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Why Does CD Sound So Good?

Over the years, I’ve tried countless variations of system components in order to find the best sound. CD players, CD transports, DACs, streaming DACs, iPods, iPads, phones, computers, amps, tube preamps, you name it. System types include home audio, car audio and headphone audio. There has been a consistent recurring trend: After I’ve played around for a long time and mixed and matched components, I always find a CD player to deliver the best sound.

Sure my laptop computer and DAC sounds really good in my 2-channel rig, but my much lower priced CD player sounds more musical and more listenable, which is really what matters to me. 

In the car, I’ve got radio, XM Radio, streaming through my phone, playing files off my phone, etc. and yet the CD sounds best.

In my headphone rig, I’ve tried fancy DACs and headphone amps, tube buffers and preamps, better power cables and power supplies, etc. and yet a portable CD player has gone the furthest in making my headphones sound the best.

The CD consistently outperforms any streaming player I’ve tried. Don’t get me wrong, there are non-CD based solutions that sound fabulous, but I find myself always going back to the CD in the end. I find a properly setup CD-based system to have non-fatiguing highs and tight, accurate bass; the former being an absolute requirement for me. I don’t care how good the system measures or how expensive the gear is if the sound is fatiguing in any way. That’s a hard line I draw in the sand and one I refuse to negotiate on. It can’t be fatiguing and it has to be musical.

Where I’m lost for an explanation is the “why” behind all of this. In theory, a CD player shouldn’t be so good. We’re spinning a (usually wobbling) disc at many RPMs and trying to track it with a laser and then error correcting what we can’t read. A solid state hard drive or even a normal hard drive should have a walk in the park acquiring the data and should sound better because of it. My phone should sound excellent having solid state memory, being battery powered and having very short signal paths between the memory, DAC and output stage, and yet a cheap $25 portable CD player blows it out of the water.

So why does CD sound so good?
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Showing 9 responses by brayeagle

brayeagle
362 posts
 

To the Expert HiFi Audio folk, I must be considered an antedeluvian.

My CD spinner is a Bryston BCD-3 It has a superb transport mechanism, and the internal DAC has the same chips and input-output circuitry as their DAC-3. One super-accurate clock provides timing for the transport and DAC, without the necessity to have separate clocks if an external DAC is used. 

The DAC output goes to a Bryston BP17 cubed preamplifier, then onto a 4B cubed amplifier.   Simple, but highly effective signal path. 

IMO, yes, CDs do and can sound better without all the hue and fuss necessary to rip CDs into a digital player, and if streaming is a selected source, to spend the time  and effort to assemble playlists and identify the programs for listening.    For Redbook CDs, an excellent CD spinner and preamp, "Simple" wins out. 
brayeagle
362 posts
 
 mahgister

15,000 files! Wow! How do you select the one you want to listen to?   And, will you ever be able to hear them all again?

Just curious, from a guy who has over 1100 classical CD s  and wonders how he'll able to listen to all of them once again. 
brayeagle
362 posts
 
jafant,

Agree, another + vote for CD player over computer audio.

George
brayeagle
362 posts
 
magister, 

Well, we're alike i several respects; however, I only listen to classical music - symphonies, chorales, concertos, operas, requiems, etc.   I grew up where there was no electricity, so I began listening to the old 12" Victor Red Seal records on a wind-up Victrola, using  cactus needles. I've been through the gamut of Mono, 45s,LPs, reel to reel and CDs. 

I've developed a fondness for the classics within the classical genre, and have several different performances of favorite pieces.  I love to compare  certain symphonies and chorales, performed by various artists with different orchestras and choruses under the baton of different conductors. 

Over my lifetime, I've had the good fortune to listen to more than a few performances by the Vienna Philharmonic in the Musikverein's Great Hall,  and Puccini and Verdi operas in the La Scala. (my benchmarks.)

I listen to music from the time I wake up until bedtime,The two-channel stereo goes for around six to eight hours, while  during the remainder f the day, I either listen to our local  FM classical music station (pseudo streaming) or to the Amsterdam Royal Concertbegaw
 via Apple music and a nice pair of B&W MM-1 speakers on either side of the computer.

I'd really be lost without my music , and my iPad Pro is packed with ripped CDs for use when I have to be in  the hospital. 

Cheers, (It should have been "grayeagle,"but the powers-that-be changed the initial "g" to a 'b.')


brayeagle
362 posts
 
mahgister,

I'm fond of Bach's organ works, and have been comparing Marie Claire Alain's complete set against Helmut Walcha's. 

Cheers

brayeagle
362 posts
 
magister,

Walcha sends me emotionally, as he has figured out how a blind man can play the organ.

I saw a video several years ago showing how Walcha first listened to the diapason line, then built on it. Of course, assistants had to set the  stops for him.    Still, the music that man makes is etherial. I'm always in  awe, listening to him.

cheers
brayeagle
362 posts
 
IMO,
Depends on the quality of the DAC in the spinner.
brayeagle
362 posts
 
larryi,

I have my 1100 CDs shelved in special four-sided racks that spin around. I have them cataloged  by composer. It's simple to turn the racks and choose. I also keep a small 20-CD holder on top of the cabinet holding the BCD-3 BP 17 cubed and  two Magnum Dynalab tuners (Straight FM and an Internet Radio)
brayeagle
362 posts
 
georgehifi,

Agree!!

George
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