It depends on the media. The old CD's play best on old technology...and the high end expensive players are not discernible...or not accurate!! You can put a Magnavox in a Krell system and get outstanding CD playback. As to media...I am not enthused with SACD. My best CD's are AAD...90's. I know the SACD is frequently AAD but so far I have not gotten a good one. ..at least as it comes through my Sony SCD-C2000ES. I do not trust the high end pseudo engineers to give us a good CD player. I am going to try a Marantz CD-5004 or a Toshiba something. NAIM and Van Alstine and Cary do not appeal to me. My best sound is now coming from off the air tapes I recorded in Bloomington, MN ..pulling KSJN, KTCZ and a classical Northfield station ... late at night. Every time I fire up my Toshiba DX-900 vcr tapes..PCM or Hi-Fi mode...my guest(s) comment "WOW! That is some CD!" (When I sold my Magnepan's the buyer demanded I "..get that awesome demo cd out of there... anything would sound great with that in there.. and put something normal on.." so I bent over completely and punched in the VCR.... then he wanted to buy my tuner!. He called me for three months wanting me to help him select his FM tuner!) Anyway .. of course it was the tape of great music from the radio station's cd player... FM translated by my renowned and obscure tuners from Luxman, Denon, Yamaha, Technics and Pioneer (Magnum-Dynalab and McIntosh never cut it for me. The peak of FM tuners was Japan 1987-88. Look at the specs... THEN listen). I had a cheap Radio Shack antenna in the attic. But then I did live on the highest hill in Hennepin County. What I am saying is...in the days of analog masters and FM station operators with skill and integrity and apparently great pro cd players, and conscientous engineers.. we got GREAT sound. I suspect those days are over...in the face of today's national leadership meltdowns ..... incompetent leaders in business and institutions everywhere. ps Deutsch Grammophone did some great CD's. And whether it is Mozart, Chopin, Ahmad Jamal, David Lanz, Jeff Beck, Los Lobos, Sarah Brightman, Bonnie Rait, Johnny Cash, Ac-DC, David Garrett, EmmyLou Harris, Doc Severinsen, BigHead Todd, Peter Gabriel, Roseanne Cash, Yanni or Enya..to mention a few... the music is where it is at and there is multiple lifetimes of it out there.... Oh man, a KSJN 90's tape is spewing some great classical as I write this.. I am almost tearing up again. It is the music foremost. What is giving me the sound? Since I no longer have the space for my two Magnepan 3.6R.NO SUBWOOFER!!...I am listening to..are you sitting down?..Pinnacle PN5+ with a carefully leveled and slopped ..forgot the name...self powered 15" sub-woofer that rarely is audible. The room is quiet and average size and those Pinnacles are ....incredible...with a little help from my Luxman amp maybe... What does your NPR station use to play music CD's? Maybe you should get one of those....
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- 816 posts total
- 816 posts total