players

which of them is your choice if your amp be krell and speaker be dynaudio
which is best compromise between value and performance for krell 300il/Dynaudio audience 82?

Meridian G08
Ayre CX-7
MF DAC 21/Sony SCD XB770
MF DAC A3 24/Sony XB770
Wadia 302
NAD S500i
Marantz SA-1
Cyrus CD8
krell SACD standard

 

no body answer !

 

amir - don't take this the wrong way, but every few days you start a new thread asking people to choose between 2 or more digital front ends and your list seems to be getting longer and longer. Why not just go out and listen to a few and then make a decision. The list you've got there is extremely wide ranging in price, performance and style. I can't honestly see how you came up with it.

You can't seriously expect people to make sensible suggestions based on a list like that, I mean, the price range alone up there is from about £1k to £4K!

Michael.

 

thanks michaelab
i agree you 100% but i think maybe some people have experience with these players and they help me because in iran we should first select then buy and we can not test them at local dealer. my sister will go to germany soon and i want to order a cdplayer to her.

 

Go for something smooth with a warm midrange to balance out the clinical nature of the Krell.
Also a CDP with a balanced output would be better as the Krell sounds better in balanced mode.

HTH's

Curtis

 

G-08 is a great one, that's for sure.

not familiar whith others.

 

I've heard the G08 and was also impressed. I chose the Krell SACD and am very pleased with the naturalness and listenability of the sound quality - only issue has been that the first player was replaced due to a faulty transport and the replacement then needed a board upgrade - which might be an issue if you're remote from dealers. I have a friend who runs same player with a Krell multichannel amp (and Sonus Faber speakers) and raves about it, so I wouldn't be too scared of krell+krell.

 

The Krell SACD Standard has now being discontinued for those very reasons as they were a common occurence. The player has also been taken-off Stereophiles recommended components list due to lack of supply. IMO, Krell ought to have known better than to choose the same tranpsort as in the ill-fated Philips SACD 1000 which was also dogged with problems well before the SACD Standard was released. A new version of the SACD Standard with a different transport and board is in the works



Enjoy the music,

Lawrie.

 

Thanks guys
i think meridian G08 would be best choice
Thanks again

 

'kinnell!! where did you find that out? I've fired off an 'anguished of Ipswich' mail to Krell asking what they intend doing for existing customers of the current model.. mine's behaved fine since the board was replaced, but it is quite a noisy transport - bit like a dvd player - which is a bit irritating

 

If I was thinking of investing in a player, I would consider none in that list, not even the 302.

 

if you want to go the SACD route, there is no better player than the Sony SCD-1. For redbook player, I would recommend the Resolution audio opus 21.
Cheers

 

I agree ....

 

and.....

perhaps something a bit more constructive eh?

 

WadiaMeister,

I know it's all down to personal tastes but for the benefit of others who have not heard any or many of the players on that list, why wouldn't you invest in any of those players? As you well know, there many very happy and satisfied owners of many of those CD players on the list so you must have very good reasons. Care to expand?



Enjoy the music,

Lawrie.

 

Hey Tone
Your not becoming the snob-miester are ya
Hehe

Curt

 

Lawrie,

You are quite right, I was slightly cut to the chase last nite
To be honest, none of the players shown list are how I would discribe as entertaining, involving & well, smile factor inducing (note large outlay doesn't automatically mean smile factor either)
The one possible exception in that pile would be the Nad (a bit rough and ready, however its shows promise)
The others (save CD8/Wad302) ARE more geared towards the presentations aspects of reproduction and major on those at the expense of involvment and flow.
The Cryus I feel needs a little a work to be considered in that group, as for the 302, I'm not a great fan of the 301, so the 302 is a back wards step I feel, and I wouldn't personaly own one.
Other players I would add to that list (within that particular price list), a used AA Capitall MKII, again not my bag, but has to be included due to its ability in its areas which its depatches with aplomb, used too they are good bargins around the £2200 UKP.
An opus 21, again if you get what it does, then you what have to spend a lot, lot more to beat it new £2700UKP.
A used Wadia 860, driven direct into a power amp, gives a serious preformance again Used £2800UKP.
Now here's a surprise an ARcam FMJ CD23(Not the 33) these can surprise a few people if given the right supporting equipment used a shockingly inexpensive £500-650 UKP
An accuphase dpv 55/65, great CDP's with a preamp built in also, great flowing bouncy and detailed sound serious build. Fun and decent value from around £1600UKP used.
Hope that clarifies things a touch Wm.

 

Midlife,

This information has been out for a while although I can undersand that many owners may not be aware of it. The noisy transport that you mention has been a feature of those players even when they were in prototype form and you must have heard it when you auditioned the player as I heard it very clearly. The first few production samples that were delivered to their owners were 'dead on arrival' - not a good sign for a new product. A few chips (such as the MACE & Furore) were used to tackle the problem but for a few owners, the same problems reoccurred as the Philips transport was a piece of crap in the first place - just ask any Philps SACD 1000 owner. It was these reasons and the noisy transport that stopped me from buying the Standard which is a much better player on CD & SACD than the stock Sony SCD-1.

Personally, I think that the build quality on many of these modern CDPs is quite poor. You can add to the list the Ayre CX-7 & Opus 21 which also had or still have noisy transports. Resolution Audio even had the balls to charge customers USD 300 for a new replacement transport for the Opus 21 even though the original transports were defective from the factory. Yet many existing Opus 21 owners paid up and swallowed the dealers' line that it was an upgrade which would lead to better sound. I have yet to hear two Opus 21 CDPs that sound the same yet people are still buying these products with such poor quality control. The top plate of the Ayre CX-7 is very thin rattles like ...... well, a rattle snake and it is the sort of thing you expect to find on a GBP 90.00 DVD player not a GBP 3,000 CD player. Anyway, I digress - moving swiftly to your question about how I found out about the Krell, well let's just say that my information came from a very reliable source - so reliable in fact that Krell will not deny it. The replacement player should be out in 2005.



Enjoy the music,

Lawrie.

 

thanks for the info Lawrie. I have to admit I didn't notice the noisy transport when I was auditioning, I suspect because at the time I got carried away by the quality of the music I was hearing and really cranked up the volume. I'll wait to see what the Krell and the distributor have to say, but I don't fancy being left with a player which will have a high risk of going wrong once out of warranty...

 

WM,

Your points have been noted. I have also heard a lot of players on the list. These were not heard at hifi shows but were home demmed with a view to purchasing. For various reasons, I did not buy any so I think I share some of your sentiments about those players. Although, some of them displayed a bit more details than my current player, I wasn't knocked off my seat or swept into the music enough by any of them for me to whip-out my wallet. My feeling is that the design focus for a lot of modern CDPs has changed and the wonder-drug, upsampling, does not help much either in creating listener involvement with the music. It is no wonder then that for many people vinyl still rules okay and IMO, from the evidence so far, will continue to do so. Perhaps, my existing player is not so bad after all - despite not having any upsampling etc.

I also agree with you on the AA Capitole – fine player especially at those second-hand prices but shockingly expensive, at it's new price on this side of the water (moreso than in the U.K., surprise, surprise) and second-hand examples are non-existent here. I heard it again last Saturday with VTL amps and Joseph Audio speakers. The overall system's sound was a bit too smooth for my liking though - it lacked 'bite' when required. Interesting comments about the Arcam – not many people give it a second thought, perhaps because it is an Arcam. Anyway, I will start looking again at one box CDPs around December – maybe things will be different then.



Enjoy the music,

Lawrie.