CD player for my system

Asit, Psychotropic:

I would agree with most of what Suhas say's. The Oppo is an excellent player for both video and audio. The Oppo 980 and 983 have special circuitry designed by a audio specialist company (unnamed by Oppo), and because of this are as good as most CDPs for Redbook CD.

In terms of direct comparison, I have heard the 340C and the 540C, and the Oppo 983 that I have beats them straight away. I am sure the 980 that has the same circuitry would also fare with equal gusto. There is no special mention in Oppo site about the audio capabilities of the 981, excepting the VP saying 'it performs equally well'.

640C? I have listened to the 640C (with the 640A and Quads 12L) for a few hours as part of a audition at home. Keeping all else the same, the Oppo could put up a valiant fight but may lose out in complicated tracks, and may not be able to create the soundstage, for say a Beethoven number. It certainly cannot compare with the 740C and 840C that have advanced DACs and up-sampling technologies.

Asit, if you are looking for a CDP with the capabilities of a 740C or above, no universal player will work for you. Though you can see a movie in a 2.1 setting, I do not see any value in a DVD Player unless that is the first step in your building a complete HT system within a specified time. If music is more important to you, and you watch just 1 movie in 2 months, a simple DVD player such as a Samsung, Pioneer, or a Philips should suffice for that.

Psychotropic, I believe I have answered your question.

Cheers

Asit,
Your system must appeal to you and you alone. Yes i have had quite a few Nad amps myself(350/352/162/272) some time ago and felt the power section is always good and the pre section is always average.
Yes i like my current system quite a bit and hope to keep it for a while. If u dont mind spending on a cdp i think the Marantz SA 7001 is very good @ 35K(maybe even cheaper now) See if a cyrus appeals to u as its a very articulate/detailed cdp. Look out for the older cd6s. The new cd6SE costs about 70/75K and a few dealers in bbay are willing to sell the older version for about 40/45K(brand new)
Dont know the scene in calcutta and whether home auditions are possible but i would be weary buying any other way.

Regards

Hi SuhasG, venkatcr and dinyaar,

Happy Diwali and thanks to all of you for all the continuing inputs. Today being an off-work day, I have made a few moves.

First, in the morning I made a phone call to Sound of Music, Delhi and found out the price of Oppo's. There is no reseller of Oppo in Kolkata. The guy told me that he could ship to Kolkata and he also offered 10% discount. Somehow, I am not fully open to the idea of buying an audio equipment without auditioning.

Then I called up SKS traders and set up auditioning appo at 3 PM. There I auditioned 3 Cd players, The Marantz 6002, the CA azur 640c v2 and the CA azur 740c. These were coupled with Nad C320 BEE amp and MS floorstands (forgot the model, worth about Rs. 75000).

The 640c v2 was the least impressive, even my son, born a year and a half after my original system was bought, quickly disapproved. The Marantz 6002 was better. It was kind of smooth, but lacked details and punch and showed especially unimpressive treble.

The 740c was BY FAR the best. The bass was very precise and adequate, tremendous separation, sweet but uncompromised treble and apparently a very neutral but accurate midrange. IT goes very well with a slightly warm setup like mine (Nad C325BEE amp and Canton speakers).

By the way, obviously we played items that were recently played many times at home. However, since, my CD player Denon DCD920 is down, my source at home for the moment is a Rs4000 Sony DVD player bought a few years ago. It actually showed that even with such a poor source my current home CD playbacks are better in several aspects than the playbacks with the 640c v2 and the Marantz 6002 units at the auditioning and it highlights the ability of the Canton speakers I have. I now think to match these speakers, we need much much better speakers than used at the auditioning.

We also listened to a Cayin CD player coupled to a Cayin amp (models forgotten but together priced about 1 lakh 10 thousand) and Quad bookshelf speakers. This system sounded quite well, but the detail on the 740c was still better and the overall sound was more pleasing. I have the feeling on my system especially with the Canton speakers the 740c is going to sound something quite exceptional. The 740 c can also be used as DAC to 2 digital sources. I have a lot of linear PCM (LPCM) music at 24 bit and 96 kHz in my Macbook Pro and all these should sound great using the 740c.

Also try to audition the Arcam CD17 if you have an Arcam dealer in the area. It should be around 40k.

NAD C525 would be the ideal match for the C325BEE. It also helps that being from the same company, operation is easier with a single remote.

Hi everybody,
Missed a few things in my report yesterday. I now remember the floorstanding speakers used at the auditioning were not MS, they were actually from Dalli (again forgot the model, worth around Rs. 75000). They were decent, but absolutely no match for the speakers at home. First the person at the store used some MS bookshelf speakers (worth some 25 thousand rupees), they were bad (really do not want to offend anybody, many people love a lot of MS speakers here). Realising that, halfway thru the auditioning of the first CD player (CA azur 640c v2), the speakers were changed to the Dalli floorstanders. The 640c v2 coming out the last in our auditioning may have something to do with the above.

The other thing I forgot to mention was that one big reason we got really excited about the CA azur 740c was that the vocals were superb in that machine. I hear a lot of North Indian classical vocal music, and it is very hard to get a perfect match of all the equipments so that the vocals sound nearly flawless. The 740c achieved that - perfect balance between fullness, precision and volume irrespective of the octaves and male or female voice.

Hi particleman,
yes I was interested in Arcam CD73 and CD17, but the reseller did not have these at the time. Arcam uses the same DAC's as in the 740c.

Hi Raghunath,
I was interested in an audition of Nad 525/521 Cd palyer. However, a few things aparently went against that player. First I have read (possibly here and in other places abroad) that the player has trouble with the drive and then it is sometimes not reading CD's. Then SKS traders told me that Lakozy (distributor in Mumbai) these days are not keen on providing service. In any case the 525 like the 640c v2 and the Marantz 6002 are perhaps a level or two below the 740c in product-positioning and does not invite a fair comparison with the 740c. Don't you think that I should consider the Nad525 only when for some reason, financial or otherwise, I am choosing an equipment from that bracket, which I very well may have to, judging from the increasing opposition of the finance ministry at home.

Hello Asit,
I have an Arcam cd73. If you want to listen, contact me on 9830085043 and we will fix an appointment
Regards
Vasu

CA740C is a nice player, I heard it at my friend's place. It has an advantage of Digital In which enables you to use only the DAC part of the CDP. So if you decide to go Discless music (I myself already in it) then you have a very good DAC in hand while retaining the basic CD Playing capability intact! For Rs 45K , CA740C is very good. CA840C is even better with upgraded DAC (60-65K).

I once auditioned ARCAM CD73 at my place, good player, I found it better than NAD and CA640C .

Also have a look at CYRUS 6S, check with Jay (SNV) all India distributor of CYRUS products, you may find some old stock at a discounted price (because CYRUS has intorduced slot loading version of the 6S) , CYRUS 6S is even better than ARCAM.

If you like vocals and soft music like Indian Classical music, Jazz , then you must audition JOLIDA CD-100 , tube CDP (55-60K), very detailed, sweet and balanced, this can bring you a lot more emotions than any other CDPs mentioned so far. For stringed Instruments like Sitar, Santoor, Violin, Sarod, Sarangi there is no match for Jolida at this side of 60K.

Hope this helps

Possibly the Dali Ikon 6.

Might be the M-S Mezzo 1

How much is he quoting for the 740C?



OT: If I'm not wrong, I believe we met once, during a T-BHP meet at Sher-e-Punjab. You had come with Abir? My apologies, if it's a case of mistaken identity.

I suggested 525 because it's a good match, performance wise - as in, you get the best for your money's worth. As for the problems with the 525, it was there in the earlier batch, but I haven't received any complaints lately.
If you're looking for better performance, the Arcam CD73 is a very good choice. It's an outgoing model, so the prices have also dropped.