Upgrade my CD player or futile effort?

I thought I would share my cd player journey.
Stage 1 were the following:
Oppo 103D SE
followed by a major step up to my
Esoteric K03xs SE
Dissatisfied with the harshness of leading and trailing edges, I sold it
Meanwhile, I have bought and upgraded two other disc players, the Oppo204 and Pioneer LX800, that were seemingly excellent with very analog sounds c.f. the Esoteric, then I caught this unit...
Audio Research Ref CD9 tube cd player and had it upgraded including renewing the power supply that failed.
Fyi, all upgrades are limited to EMI RFI control by the Upgrade Company here.
I tried various DAC’s also during my time with the Esoteric, including the Lampizator Amber III that was also an upgraded unit. Sold that too...
Most definitely the ARDC Ref CD9 SE is the most analog experience where you don’t notice you are listening to CDs. It’s seriously seductive.
The analog experience is helped by the rest of the systems variously ARC LS10SE preamp and D240 MkII SE power amp into my MB2SE by PMC. And my other system that features right now the XP20 preamp by PassLabs into the Luxman M900u feeding into some very fine horn speakers, L’Instrument by Viking Acoustics.
The bottom line is that carefully selected cd players that are synergistic with your system will and can create a fully analog sound, better than your vinyl experiences, with no pops, clicks, or dust particles to interrupt your brain’s pleasure signals.
Listening to Leonard Cohen just now his final cd... and it’s eerie, smooth mellow, and gorgeous. The super tweeters in the speakers have plenty to pick up and blow out...
I enjoy the two bcdp’s but they are more digital and less range full than the ARC Ref CD9, and this kit is still burning-in, speakers, and the CD9 player.

I have a Linn Mimik II and a Quad 99, both of which give my LP12 good competition.

Yeah, I have a Rega Apollo and a Schiit multibit DAC. Sounds wonderful! Very ‘analog’ sound. I also want to hear that Denefrips DAC. Invest in digital and it will sound fantastic. 
Sam in Massachusetts 

While a better DAC R2R ladder will help you, if you can rip all your CDs "bit perfect" into a computer and store them on a USB flash drive with a backup copy and play the flash drive through a streamer such as a Bluesound, it will not be as difficult as you think. You might even eliminate the use of the CD player. I did this with my Bluesound Vault 2i and use storage on a flash drive because that is the only way I can index my collection by composer's folders rather than by "artist and song." I stream free radio stations from anywhere in the world especially if the atmospheric conditions weaken the antenna signals from distant classical stations for my Magnum Dynalab FT 101A FM tuner.

Hi, After all I read here! There are many ways to go! I have ran the gamut of using a lot of stuff! From Dac's and Transport to highly modified CD players! The best overall sound was definitely switching to tubes! Like others have said they liked the Dac's with tubes! All you invested into analog and nothing into digital,  you really are missing out! I had a 2 piece Dac with a Levinson 31.5 Transport! The inner detail was spectacular but still not smooth like analog or tubes in  CD system! I now have an Ayon CD Tube player and it is Fantastic! Not Cheap but with top load Transport and tube Dac's! Sounds like analog without any noise! I'm an Audiophile from way back and always recommend tubes whenever possible! So if you want to hear unbelievable CD sound! You can! Also, less can be more! By bypassing my pre amp and running directly into my mono tube amps! Less Connections the better! I also recommend and use Solid Core Speaker  Cables and Interconnects! Goodluck in your search for better sound!

Well, it has now been 10 days since the Denafrips Ares II has been run continuously on full power as recommended. So time to give you my final impressions as to the Ares II / Marantz CD6005 combo. First off running the Marantz through the Denafrips is like driving your car after cleaning the windshield. The veil being taken off image being way overused 🙂
For sound testing comparison, I only used vinyl I purchased that came with a CD included so there is no chance of getting a different mastering.
I used Pain of Salvation -Entropia, Riverside - Wasteland, Robert Wyatt - Shleep and UMG - Death of stereo. Rock is what I listen to 90% of the time, so this mix of soft jazzy rock to hard prog metal covers my range well.
I played songs from each of these records back and forth multiple times from my analog source to my digital one. I am happy to report that my digital source, costing about a fifth of my analog one, is now basically on par with the analog source sound wise. It is slightly different but not in a bad way. The digital offers a more defined space. Not wider per say, but better displaced. Like sounds coming from outside the speakers are better perceived. It definitely gives a little more clarity but without being harsh on most records. I repeat that I will only play the Denafrips on NOS setting. No OS for my taste.
The digital bass is also deeper, definitely more pronounced. Since all recordings sound different, I would give the nudge to analog for metal since it can lean harsh sounding. The analog definitely tames that down more than the NOS digital setting. However I give the nudge to digital for anything dark sounding. It's like replacing a 40 watt light bulb with a 75 one. On well balanced records I honestly can not prefer one over the other, and I tried. One thing I appreciate with the analog rig that I can't control with this digital setup is the phono preamp gives me the option to tame down bright records with setting it all the way down to 60 ohms as necessary. In my room I like it best on 475 ohms which gives me the clarity and wide space I like for most records. On the other hand, the Denafrips can only go brighter with the OS setting. Once you got it on NOS, it's as tamed as it's gonna get.
In the end, I do now realize the true value of digital which many analog fans on this site discard. There is no doubt that I could probably better my digital rig if I put in the same money that in my analog rig. However I won't do that since I would then have to upgrade my analog 🙂
Not that much of an upgrade fanatic.
Very happy with my digital now that it is basically on par with my analog. Highly recommend going down that road to ones who may contemplate buying CDs. With over 2,000 vinyl and less than 400 CDs, buying CDs is what I am going to do for a while. Huge plus since so many newer recordings never make it to vinyl. Life is better with music. Thanks to everyone who tried to help here.

The thing that I find interesting streaming music is down loaded music from probably a cd played music.So isn't just cd music.?

@baylinor,
Congratulations on your very successful move to improve your digital front end. It would have been easy to default to a snobbish mindset and assume that digital can not compete with your analogue front end.

Now you can easily enjoy music with either format which I’m a strong advocate of. You approached this with an open mind and good attitude. Good news is as pleased as you are you can easily improve your digital front end further for reasonable cost if the desire to do so ever strikes.
Charles

baylinor

Thank You for the update. Good to read that you are enjoying spinning CDs again.

Happy Listening!

johnread57

I enjoyed reading your CD player journey. That is a very nice collection of spinners. Upon audition, I liked the ARC CD9 as well. It is a very fine Spinner.

Happy Listening!

I had a Marantz 8005 and upgraded to a Marantz SA-10 two years ago and was a big step up

The Technics SL-G700 doesn’t fit into any neat category. It straddles across generations of digital formats by playing discs – in CD and SACD form – as well as streaming music from across a network or via Bluetooth. AirPlay, Chromecast and even MQA are firmly on the menu.


Verdict

We’re pleasantly surprised by the Technics SL-G700. We half expected a compromised package that, while packing in plenty of features, would struggle to excel with both disc and stream. What we got was a superb sounding product that sets high sonic standards across the board. If you can live with the clunky operation, and on balance we can, this is a terrific buy.

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Features 5
• Build 5

https://www.whathifi.com/us/reviews/technics-sl-g700

hth