CD Player for a Grand?

Morning all...

Having grown bored with kit left over from teen years, and always having wanted a valve amplifier, I have bought the following: a secondhand pathos tt integrated amp (apparently a relatively early model) and some art stilleto 6 speakers (apparently virtually new). So far as I can tell from my researches these ought to work well together... I now need a CD player, some interconnects and speaker cable (and presumably some plugs for the speaker cable).

Budget for CD player is about £1,000 - although this is not absolutely fixed in stone it seems appropriate given the other equipment I have purchased (?) - and as for then rest I will spend what I need to and is, again, appropriate for the system. I tend to listen to classical/acoustic/jazz and rock - but little that is hugely bass heavy... I have a big vaulted living room - but in a flat with poor sound proofing.

I would be very grateful for advice as to what CD player and cable/interconnects/etc I should buy - and also as to the amp. I got it off ebay (I know, I know) and apparently "it has had new valves (sylvania x7) it was serviced last summer and had new cooling fans fitted". If you were me (and you knew as little as I did about stereo stuff), would you get it serviced again - or do anything with it before plugging and playing? You will have ascertained by now that I am no technophile...

If you think I have been monumentally stupid in buying stuff secondhand or not listening to it first, that's well and good, but practical advice as to how to remedy my errors (if errors I have made) rather than simply informing me of my errors would be preferred. Thanks to all in anticipation.

 

I have to say my budget has been rather more modest han your own but this year I have doen pretty much the same as you, upgading my kit buying second hand equipment, both from ebay and off the netfrom dealers. I do have reservations about auditioning equiipment at dealers; half an hour/hour is not really long enough to evaluate kit properly, IMO of course.

I know your supposed to do it like that.

I think theres a lot to be said for buying and swapping stuff as you go along.

As for cables........try zanash (although I think hes away for a few days just now).




regs,

David

 

another thought.....have you checked out audioreview?(web site)

 

I have recently gone down the upgrade path myself .

I went for the Rega Saturn , It's a little over budget at £1300
but in my opinion worth every penny , the player has a class A
output and matches up very well with valves .

Find a dealer local to you and arrange a demo , it's certainly one
for the short list .

 

best vfm would be something like a wired squeezebox (~£200) and an audio synthesis dax2 (~£550).
if you don;t like the idea of a squeezebox then a low jitter transport such as a meridian or teac would be possible within budget.
for cables i'd definitely go the diy route. maplin is a good place to start, you can get some decent coax and a couple of rca's for about a fiver (you'll need a soldering iron but even if you don;t have one it'll only cost about £20 for a decent one) so 25 quid max. if you then want to experiment with things like bullet plugs, or silver wire it makes things a lot cheaper.
speaker wire i prefer to have no 'plugs' on the end of mine but you do have to periodically clean the ends to get rid of the tarnish. again maplin do some decent stuff for not much.

 

Welcome to the forum

With the advent of ebay, hififorsale etc there are a lot of us who buy gear blind (or should that be deaf!). So long as you pay a sensible price then you can always sell it on again without losing much - and if your really shrewd maybe make a quick buck

Given your budget and musical tastes (and having had a quick look at whats available on ebay and hififorsale) I'd be looking at something like a Sugden Masterclass CD (theres a mint 2 year old one on hififorsale.com at £1250 ono). I had one of the early ones, and the demo I had at Definitive Audio using a Canary valve integrated and Avatar OBX's was mind blowingly good.
In fact I might make the guy an offer myself
Theres also a newer Sugden CD21SE on ebay for £995 which I've not heard but should also be pretty nice.

 

On the valve amp -

I would check to see if it is automatic bias or fixed bias.

If it's fixed bias (i.e. it needs adjusting) then getting the bias fixed is a good idea.

I'd also be paranoid that the tubes might not be as new as I'd been told, so would probably buy some inexpensive Svetlana's or similar and get them biased at the same time.

Mostly I'd be worried about the tubes going pop on me.

The fact that the fan has been replaced says to me .... "something overheated and a resistor probably went bang"... and it was changed, and possibly a fan added too.

I'd definately get it looked at, just to see if a repair has been done, and to see if the repair was done properly.

I don't think buying second hand was a mistake, I just think that when you do buy used you're accepting servicing/maintenance costs may come at you a bit sooner.

... it doesn't stop me buying used, and I'm glad it hasn't stopped you either!

You've had some great CD player reccomendations above, and the squeezebox + Dax is brilliant if you don't mind storing music on the PC.

If you don't want to do that and you fancy a cd player, I'd look at some of the better 'tubed' one's out there too. In general I do like CD players with valves in - you loose a little in the inner detail, but what you get is a more involving expansive sound in my opinion, less fatigueing to listen to (or I find it so anyway).

For 'new' try a Lector from the Emporium in Diss (the importer).

Another good one, a Chord Dac 64 into a Meridian 500 transport. That would come to about £1,300. It's the combination I'll end up with one day. Not everyone likes the Chord Dac 64... but I do - I think it's really good.

 

Wow, thanks, that's terrifically helpful... Actually I was looking at the Sudgen one and thought that might be the one for me. I will check out the Rega one too. For reasons of domestic harmony - and self-doubt about wiring them together - I think that the fewer boxes the better. This does away, I assume, with the possibility of transports and squeezboxes... and I don't tend to store music on my PC. Soldering irons and so on may be a bit too much for me (I'm not a girl, but I am a lawyer) - so any further thoughts on cables and interconnects would be much appreciated...

So too would be any suggestions on where I might go to get the amp looked at? I live right in the middle of London (next to London Bridge)... I might even want someone to come and set it all up for me.

 

Have you seen this one? I've heard it and it sounds wonderful.

http://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?t=28913

 

Opera Audio Consonance Droplet 5.0 CD Player

Hi Just saw your post and I thought you may be interested in some info on this amazing CD player it is £1995 new although if you like the look of it and would like to hear itI have one for sale still under warrantee selling as getting married and moving house unfortunately need the money.
If you like valves you should love this.

Opera Audio Consonance Droplet 5.0 CD Player reviews below

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/droplet/cdp5.html
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/droplet/cdp5_3.html
http://www.ultraaudio.com/equipment/opera_consonance_droplet_cdp50.htm
http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/digital/messages/105871.html

 

The droplet is preposterously enormous. I reckon it would look overbearing & obtrusive in anything less than a 500sqft listening room! It does sound quite nice though. Not the most tonally accurate but an engaging listen all the same.

The Eastsound E5 is very good (£500) but it is ruthlessly revealing and will massacre poorly mastered recordings. If your music collection is very "audiophile" you might be able to get away with it though! Amazingly tight bass on this giant-killer though.

The new Rega's are supposed to be very good, but I haven't heard them yet. Not a bad word said against them.

Difficult to know where I'd personlly plonk a grand CD player wise. I get on quite fine with my trusty philips dvd963sa and Sony NS900v.

Nothing under £2k really takes my fancy, or grabs me sonically, so I've held off purchasing replacement cdp's for a while. At this price, you could get a used Esoteric DV50, a Lector CDP-7T or Marantz SA11-S1, all of which sound/look very nice to me, in their own seperate ways.

Rgds,
DT

 

Is it just me or am I right to be suspicious of stuff that looks too wacky (a comment which certainly applies to the Droplet and also to the Shanling, although I had been contemplating the latter). I have made an offer on the Sugden Masterclass so let's watch this space!

Thanks for all your help...

 

Or you could shop around for a second hand MF A5 CD player. I have NOT heard it, but read many good things in forums (not just the inflated media) about them.

If you go second hand you can find nice things for this amount. The suggested Shanglin for example is very well regarded.

Jack

 

I have also been put off, rather than turned on, by most of the high end far eastern CD players despite the glowing reviews and the apparent value for money. I'm sure they sound great but give me a big black purposeful Wadia anyday.

I know we listen with our ears but I always like my gear to look and feel classy as well, especially if it's costing £1000's. Having said that my old, and greatly missed, Perreaux 200ip with the big chrome bumper was hardly a shrinking violet

Good luck with the offer on the Sugden and let us know how you get on.

 

Maugham,

I have a Shanling SCD-T200C up for grabs for the sort of money you're looking to spend.

It comes with all packaging,remote,white gloves ! etc.

It's the MKII version with higher spec Sony Sacd/CD transport.

Let me know if you're interested.

I've got more photo's of the player as I was thinking of throwing it to the wolves on Ebay.

Legz.

 

Why are you selling this Legzr1? It's on my shortlist of future SACD purchases so would be interested to hear your comments/view on it.

Rgds,
DT

 

Long,long story DT but,basically the vast majority of my music is CD - i've hunted around for reasonably priced SACD's but most of the titles aren't to my taste

I'm crap at describing the 'sound' of equipment so I won't attempt it here !

I actually bought the Shanling from AlanBeeb on this fine forum some time ago - time restraints and the activities of a 4 year-old mean this has hardly been used and has to go - hot valves and a kid that listens when it suits her don't mix too well.

I have an MF A308 CD player - the MF does the 'hi-fi' sound well but the Shanling just edges it on CD playback for 'music',vocals especially.

On well recorded SACD's there is no contest !

The Shanling comes with some nice features too - digital volume control means you can plug it directly into a power amp.

The built-in headphone amp is valve driven (It uses the right-hand pair of valves) and sounds stunning (apparently - I don't own 'cans )

It can output valve-driven and solid state upsampled feeds at the same time - drive two seperate systems or make it easy to compare either output.

Oh,it looks nice in the dark too

 

I've only today started posting on this Forum, and I think I'm about to jettison my credibility already .... ah well, easy come, easy go ... but what I would do for a CDP under £1000 is go to my local Co-op and buy an Alba DVD player they have at the moment for £19.99. I would then buy a Beresford TC-7510 DAC on eBay (a bit under £100 I think). You need a good co-ax digital cable - I use Missing Link. This is a totally stunning combination feeding into a £5k pair of Kharma Ceramique 3 speakers by way of an EL34-based valve amp. The path to this strange and on the face of it ridiculous combination is a complex one, but it sure as hell works for me!! (Sadly, though, the Alba is lousy at playing DVDs! It can't play SACDs either. But it's wonderful as a CD transport.)

 

Interesting. No, really.
if you go the transport+dac route then you may well want tp keep your current cdp as transport, or if you want the multiformat thing the pioneer 565 universal player has been tweaked by some into a pretty good machine and is said to be a pretty good transport by many. It plays dvds and sacds pretty decently for the (above its budget imho).

jack

 

I'm not saying you should avoid the beresford outright, but I bought one and was deeply unimpressed with it. It distorted badly in the treble and the headphone/vol pot was useless. I certainly wouldn't use it as an audiophile DAC. John Beresford is a lovely guy though and was very apologetic for its performance. He sent me a no-quibble full refund.

My Lite-AH TDA1543 NOS DAC sounded much nicer, and wasn't a great deal more (£130).

Rgds,
DT