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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
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.
paulwp
585 posts
 
Gunbunny, you dont say which Panasonic dvd player you have, but it might be just as good or better as a cd player than the Cambridge.
gunbunny OP
43 posts
 
Its the RP-56. I think the RP-91 is supposed to have better audio. I know the RP-91 plays DVD-Audio. I got the RP-56 because I beleive it has less problems with video than the RP-91, however, depending on who you talk to you'll get different opinions.
perfectimage
406 posts
 
Speakers will effect the signature of the sound more then any other piece. Its a good idea to start with speakers and then try different cd players with the new speakers.
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