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Is my dealer lying to me?

This past weekend I went to listen to some speakers. I've been planning to buy CD player also, but that was not this weekend's purpose.

At first we were using a YMB player, McCormick amp, and Soliloquy 5.3 speakers. The speakers is what I was auditioning.

The CD player he is trying to sell me is the Cambridge Audio D500ES, I beleive. Price:400

Big difference I know between the YMB ($2500)and the Cambridge ($400). But it wasn't $2100 in difference in sound I can tell you that. What concerns me is the difference between his comments and the perceived opinions of people on this board. In other threads, there are quite a bit of "ditch the Cambridge" comments.

The dealers comments were "best player under $2000"... "chris sold his $2500 Theta and picked this one up because it's that good, and pocketed the money"... etc.

I'm not asking if this is the best player under $2000. But how does it compare to Arcam and Rega models at $500-700?

Obvisouly, he recommends the Soliloquy 5.3 also. I liked them but wasn't as impressed as much as I thought I would be. The guy has a small shop and seems honest, but it seems this cambridge is not very well respected in this forum.

I've gotten rid of alot of my gear. What I have left to use is a Yamaha RXV-995 receiver. An amp will come, hopefully sooner than later, but I need speakers and a CD player now unless I want to continue to use my DVD player for CDs.

Any comments?
gunbunny
seandtaylor99
1,262 posts
 
Hi Natalie ... please explain why one part of the signal chain is more important than another. After all the signal must pass through all components(source-cable-amp-cable-speakers-room) in order to reach the listener and is degraded at each stage. The optimum system (at a given price point) matches the capabilities of all parts of the signal chain. Disproportionately favouring one part of the chain means you'll compromise another.
Having an outstanding source and so-so amp + speakers means you have wasted money on the outstanding source and compromised the cable/speakers/room treatment. That is unless you plan to later update the amp and speakers to the same level as the source.
It would be a similar waste of money to have a very expensive amp and or speakers with a so-so source.
Ag insider logo xs@2x
ncarv
983 posts
 
Don't know about the Cambridge, but would have agreed with Natalie until I just hooked up a Sony DVP-S9000ES DVD/CD/SACD player, with the intention of using it for DVD's. Played a regular CD on it and was AMAZED! Disconnected my Meta Research Laser 1, originally retailed at $3850, and am THRILLED at the sound of the Sony. Not to mention it plays SACD's and, of course DVD's. It can be found around the web now for around $850 I think.
natalie
404 posts
 
The source is most important beause it gets the information to the rest of the system.If you start off with a bad singmal it only gets worse.
Ncarv.You cant compare your 9 year old Meta to a current player.An 199.00 sony Player will sound better than your 3850.00 9 year old player.
Buy a Sony Cd/SACD player at the same price point of your s9000es and see if it is not better at Cd playback than the combo player.
gunbunny OP
43 posts
 
Well after everyones response and further thought on this matter. There is no reason to buy any CD player this week or this month. I don't plan to buy new speakers until febuary or so and I seriously doubt my current speakers could show the difference between my Panasonic DVD player and the Cambridge or any other.

I think I'll get the new speakers and then audition CD players. Players are alot easier to cart back and forth from the store than speakers too.

A note to all on the DVD players. I'm a little more knowledgable about video than audio, but I'm learning. I can tell you that after buying a Denon 2800 DVD player (a new one without the bugs), I returned it for a Panasonic RP-56. Which has the Sage chip by the way. The price difference: $230 compared to $750. The Roundtable... it's as good as the Panasonic for 4 times the price. On my 57" HDTV, the Panasonic was better than the Denon. The Denon is supposed to have better audio due to the Burr Brown DACs and sampling rate, but like I said... I can't tell with my current system. I got the cheaper and better Panasonic due to the belief that a seperate CD player would sound better than any DVD player. Did I make the right decision in the long run as far as audio is concerned? Who knows! But the DVD players are getting better. Maybe it's because of DVD-Audio requirments?
hdm
1,062 posts
 
Gunbunny: The Panasonic DVD players have a pretty fair reputation for sound; I'd compare the Panasonic to the Cambridge-my guess is the Panasonic would smoke it.
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