2. digital
  3. 1025451280

How best to spend 2500 CD player for my system?

Hi all,

Seeking a little help here. I am looking to upgrade my CD player - either new or used is ok. Will spend upto $2500.

I mostly listen to Jazz (Miles, Coltrane etc), though will also listen to music by Van Morrison and others of similar ilk.

My system is an EAD Powermaster 2000 amp, EAD Theatermaster Signature processor, Sonus Faber Amati Homage for the front, Sonus Faber Solo CC, and Monitor Audio Silver 5's for the rear. Current sources are Arcam CD changer, and a Toshiba SD9200 DVD player, which is good for CD, but in my system it is far away from the processor (to be near the TV, and I worry about using long cables. (Perhaps I'm crazy and should stick with this for CD as well??) Cables to the front are Transparent Ultra, and to the CC and rear is some unknown brand.

Thanks for your input
seldon
john_l
782 posts
 
Can you integrate the player in to have multi channel ?
I've turned into a mod bigot. My first choice would be the multichannel sony xa777 sacd player with modwright.com or audiomod.com mods. Buy from oade brothers new for 2000, have it shipped directly to the modifier. Do 400-500 worth of mods. Second choice would be a two channel sony es777 used for 1200-1300, then have 1200 of mods done to it. FYI 'echohifi.com' has a used es777 in stock here in portland. Modwright and audiomod are both here too.

A viable alternative would be a dac solution. I haven't heard any of them.
stehno
1,453 posts
 
Sony SCD-1 or e777es models both offer topflight performance for the under $5k range. You should be able to find them used for about $1.5k to $3k. Excellent with redbook and even slightly better with SACD.
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
You can also pick up a separate DAC for audio, and use what you have now as a transport. Even a used Bel Canto DAC-1 for $650 will be a big improvement over what you have.
ender's avatar
ender
20 posts
 
Seldon has an EAD Signature as his prepro...IMO a better dac than a stock sony or classe cdp or bel canto dac1. And I don't think the prepro (the newer EAD models do) has analog bypass to hook up a cd player and dac.

Get a nice transport with ST-Optical or AES/EBU digital outputs (I believe the EAD has both digital inputs).
6chac
235 posts
 
Get a Wadia cd player with volume control. Then connect it directly to the amp. Unless you spend $10,000 or more on preamp, there is no preamp that can compare to direct connecting. Hope this help.

Regeards
More to discover