Kleech, nice to hear from you. Thank you for your advice. After I tried Linn and another Marantz I realized that it's all about Marantz house sound, and while I admit it sounds good in general, it just doesn't appeal to me considering the kinds of music I listen, and it too different to be corrected by ICs. So, I'm just getting another CDP. But not Genki, either. :)
UPDATE: I have found my ultimate CD player, perfecty matching to Moon i-5 integrated. It happened to be Moon Nova. Straigt out of the box it amazed me by rich, and full, yet very clear sound, and enormously natural tonal balance.
And I have to mention, NAD was closer to it then Marantz.