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What are the advantages of tubes in a CD Player?

.....and are they better than solid state CD Players? I have had a few players. Rega Apollo, NAD 542, and a Cambridge Audio (actually a DVD Player). I loved the Apollo, but thought I wanted to go to a complete Computer Audio system so I sold it. Now I am contemplating buying another player. I hear the tube sound is so warm and non-digital sounding, which is why I bought the Apollo, well that and the look of it. So, should I go tubes this time? I was looking at that Raysonic 128 and the Shanling and maybe even the Consonance Droplet
restless_times
tripper
223 posts
 
An MHZS CD66 player weighs over 30#, has two 12AX7 tubes w/ LED status indicators and a window to see them without pulling the cover, balanced outputs, upsampling on the solid metal remote, and is a top loader to boot. I'm not sure how the tubes affect the output but the whole package makes for one musically satisfying experience. I found mine for less than the dac mentioned above, and have a few dollars left over for tube-rolling, although I'm not really tempted to do so yet as teh stock tubes play just fine for now. Nice to have the option down the road.
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itsalldark
182 posts
 
I have had a number of CDP over the last two or three years. Started with an Electrocompaniet, then went to a Wadia 861, then to a Audio Aero Capitole mk2 and I just bought an Einstein-The Last Record Player, CDP--which, like the Capitole uses tubes, but not the mini's. It uses 6922's. For me, the odd man out so to speak was the Wadia--in my system it had a lot of glare. The Electrocompaniet was very nice, smooth yet detailed. The Capitole did everything well and the new player is really a nice unit. Like the Capitole in gets you involved, very detailed but no edge. what I really noticed is this player seems to be able to put all the instuments in the correct place. I have played around with the tubes a little and you can notice the difference different tubes can make in the way this player makes music. I really like that you can fine tune the player to suit your music and your system.
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trelja
3,226 posts
 
Thanks for the insights, Grant!

And, I do agree most emphatically with you; I don't consider the 6H30 as nearly an attractive option than a tube you can roll - 12AX7, 12AU7, 6922, etc. Just about impossible for me to believe a Russian tube can compete with most of what was produced yesterday - or, even today.
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