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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
psacanli
535 posts
 
Jimbo, do you think you'll try some power conditioners before changing anything else?
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,308 posts
 
Good point psacanli.

No point in investing in really good equipment without first assuring good power conditioning!
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
a better question might be:

"what am i missing using a current cd player" ?

both questions are rather ambiguous, or at best could be answered positively or negatively.

the idea is to audition cd players, comparing them to the sonographe. if a player is preferred over the sonographe and is deemed a good value, it would make sense to replace the sonographe.
tbl_hk's avatar
tbl_hk
9 posts
 
I have many old cdp's, including the Sonographe SD-1 Beta. I opened it and found it totally similar to my Philips CD-350. It runs on CDM-2 pickup, and two TDA1540P DAC chips.

The similarity ends there, from which point onwards the SD-1 has a revamped output section that uses transistors, no operational amps (opamps) at all.

The output section can be upgraded with better output caps than the two huge German Era MKP 0.1 MFD/600V non-polar cap. I used a pair of T&T 10MFD/1000V, and, another time, I used two British TCC metal cans at 4 MFD/600V. Quite a big change, as the soundstage unfolds with more "presence" (read: higher end spectrum in 12K Hz upwards).

Better still, trash the output board, add a second transformer and install a pair of 12AU7 or 6CG7, or 6SN7 (12SN7 in SRPP typology.

This old CJ CDP can put up a good fight against newer CDP, such as the Marantz CD-94 Mk I. The CJ　SD-1 always sounds musical, except when it plays the loudest Telarc CD's. There, it will start to "shout" at the listener. But with an SRPP tube configuration replacing the custom CJ transistor output board, you can definitely take a Cambridge 840C with WM DAC, and hear wonders from a tubed SD-1 during any musical passages.

So I am saying, doing it reversibly, one will find the SD-1 more fun. Still, wait until you do blind A-B-C tests ......!
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