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The Law of Diminishing Digital Returns

When is the sound good enough? Is that $2500 CDP $1500 better sounding than the $1000 player? I have read posts on members favorite CDP'S - i.e., Ayre, Opus, Sony, Rega, Arcam, Naim, Musical Fidelity, and countless others. I guess my question is: When you get to a certain price point (I am guessing it is in the $1000 - $1500 range) are players worth the additional $1000's in some cases for the 5% improvement in sound quality? There has to be a player out there that is really close to those $4k to $5k CDP's that is a pleasure to listen to (or even a Giant Kiler) for around $1000. Am I the only one who feels this way? Let's keep modded players out of this please. I am looking for your thought on players right out of the box that wowed you!
mattcone
warrenh's avatar
warrenh
2,299 posts
 
These percentages we come up with are ridiculous!! 5% better? Better than what? Take TVAD's cdp. He has a killer player. I had an Audio Aero Prima. Yes that was a killer player, to me. Now, TVAD's player costs more than twice mine. Does it sound twice as good? Well he may think so, but I doubt it. You may think it's (after listening) 25% better. I may think it's...and on and on and...Me? The justification, the spin,$$ and of course the ole tympanics are directly related to 20% of_______. got ya!! Get yourself a mod and be done with it. Case closed.
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matt8268
92 posts
 
In response to some of the requests I got to elaborate on computer-based audio, I started a new thread with some info:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1141250565&read&3&4&
phaelon
1,052 posts
 
Tvad, Thank you
audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,188 posts
 
With what I heard in my system, it is pretty tough to beat the Bel Canto DAC2 I am currently using. I compared it to a more expensive dac. Yes, the more expensive dac was better, but it still did not make me want to sell the Bel Canto. I really was looking to hear big improvement and got dissapointed by a hair splitting differences. It wasn't worth it. Now back to Warren's point. I am thinking of moddig the DAC2. I think I can bridge that small gap between it and the performance of the more expensive dacs. Looking for a good modder, I am considering TRL. $550 that they charge for a mod is way less than the difference I need to pay to obtain a new dac that's going to beat the Bel Canto by a significant margin. So, point of dimishing returns for me in my system started at around the performance of a $1000 dac. May be my system is not revealing enough, but I have doubts about that.
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