Recommendations for CD Player/DAC Combo

Like Liz I use a cheap spinner(s) plugged into my Marantz' DAC. The reason is simple - My system operates all day but I only listen to it critically for a few hours in the evening. Why burn up a built in spinner for 'background' music? It has two inputs - one I use for a 6 CD player and one for a 1 CD player. Works for me.

stereo5, In the spirit you evince in making your comments about Liz’s use of her CDP, I can’t understand why you would be really spendy on your system yet place your speakers on the wall where, presumably, you will not hear  what your speakers were capable of had you paid more attention to your set up. Quite the contrary. I could bore you with detail about about proper set up but, hey, its your stuff, your room, and none of my business. If the sound you get makes you happy who am I to comment. But if I had to put my speakers on a wall, as you have, I wouldn’t have wasted my money on mine.

Liz, forgive me, I know you can speak for your self but, I assume, too polite to respond.

Stereo5, Not ’mounted’ for sure I agree, but placed immediately in front of the wall for sure (for folks interested they can look at the pictures of your system which you have posted).

Other than the back injury you would have probably incurred had you mounted them on the wall, I’m not sure that there would be much sonic difference, on the floor or on the wall. :-) I pulled mine 66 inches out into the room and they are part of an (almost) equilateral triangle with my listening chair at the apex of the triangle (where else).

While I could argue at some length about speaker placement (and set up) in general, and yours specifically, I see no reason to do so. You are happy, your wife is happy, you are listening to music you enjoy, not much else counts, does it. Peace.

tyan42, FWIW I believe that the current interest in using seperate transports and DAC’s arises from the wide use of on-line sources which require a DAC. So if you had to get a DAC, why not get a transport. I do not use on line sources and have an extensive CD library so this is not an issue for me.

I have been using separates since the 90’s because they were better at the time (or so I thought). I have since acquired some fairly good CDP’s and I think the single units are clearly better, but as I said before with my Marantz, which has provision for other sources, I also use separate ’spinners’ much, but not all of, of the time. When I’m going to actually sit in the sweet spot and listen to music I use the CDP which serves the music best (CDP’s really do sound different from each other).

If I were starting over again I would get a quality CDP with inputs for other sources. I would not get separates, but I would use another spinner to reduce the wear on the CDP’s transport when appropriate as I have done. As Liz said earlier ’spinners’ do sound different. I find that my Onkyo 6 CD changer quite adequate for back-ground music as I do an old Cal Audio transport.