Dark: There are a lot of good players in the price range that you are looking at. For example: Audio Refinement Complete (used), Cambridge 500 (new), CAL Icon MkII (used -I own this) and the CAL 5 changer (used). Check out as many as possible. I also listened to the Rotel 970 before it was discontinued and found it to be a little smoother than its replacement the 971. A nice thing about using a player as a transport (in the future) is that if you decide to go for any DAC mods that become available you can still play music on the player while the DAC is off to the factory. There is also a lot of info on previous threads in regard to inexpensive but good CD players, I guess just search "CD player".
Will a DAC mellow Denon DCM 360
Will a low-end DAC help mellow the high freq edges of my Denon DCM 360 carousel. I've seen ads for the Soundstream DAC-1 ($100) and Musical Fidelity X-DAC ($70) around and wonder if they would be any help? Or is the money better spent on a different cd player? My system is Rotel RB-980BX amp(120 W), ROtel RC-972 pre-amp, B&W 601 series 2 speakers, DIY TNT-X 1.5 connects, and DIY Chris Venhaus Cat 5 (27 pair)teflon speaker cables. My current system sounds excellent for the $1,100 I paid (new speakers & stands, used electronics), except for the piercing highs on some cd's. The DIY cables & interconnects provided a great sonic improvement (excellent detail and soundstaging, much tighter bass) as compared to the cheap Radio Shack "Goldseries" connects and monster cable I was using. The only problem is that the better the interconnect/cables the more "edgey" highs that the CDP delivers.
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- 24 posts total
- 24 posts total