I AM IN THE PROCESS OF BUYING A CD PLAYER AND I DONT KNOW WHICH WAY TO GO.WITH SO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM I WANT TO PURCHASE SOMETHING GOOD BUT I DONT WANT TO SPEND 10,000 EITHER.
Actually, my player is the best value and performance. 9 out of 10 dentists agree! Best, best, best, hands down, bar none, period, end of disscusion! Don't argue, it's the best! I won't tell you what it is, but if you can prove me wrong I'll pay you a zillion dollars!
Actually, my player is the best value and performance. 9 out of 10 dentists agree! Best, best, best, hands down, bar none, period, end of disscusion! Don't argue, it's the best! I won't tell you what it is, but if you can prove me wrong I'll pay you a zillion dollars!
The Gryphon 32 Bit Signature CD Player maybe the best High end CD Player for the money,it is been compared to the CEC TL-0x Transport & Audio Note Dac 5 Signature this combination is at least 4 times the price!!
But "value for money" suggests a return on investment calculation. Maybe you can look at it this way. If hypothetically, as the originator of this thread suggested, a $10000 CDP would give you 100% musical enjoyment, the Oppo certainly wouldn't score 1.7% of enjoyment, maybe somewhere around 60-70%. So if you could buy ~65% of maximum enjoyment for 1.7% of price ... wouldn't that be a damn good value for the money?
It doesn't help us audiophiles, who are paying stupendous amounts to get that last illusive percent of often perceived improvement...
Thank you Shadorne for some much needed humor after the past week of posts to this thread ...
Its clear to me, after listening to Mr Muralman's "collectors" disc Lavin that the man needs to get out his room and listen to some other systems and the latest digital out there. No truncating of Couvoisier's piano note decay, vague harmonics or blanching tones on my system, and I can compare to a real piano in my room. Maybe some more fun music too, notwithstanding the Niggli's and Courvoisier's talented improv recording. Still, thanks Muralman for pointing out a great small label called Intakt Records. Maybe I'll try some of their other stuff.
Tvad, I think it was mentioned before, but IMHO the Oppo 980H for $169 is the undisputed BEST CD PLAYER FOR THE MONEY. So this is a value for money question. Not an audiophile CDP by any means but probably the answer to this threads question... don't you think?
Muralman, if you want to discuss the benefits of NOS CD players you should start a separate thread.
Guys I happened to come across this interesting transcript of a well known high end audiophile manufacturer's annual board meeting. They are discussing how much to charge for the "best CD Player money can buy". It starts with a proposal by their CEO.
Tvad, I am reporting what is happening here, with my system. No, other systems will probably not mirror my findings. That does not negate the amazing things I am finding about with my system.
You assume to much saying anyone reading this exchange would not gain from comparing their players to mine here. You are just saying no one can change my mind, so why bother. That is not the challenge. I want to know who is going to be the first visitor whose opinion does not change.
Tvad, this is not a question of preference. It is a question of live vs. Hifi. Everyone who has listened to the difference here agrees with me. One recent visitor brought a very loved SACD player. He now owns the AMR-CD 77.
All I need to do is run the collector's disc, "Lavin," on and play Sylvie Courvoisier's first four plucked piano string notes. The digital filter players, in varying degrees, truncate the decay, blend the harmonics, and blanche the tone.
Tvad, that is not the case at all. My doors are open for anyone who believes they can change my mind. Should the challenger prevail, I will humbly acquiesce.
Tvad, my opinion is shaped by the listening of digital filtered players at my location. Non believers have left believing. This is my system I am writing about. I have witnessed the same results with excellent SET systems.
Gryphonaudio, If you were a local, I would challenge you to back up your talk with an audition. I will swear on a stack of holy books my no filter DAC will out shine the Mikado in every category on my system.
"Upsampling to 32bit/192kHz in the Mikado Signature shifts aliasing noise upward in frequency so that the upper corner frequency, of the digital anti-aliasing filters, can be more than doubled compared to the standard Mikado, witch even more than doubled the original 44.1 kHz sample rate to 24bit/96kHz.
Upsampling can neither miraculously restore lost information nor generate new information from the original 44.1 kHz sampled music. But there is a straightforward and valid explanation for the sonic benefits of Upsampling.
Without Upsampling, a complicated brick wall analog filter is required following the conversion process to eliminate high-frequency noise interfering with the analog audio signal.
Following the four dual Differential 32bit/192kHz AKM digital-to-analog converters, Mikado Signature executes the analog filter with just a single silvered Mica capacitor.
The 32bit/192kHz Upsampling of the digital signal also results in an incredible accurate handling of the important 16bit witch represents the recorded music signal, preserving linearity for improved THD+N performance.
The Mikado Signatures 32bit/192kHz Upsampling together with this simple, but yet, high quality analog filter, results in a new standard of sonic performance."
Gryphonaudio, with all respect to the no-doubt wonderful sounding Mikado CD player, this Australian article does not explain how it is using the off-the-shelve AKM 32bit DAC in its design. Btw, this DAC has been around for the most part of 2008 and implemented before by others.
I do like the Mikado modularity concept, and if it could handle SACD I would be seriously tempted ...
(If you are a dealer or manufacturer pls disclose)
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