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Best player for Poorly Recorded redbook CDs?

There is lot on the cutting edge of digital players, Meitner, APL, Esoteric, Zanden, Reimyo, and the list goes on. Most have great reviews and their own followers. The problem is we usually test this with better recorded CDs or do not actually consciously think about how well a player plays poorly recorded CDs. If I have a main player for SACDs and avg-well recorded CDs, is there a player out there that somehow makes poorly recorded CDs sound better, and better than other equipment? Note this only pertains to poorly recorded CDs...and its not about being truthful/accuracy per se...all I want is something that will improve on bad CDs. Meitner is OK at this but I wonder if other players out there (and indeed it may well be a budget player,...who knows) that specifcally do this well. Given as music lovers, we generally own our fair share of poor sounding but great music CDs, I think this is potentially quite important and can pay lots of dividends after some investigation....at least that is the hope. Now thinking about this, its also somewhat surprising that professional reviewers do not really address this aspect much. Hmmm.

Any suggestions? Do you agree with this line of thiniking?
henryhk
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
Henry...You really have not clearly defined what about the sound you don't like with these "bad sounding CDs". Might help us towards what CD player. If they are just poorly recorded you may have to live with it. The tube player idea is interesting along with the EQ idea.

I would not dismiss cables out of hand. I am not talking about changing a cable permanently, just for the CD's you don't like the sound of. It has worked for me. I can't speak for those who say it won't work. I never assume something will or won't work because it is someone else's opinion. I always kick the tires myself.

For the cable route, if you (or anyone else here) wants to explore it... a very highly detailed and smooooooooth cable is the Van Den Hul "The First". If you can pick up a pair used, give them a try.. If is does not work for you, they sell really easy and you'll get your money back.
rcprince
3,074 posts
 
I'm in the camp for equalization; you could run it through a tape loop to keep it out of the system on your best material. The best equalizer for listening to music IMHO is the old Cello Audio Pallette, which had settings designed to compensate for known recording companies' tendencies and made everything listenable as a result. The best one-box cure for bad CDs might be the most expensive, the Linn CD12, which is the best one-box player I've ever heard (it is good enough to compete with your EMM Labs equipment) and also the one that best got to the music rather than every minute detail. You could also try one of the earlier Audio Logic Model 34 DACs, before they went to the 2400 and the transformer-coupled versions (I believe that the current version also works well for ordinary CDs, but the earlier versions definitely let you flavor the sound a little more).
jlambrick
138 posts
 
The problem you describe might have something to do with the shape of the pits in some CDs and the effect of increasing jitter when played. You could search for a CD player that reclocks the signal. I have modded a player using a Tent X03 reclocker and found that the bad CDs sound much better. Or there is a method that has been refined by Arnie Nudell (co-founder of Infinity) where you rip the CD to a computer with a .wav dedicated drive then re-record it to a black CD using one of a few good burners for this purpose. If that sounds appealing, I'll search my archives for more info.
kw6
692 posts
 
Try a Linn Ikemi or higher up in the line. If you can find a used CD12 that would be the best.

Good Luck!*>)
yes9
15 posts
 
Henry, I had a similar dilema not long ago. My wife buys mostly new, well recorded CDs. I buy mostly 70s, poorly recorded CDs. And we have alot of average sounding CDs as well. The new stuff sounded bright, the average stuff was listenable and the old stuff sounded like Charlie Brown's mother speaking over the telephone. I called my audio advisor and explained the problem and his immediate response was,"you need better speaker cables". I thought that was completely counter intuitive but since he never steared me wrong before, I auditioned about seven different pairs. In the end, he was right. EVERYTHING now sounds better than before. Replacing the power cord later brought marked improvements but not as great as the speaker cables. Matt........
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