Recommendations for a CD transport or player under $500

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owenmd

Re: Recommendations for a CD transport or player under $500
« Reply #40 on: 5 May 2011, 11:03 pm »
Thanks Phil A.... now I understand.
I actually only own a few SACD's, so I don't have much of a vested interest in optimizing that source.
I currently go coax digital out from the player to a Monarchy Audio DIP upsampler set at 96khz and then balanced AES from the DIP into the Antelope Zodiac+ DAC.... sounds great to me.  I listen to a lot of live concert DVD's, so this set-up works great.

Thanks again,
Mark

Phil A

Re: Recommendations for a CD transport or player under $500
« Reply #41 on: 5 May 2011, 11:14 pm »
Mark - I understand - that's why I made reference to SACD in the original post since we were talking about Oppo which already will pass DVD-A via coax digital.  The de-embedder is also for someone who has a player that won't pass DVD-A via digital coax output but can pass it over HDMI or 2-channel hi-rez Blu-Ray music as well.  If you don't own that kind of software it is not of much value.  I have to try it one of these days with Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds Live at Radio City on Blu-Ray.

owenmd

Re: Recommendations for a CD transport or player under $500
« Reply #42 on: 5 May 2011, 11:37 pm »
Thanks,

Not to go too far off the thread title, but yes... the Radio City DVD is great, I haven't seen the Blu-Ray version yet.... might need to invest in that.  Try the Sting Live in Berlin DVD... full orchestra, fantastic..!

JoshK

Re: Recommendations for a CD transport or player under $500
« Reply #43 on: 10 May 2011, 07:52 pm »
i know this is a little ot, but since it came up...
 i received the dac and transport last night.  man they are built like tanks.  tons of thick aluminum, weigh a ton.  nice touches like their feet, solid chunk of a remote and even come with half-way decent digital cables. 

Quiet Earth

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Re: Recommendations for a CD transport or player under $500
« Reply #44 on: 11 May 2011, 04:55 am »
awesome news

hope it all sounds as good as it feels

staying tuned to this bat channel ......

JoshK

Re: Recommendations for a CD transport or player under $500
« Reply #45 on: 18 May 2011, 02:47 am »
not off to a good start.  the transport isn't recognizing any discs.  just says no disc.   I think transportation of the transport did it in. 

Quiet Earth

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Re: Recommendations for a CD transport or player under $500
« Reply #46 on: 18 May 2011, 03:45 am »
Oh man, that sucks   :(

Hope you get it worked out Josh.


Chromisdesigns

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Re: Recommendations for a CD transport or player under $500
« Reply #47 on: 19 Jun 2011, 03:23 am »
Well, here's what I finally did:  after considering a bunch of players in the $500 and under (and just over...) range, and listening to a few of them locally, I decided to bite the bullet and take the big step into networked digital audio...

Today I ordered a Squeezebox Touch.  From Amazon, so I can return it if I decide I don't like the sound, and want to stay with CD's after all. 

So, any of you with the SB Touch, any hints on configuring it or tweeks I might consider once I have it running stock?  I will be ripping my CDs to FLAC on a big external HD on a Dell desktop running XP.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Phil A

Re: Recommendations for a CD transport or player under $500
« Reply #48 on: 19 Jun 2011, 01:10 pm »
Well, here's what I finally did:  after considering a bunch of players in the $500 and under (and just over...) range, and listening to a few of them locally, I decided to bite the bullet and take the big step into networked digital audio...

Today I ordered a Squeezebox Touch.  From Amazon, so I can return it if I decide I don't like the sound, and want to stay with CD's after all. 

So, any of you with the SB Touch, any hints on configuring it or tweeks I might consider once I have it running stock?  I will be ripping my CDs to FLAC on a big external HD on a Dell desktop running XP.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Upgrade the power supply.  Lots of choices new or used.

Chromisdesigns

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Re: Recommendations for a CD transport or player under $500
« Reply #49 on: 28 Jun 2011, 01:31 am »
The SB Touch came today.  10 minutes after unboxing, I had it playing Internet Radio stations...you really can't ask for easier setup than that!

Another 15 minutes or so, and the server had scanned my iTunes library and was streaming music to the Touch.  Only problem I encountered was inability to load the "Artists" file, which apparently was due to my Norton firewall.  Disabled Norton, did a rescan, and everything looks dandy.  Now just have to find the magic setting in Norton so I don't have to do that every time I add music.

I spent a little while comparing the Touch audio out vs. digital coax to my Theta Cobalt DAC -- I wired the audio to the CD input of my Parasound L/D-2000, and the Cobalt output to the "direct" input.  Preliminary feeling is that it sounds better through the Cobalt, but "direct" also bypasses some circuits in the preamp, so it's hard to tell why without a lot of cable swapping.

Also have to make a pair of attenuators, since with the Touch volume at 100%, the Theta ouput is so high I can only use about 1/3 of the Parasound volume control without driving myself out of the room.  Think I'll add about 10-12 db of attenuation coming out of the Cobalt, to make it more useable. 

So far, so good -- sounds great! :green:  Now to start ripping disks in earnest -- only have about 400 albums online currently, which filled my iPod nano. I have a whole bookshelf of binders filled with sleeved CDs, so it might take a while...and I probably need a bigger disk drive as well.

Phil A

Re: Recommendations for a CD transport or player under $500
« Reply #50 on: 28 Jun 2011, 01:37 am »
Thanks for the tip on the virus protection.  I had trouble with it reading my stuff and I assumed it might be the Squeezebox software.  I'll have to re-visit that.

Quiet Earth

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Re: Recommendations for a CD transport or player under $500
« Reply #51 on: 28 Jun 2011, 04:46 am »
I'm glad that you're having fun with your SB touch Chromisdesigns, but for the record (no pun intended  :D) it's not a CD transport or a CD player. It is cheap though, so maybe that's all that is required to stay on topic in this circle.  :green:

Josh, what ever became of your Lite LT-ONE  transport? Did you ever get it working or did you have to send it back?

Chromisdesigns

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Re: Recommendations for a CD transport or player under $500
« Reply #52 on: 28 Jun 2011, 05:22 am »
Replacement for same! 8)

Guess I should move future posts over to the music server area.

JoshK

Re: Recommendations for a CD transport or player under $500
« Reply #53 on: 28 Jun 2011, 12:50 pm »
Josh, what ever became of your Lite LT-ONE  transport? Did you ever get it working or did you have to send it back?

Cattylink had me send it back.  They reimbursed the shipping costs.  They said that somewhere along the line, the extra box layer had been removed which makes it more vulnerable.  I haven't received my transport back yet. 

rollo

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Re: Recommendations for a CD transport or player under $500
« Reply #54 on: 28 Jun 2011, 02:41 pm »
   A no brainer IMO the Emotiva ERC-2 player/transport. If a computer is to be considered the Purist HDR & HDR mini DAC may also be an option.


charles

RCduck7

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Re: Recommendations for a CD transport or player under $500
« Reply #55 on: 28 Jun 2011, 02:56 pm »
   A no brainer IMO the Emotiva ERC-2 player/transport.

Very nice, i'm very happy with my Emotiva UMC-1 surround receiver. What or who's transport does this cd player use?

Quiet Earth

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Re: Recommendations for a CD transport or player under $500
« Reply #56 on: 28 Jun 2011, 03:36 pm »
Replacement for same! 8)

Guess I should move future posts over to the music server area.

Nahhhhhh,,,,,,, just messin' with ya! :wink: Hey, it's your thread anyway, post whatever you want.

Here's something to consider though. Someday you might want to get a CD transport as another digital source for your DAC. I still like to spin one disc at a time and I can't really tell you why. This thread interests me because CD transports seem to be entering the endangered species list. I would sure hate to see them go.

What or who's transport does this cd player use?

Good question. Also, does anyone know if the digital output is processed, upsampled, or filtered before it goes to the AES/spdif connectors?


charmerci

Re: Recommendations for a CD transport or player under $500
« Reply #58 on: 29 Jun 2011, 01:23 am »
What do you think about this? http://cgi.ebay.com/PCM1792-CD-player-/320656255706?pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item4aa89a2ada

It would be shipped from China. Not worth the trouble if there's a problem with it.