Using CD player without Preamp?

I think we are saying the same thing. My point was that the output staged of many cheaper players are not comfortable driving a power amp directly, they were not really designed to do so. In an age where a $1000 preamp is considered low end we shouldn't be surprised if the output stage of a $500 player is significantly worse sounding than going through the preamp. My
Two decoders are comfortable driving amps directly but I have heard others that were not. They sounded all right supplying a small level signal to a preamp but not supplying 2 volts.

either way (digital or analog) it is compromised. Especially if digital as Kal said. However that compromise, whichever it is, may still be better than the preamp you had before going direct. Full output with internals in the Phillips bypassed and a good exterior passive between the CDP and amp would be better (and more costly). Even a "good" volume pot is bad, that's why CJ doesn't use pots in their preamps anymore, they use resistor ladders made w/good quality resistors. Experiment, Enjoy!

ET

Usually the manual for your CD player tells you that your player has a gain section made to drive an amplifer via direct hook-up without a separate pre-amp. My Wadia 830 manual specifically addresses this issue, and I'm sure that other companies do as well. When I have the remote volume control set at about the half-way mark, the sound is very loud and quite musical. In other words, the Wadia was made specifically to do this, as were other companies' CD players, I cannot speak to your Phillips.--Mrmitch

Shadorne...Left shifting a digital word, be it 16 or 24 bits, is a divide by two. Quanta size will be doubled. We are talking about "truncation" not "rounding".

I have no doubt that representing audio with 5 bits will sound rotten, and dither won't really help. My point is simply that the volume control of a CD player can be implemented in ways other than left shifting (or "dropping bits" as some like to say). The gain of the analog output circuitry can be changed under digital control.

The gain of the analog output circuitry can be changed
under digital control.

Exactly! A Crystal digitally controlled resistor network volume control chip with
0.5 db SPL intervals costs around $10 and has excellent performance.
(Surprisingly this is actually an expensive item as far as electronics go...although
it is far cheaper than the front fascia of most amplifiers or the volume control
knob itsef!!!!)