Parasound P 5 DAC vs. CD players

arafiq:
    Your information is much appreciated.

Not sure how the Cambridge 851D sounds but I have a 851C and it's a great player. I'm curious how much time you have on it and what is the rest of your system? My local hi if shop which carries both Parasound and Cambridge gear has both the P5 and 851C on the same system with a Parasound A23 driving either Magnepan 1.7 or 3.7i. I've done the comparison with the staff there and no one felt the DAC in the P5 is even close to the 851C. Not knowing your system it's likely the 851D is more revealing than the P5 DAC and maybe you're hearing something else in your system you're not liking such as your digital cable. Give the 851D more time to burn in. I will add my 851C shines with a better power cord. I have a kimber PK10 Gold on mine with Clear Days ICs.

The P5 is a nice pre for the money and full of nice features as well. Not sure how the DAC in the P5 compares with lower priced CD players but I suspect it does well. My guess is an older player with digital out will benefit running through the P5 DAC, but a newer player in the $700 and up range will be better with its own DAC.

Again I will add my 851C took a long, long time to settle in and I have not heard the 851D but I would sure think it's equal to the 851C. Give it time.

@adg101  I completely agree with you that my assessment of the 851D was a bit premature. After putting about 50 hours on the Cambridge, the sound is definitely improving, and I hope that it continues to get better. I am told that it takes at least 100 hours for the burn in. So keeping my fingers crossed :)

However, I would say that the P5 is no slouch either. For $1095, you're getting bass management, HT bypass and a phono stage in addition to a decent DAC. Right now, I don't find the Cambridge 851D to be much superior to the P5, but I guess I should reserve my judgment for another 50 hours or so.

By the way, the rest of my system is Bowers and Wilkins CM10 s2 qne Parasound A21. So far, I am using inexpensive AudioQuest cables (I think I paid around $60) and XLR connector. I plan to slowly add better speaker cables, followed by power cord.

Agree the P5 is a great unit in its price range; not sure anything close for the money. 

Give the Cambridge time. I think 100 hours is minimum and felt my 851C took a lot more time than that... more like 300.

When you get ready for cables try out Clear Day Cables. I'm running the double shotgun and both single and balanced cables. I am using Pauls jumpers on the speakers too as the cables are not bi-wire. If you're using the jumper strips that came on you B&Ws, try Pauls jumpers first and do a criss cross configuration with speaker wire + on the  bottom and - on the top so the jumpers will be the opposite. I think Nordost shows this on their site as their preferred jumper connection as well. Pauls a great guy to work with.

I like Kimber and WyWires power cords. You don't see WyWires come up used too often but the Kimber's do. The base WyWires Juice II PC isn't too crazy $; I have the Silver model which I think is a little better than the Kimber's so the base WyWires might be a smart buy and Alex is a good guy. He'll call you personally before building cables to make sure you're not wasting your money.

Both Clear Days and WyWires have 100% satisfaction guarantee. I like AQ cables too but you'll have spend a lot more to surpass the Clear Days. You have very nice equipment which if your total cable purchase was $60 you're not hearing what your gear is capable off. I found the speaker cable was the best place to start, then ICs, then later the PCs. All important if you have the gear for it.

Good Luck

adj101, your post is very timely as I was about to ask for suggestions regarding the next steps to improve my system. I've already settled on speakers, amp and preamp/DAC. 

I wasn't sure if I should first upgrade speaker cables, power cords or interconnect. Based on your suggestion, looks like speaker cable upgrade should be higher on the list.

I was thinking of AQ Rocket 88 that I can get for around $400 used. But Clear Day looks like a viable option and well within my budget. I need to decide which would be a better fit for my system. I really don't want to spend more than $700-800 this year on the system.

Another thing that I'm wondering about is the source. Since I'm streaming music (iMac --> iTunes --> Airplay/streaming --> Apple TV --> TosLink --> Cambridge 851D), I wonder if this is where I should start. I understand the limitations of Apple TV when used as an audio-only appliance (sample rate conversions, etc). I'm looking at Bluesound Node 2 as a possible alternative. 

So the question is which is more important, better streamer or speaker cables, keeping in mind that eventually I'll end up upgrading both.