Law of Diminishing Returns - CD/SACD Players

My experience is that a $1000 may give you about 50% of what the top machines will do. If you get to the $3-$6k machines, they will sometimes give you 100% or even better than the >$10k crowd. My opinions is that a modded Opus 21 (retail $5k with mods) will compete with anything out there. In stock form it will compete and beat some $10k machines, and crushes the $5-6k ones like Cary and Blue Note. In modded form I am not sure what will beat it regardless of price. Other $10k machines like an AA offer unique things such as midrange warmth and musicality others can't match....but it is down to personal taste and how much you want to spend. Just my personal opinions.

Fatcataudio is a dealer of Resolution Audio Opus 21 CDP. Dude, you really should put that disclaimer in your post, IMNHO.

hi reubent, why do you prefer the resolution audio player to the quad ?

has anyone considered a cec belt drive cd player for around $2000 ? i hear it's quite good.

MrT,

Well, the Opus 21 cost me 3X the price I paid for the Quad 99 DCP-2. Thank goodness it sounds better!

I've now owned 2 Resolution Audio Opus 21s and 2 Quad 99 CDPs (one version 1 and one version 2). I keep getting concerned about the relative value of the players, so I end up selling, rebuying, yada, yada. In cronological order I owned Opus 21, Quad 99 CDP, Opus 21, Quad 99 CDP-2. I bought all used here on AudiogoN.

Anyway, I bought my first Quad 99 CDP as an experiment to audition it against the Opus 21. It was not a match for the Opus 21, but I found it to be good enough to satisfy me for a while. I sold the Opus 21. A while later I saw a great deal on an Opus 21 and knowing it was the better player, I bought it. Recently I saw a pretty good deal on a Quad 99 CDP-2, so I thought, what the heck. I bought it to see if it could go toe-to-toe with the Opus 21. Well, it is pretty good, but it does not stand up to the Opus 21.

I prefer the top end of the Opus 21. It is more analog sounding to my ears. Across the board the Opus 21 is a bit more articulate than the Quad. My new speakers are very revealing, so the extra money spend on the Opus 21 is worth it to me.

BTW, I haven't heard it yet, but a buddy just bought the Consonance CD120 Linear, which is the non-oversampling version of this CD player. He is a retire music professor, composer and analog junkie. He really likes it. I think it was about $800.

Enjoy,

TIC

Forgive me in advance for my lack of listenning skill. I recently decided to re-visit the mid-fi journey by buying a Rotel RCC 1072 and after three continuous days of listenning, I have to say these mid-fi sound will give you listenning fatigue due to bright, metallic, cold and harsh sound. Yet it gives you a false sense of big bass. not a kind of tight bass but sissy bass. the soundstage is quite wide but not deep. High frequency is very high and will be harsh on bright recording. Etta James in "All the way" with several tracks are unbearable. Yes, it may sound better in details than the Pioneer or Technics DVD players but is it worth 700.00 ? For me it is not quite. Sorry Rotel fan. I owned a Krell CDP KAV 280 matched with the 400xi, and to me that heavenly tight bass, warm and opening vocals...Yes, I rather save up 4000.00 for a good CDP than buying under 1000.00 wimpy one. Live and learn everyday and I do learn a good lesson : All CDP sounds different and you will get what you pay for. Hi-fi choice of the year not the ears.