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Old digital that still kicks butt

Not being a believer that time necessarily = progress, I would like to offer the following example of a sonic gem that has transcended time and can totally kick butt in a modern milieu:
1. Marantz CD5000 al la CD48, Philips Cd753, CDS751: what do these players all have in common:?    the miraculous TDA1549 chip. As Lucas Ficas alias ’Lampizator‘ has described this chip is a killer and  probably the best Philips has produced. If you take the output straight from the chip via high quality output caps the sound quality is still right up there. Add a cathode follower if you you wish for greater solidity and slam at the expense of ultimate clarity.

Add some chassis damping and you have something that plays real music.
128x128pesky_wabbit
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
If you have a chance to hear a 20-year old Audio Note DAC 5, you will see how little the state of the art has progressed.
Also uses a good old R2R ladder dac the AD1862.👍

It has been a while since I have heard the Linn CD 12, but I agree with the posting above that it is extremely good.
Yes and I had one of these, stunning R2R ladder chip CDP, uses 4 x PCM1704K’s and PMD200 HDCD filter chip.
But my old Discrete MSB R2R ladder dac sounds even better again.

Don’t think the old R2R’s even though they are very good, can compete with todays better discrete R2R dac’s, they don’t.

Cheers George
wturkey's avatar
wturkey
774 posts
 
In a second system resides a MSB Link 2 Dac modified by Channel Islands Audio. The power supply is a Monolithic Sound unit. This unit was bought on a whim. So far the MSB has sent a Bryston BDA-1, BDA-2, Bel Canto 2.7 and a Raleigh Audio Rakk tube dac packing. This unit is much better than it should be given the modifications were dated 1999. 
ksosne
17 posts
 
We have an old Sony ES CD player 35+ years that is still kicking.  A Rotel amp kept blowing fuses gone and one other CD player laser died.  The ES still sounds quite good and have it hooked to Nakamichi Receiver 2.  The Nakamichi is from my Dad who passed at 94.  He originally had Macintosh mono equipment that he purchased in about 1957 to 1959. He did not do a great job on speakers but the Nak is superb. Only problem is the FM inpuit is not coax had to use a flat wire old tv 50 ohm converter and the wires are weak.
malatu
58 posts
 
I've got a Sony 703ES circa 1985. It's sound quality is worthy of a unit from that era: http://www.thevintageknob.org/sony-DAS-703ES.html
naimfan
166 posts
 
I have a Naim nDAC powered by a Pardo T-XPS; it's seen off (almost) everything I've compared it to - Denafrips, Schiit's Yggy, Hugo TT, etc.  

The one DAC that was noticeably better was the dCS Rossini; while I' sure there are others I've never heard one that's noticeably/obviously better for anything close to what I paid for the nDAC and Pardo power supply - about $2.2k USD.  

And while I don't own one, I heard a Theta Digital DSPre Gen 3 that is still terrific.  Ditto an older Wadia.  
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