Do I need a new CD player? (1 Viewer)

[Cpt.America]

Hey all.. i'm in the middle of researching a full 100% replacement and upgrade into a 5.1 system with the works. As mentioned in another forum, my original setup is from 1990 or so. A kenwood amp/receiver, cd player, and some average speakers. Anyway, now that I am replacing my receiver, speakers, and the works, should I upgrade my CD player too? This was literally purchased 18 or 19 years ago, is nothing special, but still works just fine.

Will upgrading this to a new decent CD player increase my audio quality comming off my disks? Or will it not make any difference? Considering its age, I imagine I could spend $50 and get something bette today

Any help would be appreciated!

cpt.america

 

[andrew markworthy]

Yes, I think you'll find an improvement, but if you're changing the rest of the system, you may have a problem unless you're going to buy everything at once and audition everything at the same time so you know what matches what. If not, then I'd advise waiting until you've got your new amp and speakers. Try your current CD player in the new system and see what it sounds like - e.g. does it sound too warm and fuzzy or too harsh and detailed? Then you have a clearer idea of what will be best in your new system when you go shopping. Alternatively, you could compare your old CD player with the playback from your new DVD player - you may find that it gives you a decent playback that you can live with (and then it's one fewer box to find room for under the TV set).

Also, you don't mention what sort of speakers you're planning to get. Relatively small matching speakers can sound great in a 5.1 set up, but in my experience don't sound quite so wonderful playing stereo. If this is the case, and you play stereo CDs a lot, you might want to consider getting slightly beefier front L and R speakers, or an amp that allows you to drive different speakers when playing pure stereo.

FWIW, I have a relatively small room and have the little KEF 'egg' speakers. I don't play enough stereo CDs to merit getting a dedicated set up. For the occasional listening I do, they sound fine, but I know that if I listened to stereo CDs a lot, I'd probably want a separate set of stereo speakers for a little extra nuance and slightly warmer sound. But note that this is a marginal thing - don't get the idea that a dedicated stereo system will sound a huge amount better.

Hope this helps.

 

[Leo Kerr]

Speaking of, can one still get "just" a CD player? My own CD player is a 1985 or so model, and I fear for the day it dies. Right now, the "best" replacements I've seen for it -- that is, "it's a CD player" and it doesn't try to "do" anything for me, are some of the Tascam live-sound players...


Leo

 

[Cpt.America]

Thanks for the replies guys. I think I am sold on the pioneer 1018 receiver, and a pair of polk RTi10s for my front stage. I never even thought of playing my CDs through my DVD player... And I do listen to a heck of a lot of CDs through my system, so a decent source signal from my player is relatively important.

Any recomendations on a newer decent CD player? Or are all the newer ones pretty much the same these days?

 

[gene c]

I'm not sure how or if the PS3 plays cd's. I bet your old Kenwood only has analog out, no digital connection? That's one reason why I'd replace it.

How about SACD and DVD-Audio, any interest in those? If so, Oppo.com universal dvd players are hard to beat for dvd, cd and hi-res.

New cd players are becoming harder to find but there are still a few available. CircuitCity.com has a Denon 5 disc changer that retails for $249 on sale (on-line only) for $95.

 

[Cpt.America]

Thanks again gene... I was actually able to find some CD players on crutchfield and was shocked at their price! There are some over 300 bucks! and yes, my old kenwood only has analog RCA outputs. Whats this with oppo? I'v never heard of them.... I DO need a new a good upscaling DVD player with HDMI output... What's the scoop on this brand?

 

[gene c]

OPPO.com is an internet only dvd player brand based in Mountain View Ca. They have three or four models from $179 to $399. As good or better than those costing three times as much. Packed with features and excellent reviews. If you aren't interested in SACD/DVD-Audio then you can find great deals on the old HD-DVD players from Toshiba. These make excellent up-converting players.

Look here for some really expensive cd players. And remember, these are used!

 

[Cpt.America]

OMG!!! what? why? how? Do they cook you breakfast in the morning?

 

[Robert_J]

For convenience why not a networked player like the Squeezebox? Put all of your music on your home network in a lossless compressed format and stream it to the player. Your entire library at your fingertips.

-Robert

 

[Cpt.America]

I just read up on the squeezeboxes. Seems like a pretty good way to go, maybe later after I have the entire system up and running. I think what I will be doing for now, is ditching the CD player alltogether, and just playing them through my DVD player. Im looking at the oppos and the Pioneer DV-410V.

 

[gene c]

Meridian (of England) makes a $20,000 dvd player. I'd love to see it in action but I just can't imagine......

 

[Cpt.America]

Hey Gene, any advice on the difference between one of the oppo dvd players, and the pioneer I have listed above? (found on newegg). They both seem to be able to play the same stuff, both have USB input, etc...

But the oppos are between 200 and 300 bucks, and the pioneer is 80. Ideas?

 

[gene c]

I'm not as familiar with the inner workings of dvd players as perhaps some others are, but I'm sure OPPO uses better parts and sweats the details more than a large company would. Kind of like BMW compared to Ford. And the test reviews prove this. OPPO's are pretty much the best performers in their price range.

But if saving a few bucks is important then you should consider the Pioneer Elite DVD-48. It also plays SACD and DVD-Audio and is $99 at Vann's.com. Should be better than the 410.

 

[LanceJ]

Why I would shop around for a CD-only player:

* in my experience dvd players don't last nearly as long as any major-brand CD player and so I don't like using them any more than I have to --> dvd players, average maybe 3-8 years tops; for CD players, 10 to 20(!) years is very common.

* dvd players almost always place basic functions - if they even include such functions anymore - like random, back/forward scanning, track programming, etc in some difficult-to-access menu that only appears on your TV screen, a major hassle. My own Technics SL-PG4 single disc player (2003 model year) has all of these on the front panel and even more on the remote.

* many dvd players under $100 have nearly worthless front-panel displays e.g. many only include the track number for CD playback........and that's it.

* on a lot of dvd players I've played with, some major-brands included, for some reason their loading and track access times for CDs is excruciatingly slow. And a couple have actually locked up(!) while trying to play barely scratched CDs & I had to power them off to "reset" them. :rolleyes

* not a big deal, but many more CD players seem to include CD-TEXT capability than dvd players do.* It may surprise some people to know that CDs also have the capability (since @1993) to include track, artist and album name just like MP3 files can. This info usually appears right on the front panel display. Yamaha's and Sony's players usually include this feature (including their better dvd players). Unfortunately, for some reason most music labels except Sony's of course (Columbia, Epic etc), don't include this very convenient feature on their CDs.

As far as sound quality, a CD player's "sonic personality" can vary just like any other electronic component's: some sound brighter/sharper, some "warmer" and some just don't sound very good period. Many people who own older players from the 80s say theirs sounds better than newer ones & that's not always just a placebo effect. That's because until around 1990, those players' digital-to-analog convertors ("DAC") used a different and generally better - but more expensive - system to convert the 1s and 0s to analog form. Around 1990 is when so-called bitstream convertors appeared, much cheaper to build but not always as good.

* digital is not always the best way to transmit a signal. In this situation your future new receiver's internal DAC may sound better than your Kenwood's but the only way to be sure is to listen to both. OR (yes audio can get really hairy!!) the receiver's DAC is actually of higher quality but the *analog* output section it's connected to may be of inferior quality to the Kenwood's and the end result is the Kenwood could still sound better anyway.

FYI: the analog portion of any audio component - a CD player, dvd player, cassette deck, an MP3 player via its headphone or line-out jack, receiver, cable box, PS3, XBox, whatever - can have a very significant effect on the sound you finally hear. And if a receiver is used for all DAC duties i.e. only its digital inputs are used and its DAC's analog circuitry sucks, EVERYTHING sent to it will sound that way.

Sony still sells CD-only players under $200. Pioneer sells a changer for exactly $200 MSRP. And Yamaha's changer goes for $299. And Sony and Pioneer both still sell "mega" changers.

As someone who uses his A/V surround system more for music than movies, yes, I do tend to get more into the details of the audio portion than many here do.


* a lot of automotive CD players include this too, but for whatever reason, don't place the official CD-TEXT logo on the front panel

 

[Gilpinrysry]