[Gvt1911]

I am looking to upgrade my Musical Fidelity Nu Vista CD player...It is a great unit and has served me well for over 4 years...I was just wondering what is out there that can compete with this lush analog sounding unit? I know that there is a lot of players out there that are good,but I am looking for one that beat the Nu Vista... Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...It will be installed along with CI D200s, SupraTek Preamp and VSA VR4 Gen III SE's...
Thanks...
Bhur41@netzero.com

Joe

[john1970]

Why are you looking to upgrade?  Is the unit not functioning properly?  If you are happy with the sound (and from your post it appears you are) why not just keep the current unit?

If I am correct the Nu-Vista is an upsampling CD player that upsamples to 24-bit/96kHz.  You might try one of their (MF) newer players such as the A5 which upsamples to 192 KHz.

Alternatively you could purchase an upsampling DAC and use the Nu-Vista as a CD transport.  In fact, this is probably the best approach and the most economical.  If I were spending my money I would keep the Nu-Vista until it dies.

Just my $0.02,

John

[JLM]

Price range?  What kind of sound exactly are you after?

IMO expensive players are nearly dinosaurs with the advantages of less expensive separate transport/DAC's, modded players, and PC based systems:

Altman Attraction battery powered DAC, Benchmark DAC (Empirical Audio mods), CDC belt drive transports

RAM, TRL, and PartsExpress do lots of CDP mods starting around $1000.

Squeeze Box (Boulder Cable mods), Olive stand alone players (Boulder Cable or Red Wine Audio mods)

Just look around A/C.

[ipy]

I am looking to upgrade my Musical Fidelity Nu Vista CD player...It is a great unit and has served me well for over 4 years...I was just wondering what is out there that can compete with this lush analog sounding unit? I know that there is a lot of players out there that are good,but I am looking for one that beat the Nu Vista... Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...It will be installed along with CI D200s, SupraTek Preamp and VSA VR4 Gen III SE's...
Thanks...
Bhur41@netzero.com

Joe

As JLM has suggested as well, try to do a search/research in AC before deciding on another CDP.  Look at the link below for more PC/Server based systems...& good luck !!!
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=31959.msg283655;topicseen#new

[alotaklipsch]

APL NWO 2.5 www.aplhifi.com

[Hogg]

If you have deep pockets, the Naim 555 with the 555 PS.  Not quite as steep, Naim CDX2 with Supercap2 PS.

                                                                                   Jim

[Gvt1911]

Thanks for all the info... Player is working fine, just wanted to know if I can get a "better" analog type sound...I will check around as suggested...
Regards to all....
Joe

[Hi-acuity]

Gvt 1911,

I've tried a few different modified players. TRL got the closest to analog type sound. You may want to try them. www.tuberesearchlabs.com

Hi-acuity

[Peter Gunn]

Trying to find one that approximated vinyl was what I was looking for and I found it. The Lector CDP-7T, and everything HP said about it is true. It is the best player I have ever heard and it is so analog like you have to listen a bit to tell it apart from vinyl when both are playing the same program. In fact, it is so good I hardly ever play records anymore. It even (and I don't know how) makes older discs from the early 90's and 80's sound tolerable, and I generally can't stand to listen to them.

Now is the time to buy one used if you can. It fell out of favour with the swells because someone wrote an off review of it. Don't believe it, this thing kills. (and it is very attractive as well)

[Parnelli777]

If you want to spend a lot, there's the Audio Research Reference CD7. Very good, probably the best digital playback I've heard, but worth $9000? Hell if I know. If you want to spend a little, I can't say enough about the Jolida JD100. Available new at less than $900, and leaves many others that cost far more in the dust.

[Scotty]

Joe, You need to bear in mind that a new player cannot sound the same as your old one only better. If the new player does a more accurate job of playing back the information on your CD's if cannot sound the same as the old player.
You are in the position of trying to find a new player with a different sound that you like better than your old player. You need to define exactly what "better"
means to you. If analogue sounding CD playback is your goal I would try to compare your existing player directly to a very good TT setup with a very good phono-stage and see where your player falls short of this type of analogue benchmark.
Scotty

[bunky]

The Audio Aero Capitole CD player is very nice, but a new DAC probably makes more sense.thanks....WCW III

[Joey B]

Why not keep the MF for a transport , it's paid for !!

Add a NON - OS Dac like audio note , etc and a good digital cable .

This may sound weird but everytime I update my system I usually hear an upgrade in the sound . So , doesn't this mean that I haven't yet reached the upper capabilty of my present transport/DAC combo ? I think your probably at about 90/95% of whats capable for a front end , so tweek the rest of your system till you don't hear improvment then worry about your front end . YMMV as always .

Joe

[mcrespo71]

If you have deep pockets, the Naim 555 with the 555 PS.  Not quite as steep, Naim CDX2 with Supercap2 PS.

                                                                                   Jim

You can't use a supercap on a CDX2- only the 555PS or XPS2, Jim.  Anyway, I heard the CDX2 with 555 PS and it was stunning.

[Gvt1911]

Thanks for all the replies...I am going to stick with the MF unit for now, I installed a new set of Nu Vista's and got a "better" sound... I am going to swap preamps and see what that brings to the table......Then if I am not satisfied, I will try that Lector unit...Heard good things about them...I would like to stay with a single unit , my space is limited on the rack and I am always swapping gear to test for friends on my system..So many times I have 2 pre's on the rack along with a couple of cd players...I feel the MF has some life left for now...Thanks to all...
Joe

[Hogg]

You can't use a supercap on a CDX2- only the 555PS or XPS2, Jim.  Anyway, I heard the CDX2 with 555 PS and it was stunning

Sorry for my mistake

BTW, here are MSRPs for the Naim gear. 

CD555:   $20,300

555PS:   $7850

CDX2:    $5750

XPS2:    $5000