2. analog
  3. 1154741128

I've found the cd player for analog lovers

I'm the guy who said on Audiogon, "When is digital going to get the soul of music?". Let me just say that I've found the digital player that rivals or beats analog. No, it is not $40,000. Please read me on my thread! I do believe that there is much variability with cd's. So not all cd's are created equally. The player in question is APL Hi-Fi's Denon 3910. I've found that volume is really critical. Alex voiced his player while comparing it to analog. Let me just tell you that I used to get tense from cd. I'm not saying that all cd's will sound great. For instance, my friend bought a cd from Walmart that was Van Morrison's greatest hits. It was hard to listen to through the digital haze to the music on Alex's $19,000(not your price)cd player.
mmakshak
puremusic
226 posts
 
"I haven't heard the APL version but I doubt it's involved in this particular problem. Amp and/or preamp are more likely candidates."

Dougdeacon,

I agree with you that the APL unit is not involved with this problem. I have the APL Denon 3910 with the new AKM chips and I do not experience digital glare/edginess/harshness/distortion even at very loud volumes. Mmakshak's problem must be elsewhere in his audio system: amp, pre-amp, AC quality, room acoustics, etc. I do agree with Mmakshack that the APL unit is superb. I prefer it to some units that cost as much as $14,000.

Best Regards,
John
Post removed 
dougdeacon
3,338 posts
 
Actually, we prefer our stock 3910 to both our previous Arcam FMJ CD23 ($2400), the Underwood modded 3910 and two $8-10K dedicated CDP's owned by friends. This makes our audio budget very happy. :-)

This particular 3910's over-achieving is greatly due to our very special line stage. Without that, we would still be searching for a digital source without glare. But a stock 3910 + this line stage provide very satisfying and enjoyable sound.

This setup performs so well it was worth putting a $1K (list) power cord and $2K (list) Nordost Valkyra interconnects on it. Not that we paid that much, but it is amusing that the wire connecting the 3910 to the world lists for double the price of the player itself. ;-)
cmk
397 posts
 
Doug, grammatically you cannot refer to yourself as "we", unless Doug and Deacon are 2 separate individuals. ;)

I did have the opportunity to listen to a few 3910, albeit through different systems at the last RMAF, and I would agree it is pretty analog sounding. I can't recall exactly which modded version is was, but I believe it was the ModWright.

There are other ways to smooth analog sound from digital, mine was the CEC TL2 with the Benchmark DAC1 and JPS digital power cords for both. The JPS digital along with the PS Audio P300(using sine only) made the music sound smooth without the digital edge/glare.
dougdeacon
3,338 posts
 
Cmk,

Paul and I are in fact two individuals: he's the smart one, I'm the chatty one. We own and enjoy the equipment, the music and the two cats in common.

Our Exact Power (which also corrects sine wave irregularities) also helps smooth analog output from digital. But our real breakthrough was the way our line stage handles inputs from digital sources. There are several ways to skin this cat, as you said (with apologies to ours for the analogy).
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