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Why Does CD Sound So Good?

Over the years, I’ve tried countless variations of system components in order to find the best sound. CD players, CD transports, DACs, streaming DACs, iPods, iPads, phones, computers, amps, tube preamps, you name it. System types include home audio, car audio and headphone audio. There has been a consistent recurring trend: After I’ve played around for a long time and mixed and matched components, I always find a CD player to deliver the best sound.

Sure my laptop computer and DAC sounds really good in my 2-channel rig, but my much lower priced CD player sounds more musical and more listenable, which is really what matters to me. 

In the car, I’ve got radio, XM Radio, streaming through my phone, playing files off my phone, etc. and yet the CD sounds best.

In my headphone rig, I’ve tried fancy DACs and headphone amps, tube buffers and preamps, better power cables and power supplies, etc. and yet a portable CD player has gone the furthest in making my headphones sound the best.

The CD consistently outperforms any streaming player I’ve tried. Don’t get me wrong, there are non-CD based solutions that sound fabulous, but I find myself always going back to the CD in the end. I find a properly setup CD-based system to have non-fatiguing highs and tight, accurate bass; the former being an absolute requirement for me. I don’t care how good the system measures or how expensive the gear is if the sound is fatiguing in any way. That’s a hard line I draw in the sand and one I refuse to negotiate on. It can’t be fatiguing and it has to be musical.

Where I’m lost for an explanation is the “why” behind all of this. In theory, a CD player shouldn’t be so good. We’re spinning a (usually wobbling) disc at many RPMs and trying to track it with a laser and then error correcting what we can’t read. A solid state hard drive or even a normal hard drive should have a walk in the park acquiring the data and should sound better because of it. My phone should sound excellent having solid state memory, being battery powered and having very short signal paths between the memory, DAC and output stage, and yet a cheap $25 portable CD player blows it out of the water.

So why does CD sound so good?
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mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,194 posts
 
brayeagle
I listen music 10 hours a day....

I listen for example to some Bach files or Schutz 1,200 times during a 7 years period(basically one time each day... :)

Most files I listen one time... Most music is only interesting one time listening...

I had some hundreds I listen to regularly...( mostly classical, jazz, persian-iranian, indian, and others)

For sure more than half of these files( around 7.000) I had never listen to them to this day because I love too much those I picked for regular listenings among the 7000 or 8000 others I had listen to already :)...

I sold cd for 30 years...And books ( I own 25,0000 books)... I usually made flac files for many years of all cd I sold or owned...

I read with music on background, books about science and philosophy all the day and walk...

Walking without music tough is the only way to think.... :)

In my experience cd or files or streaming, is totally different and the S.Q. is linked to the specific way these gear are embedded in the room and house and computer...Therefore no comparison is possible except on the same system if the 4 embeddings are rightfully addressed to...



My best regards to you...
fjblair
59 posts
 
High def streaming music sounds mostly excellent, but my CD player is just audibly better. I did another "test" last night with the same results.
brayeagle
362 posts
 
magister, 

Well, we're alike i several respects; however, I only listen to classical music - symphonies, chorales, concertos, operas, requiems, etc.   I grew up where there was no electricity, so I began listening to the old 12" Victor Red Seal records on a wind-up Victrola, using  cactus needles. I've been through the gamut of Mono, 45s,LPs, reel to reel and CDs. 

I've developed a fondness for the classics within the classical genre, and have several different performances of favorite pieces.  I love to compare  certain symphonies and chorales, performed by various artists with different orchestras and choruses under the baton of different conductors. 

Over my lifetime, I've had the good fortune to listen to more than a few performances by the Vienna Philharmonic in the Musikverein's Great Hall,  and Puccini and Verdi operas in the La Scala. (my benchmarks.)

I listen to music from the time I wake up until bedtime,The two-channel stereo goes for around six to eight hours, while  during the remainder f the day, I either listen to our local  FM classical music station (pseudo streaming) or to the Amsterdam Royal Concertbegaw
 via Apple music and a nice pair of B&W MM-1 speakers on either side of the computer.

I'd really be lost without my music , and my iPad Pro is packed with ripped CDs for use when I have to be in  the hospital. 

Cheers, (It should have been "grayeagle,"but the powers-that-be changed the initial "g" to a 'b.')


mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,194 posts
 
brayeagle

I am fond of Scriabin and Sorabji because I like classical piano very much....

Bach is my god and Scriabin his son, Bruckner is the spirit....Amen...Sorabji is the great Zarathoustra...

I like Sorabji because if you create a perfect hybrid between Bach and Scriabin the result will be Sorabji...The greatest piano composer after Scriabin, but nobody is on par with Bach tough except God himself who exceed him for sure .... :)

After my death I will know....I cannot wait to die even if I enjoy my life....Music without hi-fi limitations....and numbers without 

My best wishes to you....
brayeagle
362 posts
 
mahgister,

I'm fond of Bach's organ works, and have been comparing Marie Claire Alain's complete set against Helmut Walcha's. 

Cheers

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