How do I smooth out violins?

THis would be an interesting trial application for Steve at Empirical Audio's affordable reclocker gadget. That should help assure being in a good place from a jitter perspective I would expect. HE offers a free trial period. I would be interested to know if it helps.

Synchro Mesh

Zd542, I think you have made things clear enough, and I agree. I look at it as preparing a meal. Yes, you will want to pick out the best main ingredients that you can afford and locate to cook with. These represent the system components. Then you will want to use spices (cables) to season to personal taste. In this analogy, all meals are seasoned as far as I know, since there are no systems out there that do NOT use cables.

Mapman - I'd highlighted my issues with string orchestra treble earlier and am planning on going with the SynchroMesh. I will report back in a couple of months.

I think the bottom line is that this issue - which I think is a significant one since it involves the principal frequency range for melodic presentations by the principal orchestral instrument in classical music - is a result of a confluence of sound engineering problems, format issues (redbook) and stereo system deficiencies.

There is no magic bullet.

Jult,

Great minds think alike! :-)

Looking forward to hearing your results.

01-09-13: Jult52
I think the bottom line is that this issue - which I think is a significant one since it involves the principal frequency range for melodic presentations by the principal orchestral instrument in classical music - is a result of a confluence of sound engineering problems, format issues (redbook) and stereo system deficiencies.

Very well said, IMO, as are the other recent responses in the thread.

Although it is probably clear to everyone, to be sure I just want to point out that a reclocker is not something that would be applicable to a one-box CD player such as the OP's Marantz CD5004.

And I note that in John Atkinson's measurements of the player he states that:

The CD5004 offered superb rejection of word-clock jitter, with the odd harmonics of the LSB-level, 229.6875Hz squarewave lying at the residual level, and only pairs of sidebands at ±60 and ±120Hz visible to the sides of the 11.205kHz tone in the narrowband spectrum of the Marantz's output while it played the Miller/Dunn J-Test signal (fig.7). I haven't given a numeric figure for the player's jitter level, as it was below the Miller Analyzer's resolution limit....

The Marantz CD5004's measured performance indicates that its intrinsic resolution is better than is needed by the CD medium. That it can offer this level of performance for just $350 is astonishing.

Of course, given that the sonic quality of a one-box CD player may be limited by a great many factors in addition to internal jitter, this certainly does not exclude the possibility that the player Frogman suggested may significantly ameliorate the problem. Although I still suggest that step 1 should be an assessment of a high quality reference recording, that can be counted on to not be a contributor to the symptom that is being addressed.

Regards,
-- Al