Puerile questions on CDP quality

[milestoneseeker]

Very well put I agree wholeheartedly.

 

[vraned]

The test is scheduled for the weekend

Isn't connectivity through Coax "supposed" to sound better than analog? In fact, Marantz for example suggests the use of Coax if you are connecting their CDP to an amp other than Marantz.

If you are going to use coax out of CDP,You will hardly find any difference. In this connection the digital to analogue conversion is still going to be done by Avr.
If you want to compare, use analogue out of cdp & analogue in of AVR. Please let me know your opinion when you do the comparison.

 

[jaudere]

The test is scheduled for the weekend

Isn't connectivity through Coax "supposed" to sound better than analog? In fact, Marantz for example suggests the use of Coax if you are connecting their CDP to an amp other than Marantz.

Coaxial connection will sound better than analogue only if the DAC Receiving the coax signal from CDP Is superior to the built in DAC Of the CDP

Co ax carries digital signal which needs to be converted into analogue at some stage before amplification. The analogue signal is analogue because the digital data is already converted into analogue by built in DAC.

Marantz CDP'S Analogue signal is optimized for marantz amp. It may not sound good with some other amp. So you should feed the unprocessed. digital signal using coax cable into a DAC which is optimized for the amp that you are going to use. Now obviously the DAC Of an avr is optimized (should be optimized) for the built in amp and thats why it should sound good.

Now the important final part is that even the speakers should be optimized for the amp. Thats why some amp -speaker pairs are know as made for each other. Nad-PSB, Marantz-wharf, Cambridge audio-Mordaunt Short Etc.

This is because very few amps and very few speakers give absolutely flat frequency response throughout the spectrum. So a peak in particular response curve of an amp needs to be compensated by appropriate dip in speakers response(this is oversimplification). That is why a particular combo works better or said it have synergy.

And then the mother of all problems steps in :'subjective feelings about the sound'. Now no one can really do anything for that.

So co axial per se cannot be said to be better or worse than analogue. It depends on other components in the chain.

 

[Santy]

Some may disagree with me, but IMHO,
a decent integrated amp will be at par if not better than an AVR priced at 2x.
a decent external DAC with a good transport will be at par if not better than a CDP priced at 2x.

Again it is too generalized and there may be lot of exemptions/ variations when we compare model to model especially when some super-VFM products are on the rack.

 

[vraned]

Very educating, thanks.

In my case, the Onkyo NR609 has a 192kHz/32bit Burr Brown DAC, which is considered a very good one. If I were to pair this with a Marantz CD5004, (a) would this be a good match? and (b) would coax make sense? If not Marantz, what other options might fit? CA?

Coaxial connection will sound better than analogue only if the DAC Receiving the coax signal from CDP Is superior to the built in DAC Of the CDP


Marantz CDP'S Analogue signal is optimized for marantz amp. It may not sound good with some other amp. So you should feed the unprocessed. digital signal using coax cable into a DAC which is optimized for the amp that you are going to use. Now obviously the DAC Of an avr is optimized (should be optimized) for the built in amp and thats why it should sound good.

I have KEF q300 speakers which would complete the potential setup with Onkyo NR609 and Marantz Cd5004. Does that look like a decent "chain"?

Now the important final part is that even the speakers should be optimized for the amp. Thats why some amp -speaker pairs are know as made for each other. Nad-PSB, Marantz-wharf, Cambridge audio-Mordaunt Short Etc.

So co axial per se cannot be said to be better or worse than analogue. It depends on other components in the chain.

Thanks

 

[milestoneseeker]

@vraned - How do the Q300 sound with NR609? I would have thought that the combo may be bright? Just checking as there is nothing wrong with a bright setup However, in case if it does sound bright then maybe pairing it with Marantz and going analog from CDP to NR609 may be a good idea.

 

[vraned]

MSS, the current combo (NR 609 + Kef) doesn't sound bad at all. I currently use my Sony BDP to play CDs (thru HDMI - and it sounds darn good to me) and experimenting to see if a dedicated CDP will make a huge difference.

BTW, how does "bright" sound?

I've read a lot about "bright" and "warm" but frankly haven't been able to figure out where my setup fits in

@vraned - How do the Q300 sound with NR609? I would have thought that the combo may be bright? Just checking as there is nothing wrong with a bright setup However, in case if it does sound bright then maybe pairing it with Marantz and going analog from CDP to NR609 may be a good idea.

 

[jaudere]

Very educating, thanks.

In my case, the Onkyo NR609 has a 192kHz/32bit Burr Brown DAC, which is considered a very good one. If I were to pair this with a Marantz CD5004, (a) would this be a good match? and (b) would coax make sense? If not Marantz, what other options might fit? CA?



I have KEF q300 speakers which would complete the potential setup with Onkyo NR609 and Marantz Cd5004. Does that look like a decent "chain"?



Thanks

The DAC In the AVR Seems to be good. You should make use of it. It means you have to feed coax signal from the cd player into the AVR. You wont go wrong if you use marantz cd5004 but then you will be wasting money on capacity of marantz. You should get good sound quality using a standard dvd player as transport and feeding avr through coax

 

[saumitra]

I am going through a similar phase with similar queries on which people following this thread have expressed varying opinions.
I have a Denon AVR 1911 & Monitor Audio M6 floor-standers and currently use PS3 as the CD player to satisfy my stereo listening. Since I am not all that happy with the sound quality, I have asked a friend to get the Marantz CD5004 (or CD6003) CDP from Singapore. I am expecting that since the Marantz CDP has a good in-built DAC - connecting its analog out to the Denon AVR, I will get a much better quality output for stereo music.

 

[jls001]

BTW, how does "bright" sound?

"Bright: Listening term. Usually refers to too much upper frequency energy"

from: glossary of audio terminology

 

[mpw]

milestoneseeeker,

whatever rocks your boat.. its about finding the milestone and being happy with where you are.. which is not a bad thing at all.

However, sometimes.. milestones change and so one has to start walking again..in search of newer vistas.

Cheers to you as you have found contentment with what you have got.

regards,
mpw
===============================================

and that was my exact query ... it is not what sounds better but rather from what price point on does one source becomes better than other? In my case, the "other" is my Denon 1911. Clearly, if 1911 was not good at music (which touchwood is not the case) then an investment of 15k sorts for a decent CDP would have given me listening experience commensurate to the additional investment over my AVR. However, that is not the case.

Net-net, the way I look at it, if one spends wisely on an AVR which does justice to music then the case of a CDP over BDP/DVDP follows the law of diminishing marginal utility. This is assuming it is the DAC of AVR which is being used.

I think I can consider my query to be resolved with the inputs I have received. And I won't be fretting about buying a CDP as my next "must have" electronic.

Cheers!

 

[vraned]

as I write this message, James blunt is playing in the background on my bdp -> hdmi -> 609 avr, and it sounds fab. So unless a dedicated cdp can blow the socks off the bdp in stereo reproduction, it may not be worth the $$$$

The DAC In the AVR Seems to be good. You should make use of it. It means you have to feed coax signal from the cd player into the AVR. You wont go wrong if you use marantz cd5004 but then you will be wasting money on capacity of marantz. You should get good sound quality using a standard dvd player as transport and feeding avr through coax