Wait! Is Chicago "south of Boston?" I once had a customer service rep on the phone for 10 minutes, only to tell me that she could not find "Boston" anywhere in her New York listings, so, there ya go. I’m "south of Boston" right now! I could go get it for you, 😄 but read this first.
I am, now that you mention it, dealing with ye olde carousel issue, too! My first cd-player was an odd and amazing, single-play dbx [sic]. It could do magic tricks. It lasted 20 years, as did my Apt and Hafler stuff. The Snells from that time are still in use in my workshop, having been "re-rubber-ringed" twice since new in 1983. (Gawd, that numeral sequence hurts to see in print.)
I sometimes listen for hours, so a changer made sense. First came the de rigeur Yamaha. When that croaked (the display panel started ghosting me), my still-lazy self bought an Onkyo. Is it just me, or does everyone have a few favorite discs with some superficial marring that some cd-players never even notice, while others stall out, sometimes merely ticking along---one second of content every 12---then completely stopping?
I thought the move up to an Integra might be noticeable and track better. Nope. Du-udes, I’m talking "faulty" cd’s that a 14-year-old blu-ray-player has no problem with, nor does the player in my Honda!
For my b-day, I ordered myself an Arcam cd5 (don’t even!)
It wasn’t until I started using it, that I went looking for any negative buzz in forums, which brought me here. At least I found out I wasn’t too stupid to use the remote or had a defective unit. (Actually, they’re all defective, aren’t they?) Yes, it is to a cd-player what a reptile is to a mammal. This one lays eggs. Since what era could one not fast-forward or reverse a cd? How about the Devonian period. Until I read it on a forum, I thought I was just being dense; no, like, really, really dense.
Then I put in Abbey Road. Yeowie, the medley! It reads a pause in a track as a track change. First, it begins the tune. It then thinks, "Oh, crapola, I’ve erred! I must go back!" Ya, back to the last second of the previous tune, then hiccups, burps, and begins again---in the 2nd second of the new song. Truly unlistenable, unusable, and, at the moment, unforgiveable. It’s en route as we speak.
The bad part; it sounds (I mean, sounded) great! I A/B’d a lot of stuff I know really well. I expected some improvement over my previous players, but this was big! And it was almost across the board---a super soundstage; great distinction btwn instruments; a beautifully fat and flowing-melted-chocolate bottom, and highs that never made you feel like you do when you’ve listened to too much Joni Mitchell. Honestly, it was as if I had new speakers! I miss it, kinda.
I replaced it w/a Marantz cd60-R. That heft? It’s all potatoes w/o much meat. It’s not a county-fair-biggest-pumpkin contest. The Arcam is smaller and lighter. I am dumbfounded that it can’t track some of those same "problematic" cd’s. The Arcam sure could---all of them. Most importantly, every sonic aspect of the Marantz is, alas, outmatched by the Arcam. It was a surprise with each new disc. The Marantz couldn’t do that. It, too, will know again the cold and brutal hands of the FedEX warehouse simians.
Strike deux.
Does the Marantz sound noticeably better than the Integra changer? In short, yes, so I can’t go back, I can never go back; the changers just can’t compete.
Hey, aside from the 45-minute trips to FedEx, at least I’m shopping for all this on my duff, albeit in silence.
