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What high-end cdp for low-end quality CD's ?

I need advice, in some foreseeable future I’m going to upgrade my cdp. My budget is going to be about $4000 top $5000. I was thinking about used Wadia 861, Accuphase 75V. But I had heard that they are true performers only on high quality audiophile grade CD’s. I heard that the more expensive SS cdp playback the worst it will sound with awful quality CD’s.
Unfortunately most of my CD’s is mean quality from BMG, SONY etc. buying CD’s from only audiophile companies or import them from Hon Kong, Taiwan, Japan (they are the best to me) is not a valid solution. I have heard rumor that some tube CD’s like Audio Areo, Lector (maybe Audiomeca ??-it is solid state though) can be more forgiving to mean CD’s, so you can actually listen to them. It is really hard for me to listen to them on my budget Arcam cdp, I cannot imagine it sounding worse with high-end player. So I’m looking for forgiving high-resolution, very dynamic, live, analog sounding cdp. So what would you recommend, I’m listening to soft rock, pop, classic.
Rest of equipment is Clayton monoblocks, Thiel 3.6 speakers by the end of summer I will have Supratek pre (I hope at least).
sorlowski
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
Marco,
I'd like to correct your statement that confuses some members arround here:

No player even should/must/suppose/ought/oblighed to make or alter the sound of bad recorded/lo-end/poor-sounding/ CD/LP/SACD/XRCD/DVD-A/DLP/MLP/CDD/BCD/BSCD/ABCD/ETC...

Same applies for the well recorded media(s).
sorlowski OP
236 posts
 
It it understandable that no player will make audiophile grade recording from low grade recording. But some player are doing better job it this department then others (for example I had head that Meitner gear as good it is with quality CD's it is making bed recording sound even worse). Question is which one are the best in this department of easing pain from bad CD being in the some time high-end performers with good ones.
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
You realy shouldn't look in "that department"
It more depends on the further components than on CD-player.
sorlowski OP
236 posts
 
I'm not sure, because I have lately upgraded my amp from Musical Fidelity A300 (still using as a preamp) to Clayton M100 monoblocks, and difference is much smaller that I have been using perpetual technology P1/P3 DAC/upconverter with my Arcam. Unfortunately because of unreliability and interference I had to sell it. Later I have bought SONY 9000ES SACD (total downgrade toward Arcam) so source is quite important, I'm not telling it is the most important but I can hear real difference and got a feelling that in my case it is a bottleneck.
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
Some of the players do have tha tendency:
I've never looked inside the box of such but I would assume that in some of them they should have some dynamic circuitries that would boost bands to it's linear responce once they become less-tolerant(this proccess is realy called a compression that isn't realy suitable for most of the hard-core audiophiles). A regular red-book LedZep II CD with ultra-lo-fi recording quality sounded fantastic through GamuT CD1(BTW fits well onto your budget new or used).
A professional preamps and proccessors have these features switchable and adjustable. Getting a player with tube output implies to applying a maximum 100% feedback to the output signal which can compress signal to the wider bandwidth.
Meanwhile,
I'd recommend checking on the latest Pioneer DVD player with 120GB of hard drive. The initial CD information can be transfered to HD with digital error correction clock that would fill the "gaps" in digital samples(that can occur initially during mastering on any of the CD especially the older ones depending on the release number) thus "curing" the data before the playback of any DVD or CD with pretty darn high resolution proccessing. This unit you can check through Costco wholesale where you can have an unlimited return policy so trial is absolutely free. It features DVD/CD/player/recorder/pro-scan/
Just for my own curiosity despite being pretty darn satisfied with my digital rig I'd go there and try to keep you a company:-)
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