Arcam fmj cd23 vs cd33

I am also leaning to cd23.
BTW, what's wrong with Arcam CD players? Their used price is far lower than their competitors.
It would work for me though since I am not going to spend $2000+ for a new CD player. However, if they were good at their price point (over $2000) and still used ones can be purchased at under $600, it would be hard to beat.

Ihcho - I've never listen to CD23 but I know that they stopped making it because of yield problems in production of ring DACs. Arcam bought license for Ring DACs from DCS.

Idea behind Ring DAC is that at certain point you cannot cross resolution of 18-20 bits because of component tolerance (in sigma-delta you can but timing will eventually give same restriction). Ring DAC shuffles randomly bunch (I think 5) resistors of the same value (in each position of the ladder) to get much better tolerance and increased resolution. Effect of this shows as "dithering" on the output but after filter provides for extra bits of resolution. At least that's what I heard.

I think that they stopped making FMJ-cd23 only because of production yield problems.

It probably became to expensive to license it anymore from DCS

I own the cd23, an Alpha 9, and auditioned the cd33 when it came out. I liked the 23 and Alpha 9 better and still have them. The HDCD is handy also.

But beware, if the 23's DAC goes out, you may not be able to get a replacement. You can e-mail Arcam support to verify. They are really good about answering.

Jim S.

Many thanks.

if the 23's DAC goes out, you may not be able to get a replacement.

I wonder how many people would care about fixing a DAC when it goes wrong in a CD player, Or, even how often a DAC would go wrong. Has anybody heard of a ring DAC went wrong?