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Last CD player?

Earlier this year, I bought a Bryston 4BSST2 power amp and a Bryston BP26 pre amp.  Recently I purchased a pair of PMC fact 12 speakers.  Both produced a marked increase in sound quality.

My source at the moment is a Meridian 588 cd player, which is about 12 years old.  The transport was repaired about 2 years ago, and some capacitors replaced.  I play only redbook cds, but I may look into downloading hi-rez files later.

I am wondering if buying a new cd player would produce another big improvement in sound quality.  My budget is between £5,000 and £10,000.  I have read glowing reviews of the Moon 650D and the Esoteric K05x and K03x.  The latter is rather at the extreme end of my budget, and I am curious if it is hugely better than the K05x.

I am trying to build a see-me-out system, so durability is important.  The gear I bought earlier has a 20-year warranty, which inspires confidence.  Esoteric products have a warranty of just 1 year.

I would be grateful for any opinions or suggestions.

Thanks,
Paleo12
paleo12
sbank's avatar
sbank
3,378 posts
 
Nuvistor tubes are known for remarkably longer life ~100,000 hours, than almost any other type of tube. Yeah, they are probably tough to get. I would think Musical Fidelity would stock them for service since they sold so many models that use them. Cheers,
Spencer
soundsrealaudio's avatar
soundsrealaudio
756 posts
 
I would recommend a DAC. Bricasti is very high end and they take very good care of their customers, meaning very very inexpensive upgrades as well as service. Use your Meridian as a transport. They work you way into a storage/server, on which you record your CD's. So put all your music on a hard drive. 

maxboy00's avatar
maxboy00
275 posts
 
I too only play RB CDs, and have an Esoteric K-07 CDP. I have now moved to a server based system and use my K-07 as a transport. Sadly it has not seen much action since the conversion, I would sell it,but there is no market for high quality CDP without taking a bath. My suggestion would be look at something downstream in both the Moon and Esoteric lines...like the Moon 260D or the discontinued Teac Distinction series. Both are excellent transports that most likely will be used occasioning and at a much lower price point. Good luck in your search!
paleo12 OP
40 posts
 
The Bricasti indeed has excellent reviews, and I like the fact that they do upgrades at a reasonable cost.  Hopefully, that would also be the case here in Britain.  Coupled with an OK transport, it looks like a possible way to go.  Even if the transport needs replacing or fixing once in a while, that would be affordable.  Does a transport make a big difference to sound quality?

From what I read, the Esoteric players are solidly built (the K03x weighs 28 kg), and have an excellent DAC, as well a sufficiency of digital inputs.  One would hope it would last for a very long time.  It amounts to putting all the digital eggs in one basket though.
kalali's avatar
kalali
1,977 posts
 
Sorry if they seem like a stupid question but how does one use a CD player as just a DAC? Is it just a matter of connecting the output of the CD player to an input of a DAC instead of the preamp or the CD player needs to have separate output from the transport portion. Thanks.
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