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A new $7000 CD Player? Insane.

Brian Hall

Brian Hall

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Obviously there is absolutely nothing about what the CD player can do to justify the price. The sole reason for this thing to exist at $7000 is so consumers can cover the costs of premium showrooms, airfare, hotel, and meals for the marketing associates and staff, and in return you get to see your favorite CD player featured at hi-fi shows.
 
I remember too well lusting after some CD players that were reviewed or advertised in printed Stereophile magazine in the early to mid 90's.

CD's is all we had as a consumable format with SNR spec over 90dB, and some of us had a lot of them. (CD's)
Run over to Tower Records and grab some new ones.

Krell, Wadia, Mark Levinson had some visually stunning (to me) models, but how would they measure today on Amir's bench?
I bought a Meridian 588 CD player in 1999 and really enjoyed having a CD player with balanced analog outs. I wonder how it would measure on Amir's bench. I sold it a year or two later when I started using EAC to rip CD's to .WAV and never looked back... Now I'm looking back as I don't have most of those original artifacts (the CD's) and my archives may be rotting...
I don't want streaming versions remastered fifteen times by now
I wan't my original .WAV's. *shrug*

[edit] The 588 I owned was purchased probably closer to 2003 not 1999. Brain fart
Before the Meridian 588 I was using a CAL Icon Mk2 (california audio labs)
A great sounding player compared to a Phillips branded 5 disc carousel that I also owned at that time. All CD players have the Red Book to cut that standard but not all of them perform equally.
 
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All CD players sound the same. But i guess if you are buying 4 figure interconnect cables it makes sense LOL!
 
restorer-john said:
They most definitely do not.



And another absolutely inane comment.

ASR is becoming a cesspool of ignorance.
Click to expand...
Analog out can differ. I’ve heard a really cheap player with bad analog out.

Error processing can differ.

All of this is moot if you transfer to FLAC.
 
pinger said:
All CD players sound the same. But i guess if you are buying 4 figure interconnect cables it makes sense LOL!
Click to expand...
I don't believe that is true. Some (most?) CD players even from the *back then* that have the official "CD Digital Audio" artwork emblazoned on the front didn't cut the Red Book standard.
How can you realize 16/44.1 with a DAC that has a headroom of 10 or 12 bits? A *Fk ton of those boxes were produced and sold.
 
Well, if anyone buys it, I hope it’s really something special. But I will never know.
 
G|force said:
How can you realize 16/44.1 with a DAC that has a headroom of 10 or 12 bits? A *Fk ton of those boxes were produced and sold.
Click to expand...

What specific examples do you have? Brand and model number.

I mean, let's get serious. You've made the extraordinary claim of a "+Fk ton" of 10-12 bit effective players were produced and sold.

Let's see the evidence.
 
restorer-john said:
What specific examples do you have? Brand and model number.

I mean, let's get serious. You've made the extraordinary claim of a "+Fk ton" of 10-12 bit effective players were produced and sold.

Let's see the evidence.
Click to expand...
You are correct John, I'm just guessing that every device that had the official "compact disc digital audio" official artwork didn't necessarily actually meet 16/44.1
I will show my ignorance. Did the first PlayStation have 16 bit resolution when playing an audio CD?
I do not know. How would it rank here?
All of the millions (?) of portable CD walkmans that were produced and purchased in Asia and Africa-
Were all of them made with legitimate 16 bit chips?
I will say here and now I respect you and I know that you know more about awesome vintage Japanese audio products that we love than most, and your knowledge, well it is a resource here while I'm just a bag of analogies.
I'm not challenging you I raise my glass to you.
 
I have to say that ANY $7000 new CD player is pretty silly. I can't find new CD's to buy to rip anymore. They are going extinct much quicker than I expected! Even if I had unlimited funds I wouldn't buy something that requires me to dig through my bookshelves over and over after enjoying lossless streaming for a while.
 
G|force said:
You are correct John, I'm just guessing that every device that had the official "compact disc digital audio" official artwork didn't necessarily actually meet 16/44.1
I will show my ignorance. Did the first PlayStation have 16 bit resolution when playing an audio CD?
I do not know. How would it rank here?
All of the millions (?) of portable CD walkmans that were produced and purchased in Asia and Africa-
Were all of them made with legitimate 16 bit chips?
I will say here and now I respect you and I know that you know more about awesome vintage Japanese audio products that we love than most, and your knowledge, well it is a resource here while I'm just a bag of analogies.
I'm not challenging you I raise my glass to you.
Click to expand...
The original playstation had a couple quibbles, but not terrible performance. Of course being a CD player was just like an extra feature for why not. Wasn't the main purpose of the device. I do think a good player needs a decent transport for it to last. Which isn't $7k, but I don't think you can manage it for $50 either.
www.stereophile.com

Sony PlayStation 1 CD player Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements
www.stereophile.com www.stereophile.com
 
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