Suggestion for Audio CD Player

[venkatcr]

Hi,
Dont panic, My thinking- I may be wrong

1. cd> laser> DAC(sampling)> analoge output

2. cd> laser> Digital output(coaxial)

Then is there any point in investing money for CD player or simply use DVD player? (as no DAC use in digital link)

Secondly are there CD players which can play MP3 also?

Well, if you connecting a good CD player (from companies such as NAD, CA, Rotel etc) it will be a crime to use the Digital out unless you have an amplifier that has state of the art DAC and amplification.

If you are looking at connecting a CDP through digital out to a good AVR, yes, a DVD player can do the same job.

Will it be same? I am not sure. Look at this way. A CD Player is fine tuned to play just two channel music. It has electronics that are focussed on this job. A DVD Player on the other hand has the following disadvantages:

1. The laser has to read a DVD in addition to a CD where the data is more tightly compressed. This may not be an issue, but there will be compromises.
2. A DVD Player's primary job is to play video. Most manufacturers, other than the very high end, give more importance to the video and DSP, than to two channel music.
3. A DVD player has to execute a large number of tasks. Companies such as Pioneer. Samsung, Philips etc., focus more on video DSP, and making the player as universal as possible. It is only companies such as NAD, CA, Denon (high end) etc that make DVD players that are also good music players. Even Oppo has started only recently. Before 2007, their DVD players were horrible for music playing.

Do CDPs play MP3? Yes some do, not all.

Is a CDP better than a DVD for music? At similar price range, yes they are.

Will a DVD player also serve as a good music player? Yes they will depending upon the brand. Some of the ones I can think of are NAD, CA, Denon, Oppo, etc.

I am biting my nails !!!!!

Cheers

 

[psychotropic]

Hey venkat.....this was the reason I was suggesting the CA DVD89 to Muthusami.....it's 10k....just slightly over his budget.....plays both CDs and DVDs quite well (although of course not as well as dedicated CDPs)....any views on this model? reviews seem to be good both for video and CD audio...

Will a DVD player also serve as a good music player? Yes they will depending upon the brand. Some of the ones I can think of are NAD, CA, Denon, Oppo, etc.

I am biting my nails !!!!!

Cheers

 

[venkatcr]

Hey venkat.....this was the reason I was suggesting the CA DVD89 to Muthusami.....it's 10k....just slightly over his budget.....plays both CDs and DVDs quite well (although of course not as well as dedicated CDPs)....any views on this model? reviews seem to be good both for video and CD audio...

Well. I am sure Muthuswami is reading this thread. What I understood was that he was happy with what he has, and is not looking for an upgrade immediately.

Yes, the CA DVD 89 is supposed to be very good, but I have not auditioned it. So someone who is using it or has auditioned it has to comment.

Cheers

 

[Muthusami S]

Well. I am sure Muthuswami is reading this thread. What I understood was that he was happy with what he has, and is not looking for an upgrade immediately.

Yes, the CA DVD 89 is supposed to be very good, but I have not auditioned it. So someone who is using it or has auditioned it has to comment.

Cheers

Yes Venkat. I am reading this thread continuously and making note of all suggestions given by the forum friends. I am not going to upgrade immediately but once the funds are ready (planning to stretch a little), will definitely buy a CD player or CA DVD 89 soon.

Thanks.

 

[sgmane]

Hi,
I have been reading this thread and following it.
I am also in the same boat as Muthu.
Looking for a good audio CD player.
I could see a low end audio CD player (makes Maratnz,CA, NAD) coming apprx 15k-20k. And DENON at 13K or so.

Can anyone tell me, if i can get DENON or CA (please specify models) that also plays MP3?
I checked with CA distributor in bangalore (today) and his quote - CA 540C 18,000 and CA 340C 15,000. 540C is beyond my budget.

Iam looking for standalone CD player (if it plays MP3 that's good too).
My setup : Phillips DVP3100 (DVD player) hooked on to Akai TV (and i play CD, DVD)
Starting to build up the HT. So if i buy the CD player (as per your suggestion and my audition), should i also need to buy speakers separately along with AV receiver at this stage (because my budget is only for CD player as of now), to play it? Or can i use this CD player and hook on to the current setup (connecting to my Akai TV as of now).
If its novice question, do excuse! Iam only starting to build up my HT.

 

[psychotropic]

The 340C comes for 14k. It's a good budget option. Denon's bottom-end CD players are not anywhere as good as those from CA, NAD and Marantz. So look at these three brands if you want budget CDPs.

Why do you want the CDP to play MP3s? Why don't you just connect your iPod to your amplifier or AVR?

It would be essential for you to buy a good amplifier and speakers to realise the benefit of a CD player of the type we are discussing. Without that it is pointless. If you can only upgrade one portion of your chain, then upgrade the speakers. next, upgrade the source, and then upgrade the amplifier or receiver. If you have none in place, then you would need to get all three for there to be any point to the exercise.

If you are going to play your CDs through your TV, please don't even think of wasting money on a player like this. The difference will be inaudible and/or irrelevant.

Right now if you have a philips DVD player, and are on a tight budget, then just buy a budget amp like the Cambridge Audio 340A (14k) or the NAD C315BEE (16k) and a pair of wharfedale diamond 9.1s (11k) or Polk Monitor 20s (less than 10k). that would be about 25k outlay, and would improve your sound much much more than investing 15k on a dedicated CDP and then playing it through your TV.

You mention you want to assemble a HT. In that case then go for a cheap receiver like the Onkyo TX-SR304 which is 16k, and pick up a pair of speakers as outlined above. Then add to the setup slowly.

Hi,
I have been reading this thread and following it.
I am also in the same boat as Muthu.
Looking for a good audio CD player.
I could see a low end audio CD player (makes Maratnz,CA, NAD) coming apprx 15k-20k. And DENON at 13K or so.

Can anyone tell me, if i can get DENON or CA (please specify models) that also plays MP3?
I checked with CA distributor in bangalore (today) and his quote - CA 540C 18,000 and CA 340C 15,000. 540C is beyond my budget.

Iam looking for standalone CD player (if it plays MP3 that's good too).
My setup : Phillips DVP3100 (DVD player) hooked on to Akai TV (and i play CD, DVD)
Starting to build up the HT. So if i buy the CD player (as per your suggestion and my audition), should i also need to buy speakers separately along with AV receiver at this stage (because my budget is only for CD player as of now), to play it? Or can i use this CD player and hook on to the current setup (connecting to my Akai TV as of now).
If its novice question, do excuse! Iam only starting to build up my HT.

 

[venkatcr]

psychotropic, Muthu, and others - CA has released a new budget player called CD 5. It plays MP3, and CA is calling it the ultimate budget player.

We should find the price in India, and its availability. If it is any good, we should all work together to make sure it is available in India.

Cambridge Audio

Cheers

 

[persiflage]

While I personally haven't heard the CD5, I think the Cambridge 640C is a steal at ~20K. See if you can't stretch and get it, it's vastly superior to anything in the budget category. Some people can't tell the difference between this player and the 740C, which is doubly as expensive and features 24-bit/384 KHz upsampling.

There's no point looking for mp3 compatibility in a CDP, the whole point of mp3 is the convenience (jukebox/ playlists) which is best achieved hooking up a comp or ipod to your amp. Believe me, you'll tire of burning CDs pretty soon..

 

[spirovious]

psychotropic, Muthu, and others - CA has released a new budget player called CD 5. It plays MP3, and CA is calling it the ultimate budget player.

We should find the price in India, and its availability. If it is any good, we should all work together to make sure it is available in India.

Cambridge Audio

Cheers

I checked the link,they havent stated DAC details.Other CA azur uses Cirus
DACs.

 

[psychotropic]

Hey, as far as I understand, the CD 5 is not a new model. It's been available for some time. Similarly Cambridge has amps cheaper than the Azur range, such as the A1 and the A5, which are comparably cheaper than the 340A which is the bottom of the Azur range. (GBP prices for reference, the A1 is 69, the A5 is 119 and the 340A is 169).

These are evidently of a lower step in terms of quality and construction. Even though the A5 has 60 W per channel as opposed to 40 on the 340A. It would be worthwhile to listen to them, and to have even cheaper options available in India. Even these will surely exceed the consumer level equipment available from the Sonys and the Samsungs of the world.

Taking the rates at which these Cambridge Devices seem to convert in India (which is excellent), the CD 5 and the A5 should be about Rs 10k each, if someone bothers to import them. The A1 (25W per channel) should be about Rs. 6k. But CA themselves don't seem to keen on marketing these in India, and may not offer the excellent rates they seem to be offering on the Azur range, to the distributors and importers.

 

[sgmane]

psychotropic - thanks for the useful information and suggestion.
Yes, i too agree that no point in getting a budget CD player without the speakers and other sources. As you said, shall upgrade to the setup you mentioned (apprx 25K for AV receiver, speakers) as of now.
Well iam also happy to know that, once can setup a decent budget AV receiver, speakers for 25K. (not including the consumer level equipments like samsung, sony's)

Venkat - I just spoke to the CA distributor here about the CD5 cD player you mentioned. Waiting to get information on the same. (I did see the information in the site before you mentioned here, but forgot to ask him then).

persiflage - So as per your information, there is no point in going to MP3 compatible CD player? As my collection includes MP3's and equal number of CD's too. My MP3's does contain the religious route and CD's that of other music (other than religious stuff), and my wife listens to MP3's (at times i do). I do not have ipod or MP3 players with me.
So playing MP3 on CD player is not worth? Any disadvantages?

Other's can also point me to either get, a CD player that also play's MP3 or only CD player?
If i get only CD player, do i need to have stuff like ipod to play the MP3's? I mean then should i need to transfer the MP3 contents to ipod and play them hooking to the AV receiver? A lot of process involved?

 

[Muthusami S]

Other's can also point me to either get, a CD player that also play's MP3 or only CD player?
If i get only CD player, do i need to have stuff like ipod to play the MP3's? I mean then should i need to transfer the MP3 contents to ipod and play them hooking to the AV receiver? A lot of process involved?

Hi sgmane,

In my opinion, it is better to get a CD player with MP3 compatibility. I am also looking for that combination because I am not affordable to have different players for different formats. NAD C515 BEE comes with MP3 and WMA compatibility. I am not sure about the prices. As psycotropic said, CA DV89 is also a good choice, but it does not support MP3 format. The advantage of this player is, it supports SACD and DVD audio. If you are not looking for SACD or DVD audio compatibility, you can opt for NAD C515 BEE or Cambridge CD5.

 

[sgmane]

Thanks muthu.
Yes, i shall also be looking into NAD too. (Supporting SACD and DVD audio). But again going into those media's right now little sceptic, but it is still not prominent like audio CD's here in india.

One naive query:
A CD player (say CA or NAD which i shall buy based on all those good reviews and with my audition soon) be connected directly to speaker (Wharfedale diamond 9.1)? Due to budget constraint i may not go for AV receiver now. (Ofcourse i understand i cannot get the maximum music experience without the AV receiver - Slowly i shall build my HT. I also know to get good results the cables do matter). In this present setup (CD player to speaker direct connection) that i request all of you, should cable play any important role at this stage?

[Oh!! sorry folks there was a typo in my earlier message - iam having a Philips DVP3005 DVD player and not DVP3100 as i mentioned]

 

[saikat]

The cd player would give a very small signal ~ 2V. This is not sufficient to drive passive speakers by itself. You would need an amplifier (pre + power or integrated) to drive the speakers (passive ones).

Or you could go for an active speaker which could be driven directly.

-Saikat.

 

[venkatcr]

One naive query:
A CD player (say CA or NAD which i shall buy based on all those good reviews and with my audition soon) be connected directly to speaker (Wharfedale diamond 9.1)? In this present setup (CD player to speaker direct connection) that i request all of you, should cable play any important role at this stage?

Am I hearing this correctly? You want to connect just a CD Player directly to speakers without an amplifier in between?

If this is what you are intending to do, I am afraid it is not possible for two reasons:

1. A CD player outputs very low power that needs to be amplified.
2. A CD Player will usually have just RCA sockets that uses a coaxial cable. This cable cannot be used for connecting to a speaker.

Even if you somehow connect the CD Player to speaker, you will hear no sound.

A CD Player is different from a 2-in-1 that has a small amplifier and radio receiver built in. A dedicated CD player does nothing excepting play the CD, do DAC conversion, and send the very low power to the RCA sockets.

Cheers

 

[Muthusami S]

Thanks muthu.
Yes, i shall also be looking into NAD too. (Supporting SACD and DVD audio). But again going into those media's right now little sceptic, but it is still not prominent like audio CD's here in india.

One naive query:
A CD player (say CA or NAD which i shall buy based on all those good reviews and with my audition soon) be connected directly to speaker (Wharfedale diamond 9.1)? Due to budget constraint i may not go for AV receiver now. (Ofcourse i understand i cannot get the maximum music experience without the AV receiver - Slowly i shall build my HT. I also know to get good results the cables do matter). In this present setup (CD player to speaker direct connection) that i request all of you, should cable play any important role at this stage?

[Oh!! sorry folks there was a typo in my earlier message - iam having a Philips DVP3005 DVD player and not DVP3100 as i mentioned]

I agree with Saikat. To drive the speakers, you should have a matching amplifier. Else you should have active speakers. Active speakers mean they have a built-in amplifier. But it is better to buy a separate amplfier that will give good sound. In my opinion, active speakers have more distortion. For example, they have 10% THD, but a good amplifer, say from Cambridge have the distortion only in fractions (0.0..)

On the other hand, some CD players or DVD players come with built-in amplifier (if your DVD player have a built-in amplifier, you can connect directly to the speaker but the sound quality depends on the power matching). You can connect these players directly to speakers but here also the sound quality will not be good.

Just to remind you, NAD CD player that I mentioned in my earlier post does not support SACD or DVD audio. Only the CA DV89 DVD player does.

If you are in Chennai, you can visit to Audiocraft and have an audition of their products. Their 30W RMS stereo amplifer is a budget piece; I think within 3K you can get that. They also manufacture wide range of speakers from bookshelf to towers. Mini towers are also available. Home theatre packages are available in the range of 12-15K.

 

[persiflage]

persiflage - So as per your information, there is no point in going to MP3 compatible CD player? As my collection includes MP3's and equal number of CD's too. My MP3's does contain the religious route and CD's that of other music (other than religious stuff), and my wife listens to MP3's (at times i do). I do not have ipod or MP3 players with me.
So playing MP3 on CD player is not worth? Any disadvantages?

Other's can also point me to either get, a CD player that also play's MP3 or only CD player?
If i get only CD player, do i need to have stuff like ipod to play the MP3's? I mean then should i need to transfer the MP3 contents to ipod and play them hooking to the AV receiver? A lot of process involved?

What do you use to listen to mp3 currently? If it's a computer, then it can be hooked up to your system with inexpensive cables.

If not, you may look at a CDP with mp3 compatibility; many DVD players support a lot of lossy audio formats as well.

Regarding hooking up CDP directly to speakers, I think you may have been drawing a parallel with a DVDP which can be connected directly to TV without an AVR. The difference is that the TV has in-built amplification. Passive speakers have none.

The parallel here would be active or powered speakers. If you use these, you won't need the amplifier component.

 

[Muthusami S]

Am I hearing this correctly? You want to connect just a CD Player directly to speakers without an amplifier in between?

If this is what you are intending to do, I am afraid it is not possible for two reasons:

1. A CD player outputs very low power that needs to be amplified.
2. A CD Player will usually have just RCA sockets that uses a coaxial cable. This cable cannot be used for connecting to a speaker.

Even if you somehow connect the CD Player to speaker, you will hear no sound.

A CD Player is different from a 2-in-1 that has a small amplifier and radio receiver built in. A dedicated CD player does nothing excepting play the CD, do DAC conversion, and send the very low power to the RCA sockets.

Cheers

Venkat,

I think the member is discussing about the connectivity in keeping mind the CD player with built-in amplifier. Nowadays, chinese DVD players come with amplifiers; these can be connected directly to speakers; example: Mitsun. But using this option will not produce good music.

Thanks for the clarifications.

 

[sgmane]

Once again thanks to all folks for clarifying.

I have also seen this thread -
http://www.hifivision.com/what-should-i-buy/2360-wharfedale-philips.html

venkat - you are hearing correctly! Yes, iam trying to connect directly to the speakers! (CDP to Speakers).

Now am clear, that i cannot directly connect to the speakers.
MP3 - All mp3's (its all in mp3 discs) contain devotional music only. (some carnatic instrumental too). I dont have computer.
I have connected my Phillips DVP 3005 player to TV with RCA on coaxial cables (i do not have any amp).

Muthu - iam in bangalore. Once when i drop in to chennai, i shall surely look into the info that you mentioned. Oh!!! yes.. NAD supports MP3, WMA. got it.

May be i need to wait for some more time to fill up my piggy-bank, weight enough to buy the AV receiver + speakers + CD player - as the initial setup as one of you mentioned.

 

[Muthusami S]

Muthu - iam in bangalore. Once when i drop in to chennai, i shall surely look into the info that you mentioned.

You are welcome to have an audition of my setup. It's from Audiocraft comprising of 100W RMSx2 amplifier and huge floorstanders with 12" woofers. You will definitely like the setup. By the way, I am also using the Philips DVD player for audio. The model is DVP642K.