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Your experience:a cdp that gets best of lesser cds

I'm looking for a cd player that will get more out of the playback and sound of lesser quality recordings and/or poorly remastered cd's from the past (example: 70's soul/ 50's and 60's jazz remasters. By "more" I mean less thinness, leaness, in the sonics and more weight and lows, yet not rolled off or muted in the highs. In other words, a player that will dig deeper- do more with a lesser cd. I currently have an excellent player, the Modwright Sony 999ES, fully loaded, but synergy-wise it's not maximizing in my system. I'm looking for a used player in the $2500 -$3k area that will improve the sound quality on some of the lesser cd's I own. The one thing about this hobby that frustrates me no end is the synergy thing which can take away great performance from a quality piece of gear. My system: LSA/DK Signature int, Reimer Wind River GS, Modwright Sony,Acoutstic Zen cabling, Shunyata Hydra- various aftermarket PC's. Do you know of such a player?
foster_9
aball
2,016 posts
 
Tvad - ok, now I see that we are on the same page. I figured that had to be since there is no other way. There is no need to ever use the word "colored" since everything is. I just had the impression you were saying I was wrong in making "colored" suggestions. Anyway, truce.

Foster - I am now a little confused by what you are after. Is the Jolida not good in your system either? YOu could just use it for bad recordings and seemingly get what you are after. I am assuming it is a good bit more forgiving than the Modwright (I've had two JD100s).

If you want to replace the Modwright with an equally detailed cd player that also has more body, then you may have to spend a bit more to have your cake and eat it too. Try the Sylvania tubes (I have always loved mine) and see how that goes. Also, have you tried different interconnects on your Sony? Some Cardas or van den Hul might work for you.

Arthur
foster_9 OP
1,638 posts
 
Aball, the Jolida is good but I'm looking for more extension at the frequency extremes. My opinion is that it's a nice music-maker but I feel that it's possible to get more "meat on the bones" in a player at the price point of $2500-3k used and add more foundation to the performance of lesser/older cd's. Right now I'm using Acoustic Zen Ref Matrix II interconnects. The Rega Saturn is a player I'm curious about.
chadnliz
3,736 posts
 
I know how the EQ works and still think it may help, if in general bad CD's sound bright or thin or whatever then having the EQ may help more on some then others but still may help, then hit the bypass button when it isnt needed. The cost of the EQ makes it almost a non-risk and it may even get used to fix the reponse in general.
711smilin
513 posts
 
All I can say is GOOD LUCK, I had to go thru digital hell, with over 50 players, but, my final player, actually does EXACTLY what you all desire. My player is unbelievable in playing poorly recorded cd's, and even more amazing on audiophile, all ya gotta do is add a zero to the price, and you can have it all.

Best of luck in your digital part of this journey, cause, HAPPILY I am done with mine.
bob_bundus
1,834 posts
 
Cary offers variable sampling rate players, controlled via the remote so you can chose parameters from the listening chair. I'm thinking that Wadia also offers this feature?

Spectral used to demo a player at the CES which had front panel switch selectable filtering & sampling modes.

If you want to gloss over some of the gory details on lesser-quality recordings, you can easily build filtering into any preamp that has a tape loop. I use selected interconnect cables as filters, simply connecting the tape output jacks back into the tape input jacks, then switch in the tape loop to filter the signal according to the cable's characteristics. For example, a lower-end Cardas interconnect provides a smoother somewhat rolled-off less resolving effect. You can chose cables to whatever sonic effect you desire. If you have two tape loops available then you have even greater flexibility.
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