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What am I missing using a 20 year old CD player??

I have the Sonographe SD-1 CD player which I purchased in 1988. Sonographe was a subsidiary company of Conrad Johnson. They modified a Magnavox 2610 CD player to produce the Sonographe SD-1. The unit has operated flawlessly for 20 years. Overall, its sound is clean textured and dynamic, but also can sound hard and somewhat sterile or digital. This "characteristic" has been consistent through several speaker systems I have owned over 20 years. It was formerly mated to Aragon and CJ electronics until recently. My current system is a Creek Classic SE5350 integrated amp; a pair of new(recent) Silverline Preludes and Analysis Plus Oval 12 speaker cable, and a Audio Magic Spellcaster II interconnect. Therefore, I am curious how much better have CD players gotten in the last 20 years. What might I be missing sound-wise that would offer noticeable improvement??? I ask because I am considering the Rega Apollo player. Finally, I was told by a high end audio specialist that I might need to spend to $1500-2000 to better the Sonographe. I question that because it only received above average reviews. I think, though not sure, Stereophile put it in their "C" equipment category..... Any and all advice welcomed. Thanks, Jimbo
sunnyjim
jaybo
4,478 posts
 
the sound you have described could have been a description of a brand new ten thousand dollar player......yes there are better players than there were at the beginning, but the true leaps have been in the mastering of the software.......sonographe/motif and synthesis gear by cj is very collectable, even that ancient cd player.
pbb
1,140 posts
 
An awful lot. As good as my JVC 1010 was for many years, I couldn't believe the improvement when I got an Arcam CD 23. I then went to a Sony SACD XA 9000 ES player and there was a small but not insignificant improvement on CD there also.
schipo
1,268 posts
 
you might be very suprised when you hear very little diffence compared to your Sonographe SD-1. Many of the older players were very well built compared to many modern gear. Case in point I still have an older player the JVC 1050tn player and it still sounds great.
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
CD players improved up to the mid 90's but D/A improvements started to hit diminishing returns after this as they were so good, IMHO. The failure of SACD shows that the ordinary CD player is darn good - so much so that most consumers see absolutely no need for an improvement from something such as SACD.
stevethe4th
37 posts
 
Just want to throw this out there to everyone:
How about skipping issues??
I have an older CD player too..a predecesor to the SONY ES line before they had ES, and what I love about it, and the reason I still use it, is that it does not skip AT ALL !!
It will still play virtually any disc no matter how scratched or in bad shape the disc is. In the 12 years I have had this player, I have heard it skip maybe three times! AMAZING...what frustrates me now is how new equipment..more expensive gear, skips a lot more often.

I have no idea why this is, I am not an engineer, but I still use my old CD players just for this reason!
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