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Your experience:a cdp that gets best of lesser cds

I'm looking for a cd player that will get more out of the playback and sound of lesser quality recordings and/or poorly remastered cd's from the past (example: 70's soul/ 50's and 60's jazz remasters. By "more" I mean less thinness, leaness, in the sonics and more weight and lows, yet not rolled off or muted in the highs. In other words, a player that will dig deeper- do more with a lesser cd. I currently have an excellent player, the Modwright Sony 999ES, fully loaded, but synergy-wise it's not maximizing in my system. I'm looking for a used player in the $2500 -$3k area that will improve the sound quality on some of the lesser cd's I own. The one thing about this hobby that frustrates me no end is the synergy thing which can take away great performance from a quality piece of gear. My system: LSA/DK Signature int, Reimer Wind River GS, Modwright Sony,Acoutstic Zen cabling, Shunyata Hydra- various aftermarket PC's. Do you know of such a player?
foster_9
herman
2,259 posts
 
OK, I think we need some clarification here. Do you seek a single player that can do everything (make everything sound good) or an additional player or another piece of hardware than can compensate for bad recordings?

If it is the former then you seek the impossible. How can one player color bad recordings and not color good recordings? I don’t care how much synergy there is you can’t find a player that can do both. You can find a player that compromises on both ends and make everything sound mediocre, but you can’t have everything in one box.

I suggest the following. Switch to computer based audio with a USB DAC. Rip all CDs to hard drives. Investigate equalizer software that can be applied to bad recordings and bypassed for good ones. Properly implemented computers make great transports so you can concentrate on the software and DAC.
vegasears
1,173 posts
 
Check out a previously owned Esoteric DV-50. It is within your price range. It has what Esoteric calls "Digital Filters". It has three settings. Using it has always reminded me of tube rolling. I seem to change settings more when I playing CD's from the 80's and early 90's. Another plus is having the ability to play SACD and DVD-A. I use mine in a music only system but I can listen to DVD-V concerts. It is a very versatile machine.

Good Luck
chadnliz
3,736 posts
 
Vegasears is right, my fathers DV60 does this also, and I cant remember the settings names but the second selection tamed hash up on 1st generation cd's. But overall the Esoteric is more detailed or analytical then we thought it would be, his Lexicon RT10 wich the DV60 replaced has a warmer and smoother sound signature.
foster_9 OP
1,638 posts
 
Thanks a lot everyone for your words of advice. I always appreciate getting advice here. Herman, I'm looking for a player that provides a little more weight to the presentation of older recordings. Not looking for a DAC but I've considered an eq. In my original post I said I was looking for a player that would provide less thinness, leaness, in the sonics and more weight and lows, but not rolled off or muted in the highs with my older recordings. I just want a little more meat on the bones of the sonic picture with my old recordings that often sound anemic. I currently have 2 cdps with the Sony as my main unit. It's excellent, and I believe it just doesn't have the best synergy with the rest of my setup and thus isn't performing to its full potential. I believe that a player that had better synergy in my setup would be more satisfying even with the older cd's I have.
aball
2,018 posts
 
Tvad - You should avoid making condensending remarks about people's "colored" suggestions when you are guilty of it yourself. You start off by suggesting that anything other than the Modwright is colored and then keep suggesting these tubes to effectively change (i.e. color) its sound. You don't honestly believe your Sylvanias are as uncolored as any other tubes, do you? What about the Paradisea DAC? Is it uncolored only if you have the Modwright as a transport? Your point isn't clear at all. Nevertheless, I am glad to see you come around and accept that even the Modwright's sound can be modified from "neutral," whatever that is.

Arthur
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