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Tube or solid state CD player

I am putting together a 2 channel system separate from my HT setup. I will be using Meadowlark Kestral2 speakers driven my a solid state HK 6650 integrated amp. Not sure on the source yet. I am considering the Ah Tjoeb Model CD 4000 with upscaling. Stereophile had a pretty nice article on this player. It is basically a modified Marantz player, but uses tubes. Another option is the Philips DVD963SA. While I do care about price, I am willing to pay the extra for the Ah Tjoeb ($1,200 vs $500 list for the Philips) if it is truly a better sounding unit. Both have upsampling (I assume that does improve Redbook). Since it is only for audio, I do not care about the video capabilities of the Philips DVD player. I do like the SACD capability, however. So which would any of you choose? Any opinions you share will be appreciated.
jswallac
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
Infact there's no such thing as tube CD player.
There's no tube circuit that could be designed for digital clock.
The presence of tubes at output of CD player looks like a differential input stage of preamplifier i.e. sort-of extra input stage. It's good to have if you have no preamp and going directly from player to amplifier.
Ah's variable output you can feed directly bypassing HK preamp part if that is possible to reach more transperent sound.
unclejeff
1,313 posts
 
I own a tube Cd player and Marakanetz is correct. My Audio Aero works for me as a pre and I am very happy with it.

Along the lines of what you are talking about, check out the following site:

www.modwright.com

These are good people and I have listened to some of their work and is is highly recommended.
jswallac OP
4 posts
 
Thanks for the info. I will certainly look into the mod route. I posted the same question over at Audio Circles and got several posts suggesting a modified Pioneer 563. Thanks again.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Also check out this Shanling:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/frr.pl?rdgtl&1081629290&read&3&4&
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