dbphd
Responses from dbphd
| $2,000 Used CD Player or Modified Oppo 105 I think Nick may be right. In addition to a 105, I use an Ayre C-5xeMP and Sony 5400ES, both of which I prefer to the 105 for stereo. The trio goes through a Parasound JC-2 to Proceed HPA amps. The 105 get much more use than the other two disc pla... | |
| New to high end audio phono parasound p5 No help here. I use a Parasound JC-2 preamp with a JC-3 phono stage, and the pair are capable of superb sound. I don't know how well that generalizes to the P5, but Parasound seems to aim for transparency, i.e., letting the source shine through.db | |
| How important for surrounds to match fronts? I'd mount the Aerial 5s on the wall to the side of your listening position. In my experience it is important for the mid and HF to be similar to the LR mains, especially for music recorded in DTS. After some experimenting, I use a pair of KEF Refe... | |
| Multichannel amp... If you can find a used Proceed HPA 3, that would be a good match. The Proceed HPA is a Levinson amp in an industrial case. If you can find one, it should be below $2K.db | |
| Improvements to OPPO 105 DARBEE? I connect a DirecTV HD-DVR to the Oppo 105 via HDMI so the Oppo provides stereo analog audio to a Parasound JC-2 preamp with by-pass, surround directly to Proceed HPA amps, and SW to a Velodyne SMS-1 bass manager. HDMI-1 from the Oppo goes to a pr... | |
| SACD... can you hear the difference? I think the best vinyl of small groups, e.g., the 45 RPM of the Brubeck Quartet's Time Out, sounds a bit better than DSD, but I'm not sure that extends to large orchestrations.Thorens TD124, SME Series III arm, Ortofon SME 30H cartridge, Parasound... | |
| SACD... can you hear the difference? I use an Ayre C-5xeMP, Oppo BDP-105, and Sony XA5400ES as disc players. It seems to me that the difference between CDs and SACDs depends to an extent on the player. Both CDs and DSD can be excellent when played on the Ayre; DSD is far superior to ... | |
| Processor/AVR help and suggestions I agree with AKG, but took a different path. Stereo from an Ayre C-5xeMP, an Oppo BDP-105, and a Parasound JC-3 phono stage connect to a JC-2 preamp. The Oppo stereo uses a by-pass input to the JC-2, surround goes directly to the Proceed HPA amps,... | |
| moving on from Emotiva UMC-200 pre/processor The by-pass mod Parasound does to the JC-2 lets you set any or all channels to unity gain and takes the JC-2 volume control out of the loop for a by-passed channel. Kal Rubinson claims the pass through is completely transparent as far as he could ... | |
| moving on from Emotiva UMC-200 pre/processor I got a call Thursday from Parasound telling me the by-pass mod has been completed for my JC-2 and that it was being shipped back to me. Shipping the 300+ miles from San Francisco to Santa Barbara shouldn't take long.The Ayre C-5xeMP can't be used... | |
| Another CD-Player vs. PC question: Hmm, don't know what to say, Czarivey. I've had half a dozen CD players, mostly Sonys, and none has skipped. I did have a Sony that stopped playing the SACD layer, but a trip to Sony repair fixed that. Come to think of it, though, except for the S... | |
| Another CD-Player vs. PC question: Could it be that those who claim their CD players skip don't handle their CDs with sufficient care? That is, skipping may be a user problem, not a problem endemic to the device. I remember being warned as a kid to avoid touching the surface of rec... | |
| Which pre/pro under 3k? Yes DpPhd guy . . .what was I thinking?.Thanks for the clarification of your thinking, avgowrong geezer. I'll look into my Piled Higher and Deeper crystal balls and try to divine your meaning.db | |
| Computer vs CD/SACD discs Actually, I posed the question to JA after having read every review of the Ayre and post concerning it I could find. I knew from his reviews that JA listed the Ayre as a source and that he had written about excellent quality audio downloaded from ... | |
| Computer vs CD/SACD discs Czarivey writes, "One huge advantage of PC-audio is that it never skips even completely ###### up CDs." I would add that neither does my Ayre C-5xePM, Oppo BDP-105, or Sony XA5400ES. The ignorant, sarcastic tone of the replies from Joecasey and TB... |