You'd be lucky and save a lot of money if you "auditioned" and couldn't hear any difference.
What Sonically is the Difference between a $1,500 CD Player and a $10K-$25K One?
I realize opinions may vary, but if I could give an example of two CD players perhaps someone can give me their thoughts on the cost benefits of either one? What would be the difference in your opinion between say a Cambridge Audio Azur 851C CD Player and the Gryphon Scorpio S CD Player? And are the difference truly audible or more technical and rather indiscernible through human hearing?
In general, what makes a CD player (other than build components) 10x more costly than a decently built one other than features?
In general, what makes a CD player (other than build components) 10x more costly than a decently built one other than features?
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geoffkait, I actually enjoy reading posts like yours. It is true of course that digital was pretty terrible for the first number of years, but now that I have been living with a competent transport and non-oversampling DAC for years, I enjoy the great sound (perfect...? NO) and grin at all of the outdated criticisms of digital's deficiencies. I recently watched a factual piece on youtube about the deficiencies of analog (what?) that was complete with simple enlarged line drawings, some animated of the gross mistracking that cartidges make in record grooves no matter what the cost of the cartridge, because it is simply unavoidable. Yet we continue to talk about the losses in digital transcription caused by sampling rates and jitter. It is really just choosing what type of losses/distortions that you can live with and find acceptable. I just find it laughable that those with even the finest vinyl rigs think that they are so far above those using digital mediums as a source. I realize Geoff that you weren't supporting analog per se, but you were singing the same old "digital sucks" song, and that is getting stale. John |
fstein"The sound of money burning. And that high end cd player will depreciate 50-70% in 2 years" It is most probably and likely that those purchasing such components do not care at all about depreciation that is not why they acquire the equipment in the first place it’s audio equipment not a financial investment! |
A quick recap of the last 40 years 1. First CD players 1983, really crappy sound. 2. Second generation CD players, still really crappy sound. Maybe it’s the CDs. 3. Increase but rate. Still crappy sound. 4. Increase the bit rate some more. Nope, still crappy sound. 5. How about outboard DACs? Still crappy sound. 6. Upsampling, nope. 7. OK, how about higher bit rates AND higher sampling rates? Nope. 8. Now all the CDs are super compressed so who cares? |
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The ever popular price to value discussion. On a suitable system with the resolution required to hear any subjective difference you should hear a pretty big difference between two such price ranges. One: a $1,500.00 CD player is not going to have a really spectacular analog stage. Most likely the analog stage will be some inexpensive op amp based circuit. Two: a $1,500.00 CD player's optical drive isn't going to be anything special so the signal going to the dac will have errors. Three: the $1,500.00 CD players parts quality again in the analog stage and dac stages are going to be pretty inexpensive parts. If you think about it the greater the subtitlities reproduced and the more you preserve information the greater the qualatative differences you are going to hear. In our shop we have multiple dacs from $2,500.00 to $35k and the differences are clearly audible on our reference system. When you hear a $35k dac and it is a good one, the music starts sounding very very real in a way that the less expensive ones didn't replicate. https://www.google.com/search?q=T%2BA+pdp+3000&client=aff-maxthon-maxthon4&tbm=isch&tbs=...: https://www.fidelity-magazin.de/2016/06/04/ta-pdp-3000-hv/#foobox-2/3/T-A-PDP-3000-HV-5.jpg https://www.audio-activity.com/2015-munich/ta1 compare that level of build quality vs a $2,500 Rega Saturn which is an excellent player http://www.hifishock.org/gallery/electronics/rega/source/cd-player/saturn-1-rega/ When you add up the differences in drive quality, analog output stage quality, digital output stage design you can start to understand that there are very large and audible differences between CD players, amplifiers, dacs, loudspeakers etc. Dave and Troy Audio Doctor NJ |
The difference is with the expensive CD player years later you will be sick with thinking what a great turntable you could have had instead. While with the cheap CD player instead of years it will be days. With some (not all, not by a long shot, but with some) expensive CD players if you spend enough money you will have the unparalleled satisfaction of having the very best of digital playback of anyone anywhere. Only with the qualifier "digital" of course. While with the cheaper CD player you won't have even that tiny and brief little shred of satisfaction. |
In terms of measurable distortion? Nothing. And its been that way for decades. After some 30 years of using various CD players my two personal favourites were also the least expensive. Not necessarily because of their sound more likely because of my low expectations. I really wanted my far more expensive UK race tuned Sony models to sound better, but they didn't. Even the filters made bugger all real difference. What you might get instead for paying more are features such as Bluetooth, switchable filters, looks and build quality. Album art display is pretty cool too. |
All CD players regardless of price are subject to the deleterious effects of vibration and background stray laser light. Therefore, one would be better off buying an inexpensive player and fixing those problems than simply investing beaucoup bucks on a player. There are obviously many other related issues such as interconnects, power cord, fuse, external DAC, etc. No matter how much you have in the end you would have had even more if you had started off with more in the beginning. - old audiophile axiom |
mrc4u To my ears, the inherent difference between a $1500 cd player and a five-figure cd player is better detail, microdynamics, through engineering. Large margin here. I can report this information as I own both machines. Comparing a $10K cd player to a $25K cd player will yield another degree of better detail, microdynamics, through engineering. Smaller margin here. This has been my aural experience via auditions over the years. Happy Listening! |