Do CD players sound different to each other?

[EJ3]

'empirical' here means 'anecdotal garble with zero account of typical biases'.

Empirical evidence is evidence obtained through sense experience (such as double blind testing [in which one is relying in their hearing as the test instrument]) or experimental procedure (such as using test instruments to measure results). It is of central importance to the sciences and plays a role in various other fields, like epistemology and law.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I put in the stuff within the parenthesis ( )
H'mm, are you sure about you're definition?

 

[Chrispy]

Empirical evidence is evidence obtained through sense experience (such as double blind testing [in which one is relying in their hearing as the test instrument]) or experimental procedure (such as using test instruments to measure results). It is of central importance to the sciences and plays a role in various other fields, like epistemology and law.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I put in the stuff within the parenthesis ( )
H'mm, are you sure about you're definition?

Your empirical evidence or somehow using others' ?

 

[EJ3]

Your empirical evidence or somehow using others' ?

I guess that you skimmed over this part:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Since you have been rude, insulting and condescending almost this whole conversation, I'll return the favor:

Or are you just so focused on your made up definition that you are blind to the accepted definition?
And with that: our conversation ON THIS SUBJECT is terminated.

 

[MattHooper]

My take with initial digital was there wasn't a lot to consider (altho had to watch the actual chain....DDD wasn't the same particularly as AAD etc. Hard to know what unquantified "differences/preferences" amount to, if particularly experienced too

That’s cool. I’ve always had a bit of a split brain on this. In terms of my work I never wondered or worried about the individual sound of digital gear. We just moved on from analogue tape to the first Sony DAT recorders, and whatever professional digital gear from then on… Whatever tended to be standards… we just adopted. I’ve never given “ the different sound of professional gear” much of a thought in that regard.

It’s only when I switch into my audiophile mode with two channel equipment that I get such silly thoughts

 

[Chrispy]

I guess that you skimmed over this part:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Since you have been rude, insulting and condescending almost this whole conversation, I'll return the favor:

Or are you just so focused on your made up definition that you are blind to the accepted definition?
And with that: our conversation ON THIS SUBJECT is terminated.

What part? There supposed to be a link there? LOL what accepted definition of what? I find your posts mostly weird. Could be a language thing.

 

[Petrushka]

I’ve encountered one CD player that had both analog and toslink out, and had a dramatic difference between the two.

It was a portable player that I got for a dollar at a garage sale. I paired it with an Apple speaker, one of those that has a battery compartment.

The speaker had one of those dual purpose inputs, a toslink and a 1/8 inch analog.

The player had both outputs. The analog output was definitely inferior.

 

[Mart68]

if you're going to make your CD player sound different the obvious place to do it is the frequeny response. Treble or bass shelf, or both. This will create a tonal difference which is what Matt says he picked up on.

That will be in the analogue stage.

Audio Review (I think) conducted a multi-person blind test of several players. The only one that was distinguishable was a Carver - which had a small amount of lift in the bass.

There's a measurement of various personal CD players in Hi-Fi World, again many years back. All had early roll-offs in bass and top. Presumably to make headphone listening more comfortable.

 

[Waxx]

Those who say cd players are mostly used by audiophiles are wrong, it's mostly the older generations (+40) that still use them, and still buy cd's. The younger generation mostly uses streaming or vinyl, or sometimes local files, but many older are not so used to work with a computer or a smartphone and still rely on the old way. I very often got the question what to buy to replace their old cd player that breaks down, and my answer is mostly the Marantz or the Denon that i mentioned before. And altough their convertors are not the latests best measuring ones, they are good enough for that public.

Younger who tend to buy cd players (yes they exist) mostly use an external dac, but the older generations in general don't, they want a one box solution that is easy to use, and the standard cd players do that right enough for them. It's the same public that still buys "en mass" the old style integrated amps to use with their (mostly older) speaker set. Those are also not state of the art, but good enough for them, and easy to use (no digital menu's and so).

 

[EJ3]

LOL, *Coby*.

OK, you are *way* down on the audio food chain with that.

I had, in the past (pre 1991) a great sounding Philips/Magnavox (both companies that I thought were junk at the time but it was what was available). Around 1995 I bought a SONY (5 disk carousel) that sounded horrid (I had given the GREAT sounding Philips/Magnavox away [one of the biggest mistakes I ever made in audio gear]) that day to a couple that was in a 80 piece band and had never had a CD player.
I had done this based on people telling me that all CD players sounded the same. I did not buy myself another CD player until after 2010.
So, in 2003, I moved from an island of 10,000 men & 4000 women to an island of 65,000 people where the ratio of women to men was 11 women for every man. Naturally, I got myself a nice, attractive girlfriend. In 2004, when her birthday came around, I thought that I would buy her a CD player for the small stereo that I had assembled for her consisting of an ADVENT 300 receiver (which is the one that Amirm tested on this site) and a pair of wood Minimus 7 speakers.
I searched every store on the Island and the ONLY CD players available where by Coby. Again, thinking that by now, it must true, what they say, that all CD players sound the same, so I bought her a Coby. It was around $80 to buy this (which was for some reason DUTY FREE). It had a 90 day warranty (which was 3 times the warranty of most electronics on the island). It actually sounded better than the SONY carrousel but worse that my memory of the Philips/Magnavox. So, it was tolerable. But: on day 91 it broke, it played but apparently no signal was coming out.
So we were back to FM only (quite a bit better than most people there at the time).
I am hoping that you people can understand the skepticism on my part of what I consider to be BS of 'Oh, all CD players, they all sound the same".
I did not buy another CD player until around 2018, when I got a great deal on a used, great sounding SONY CDR W-500C. And since then, I got another, unopened one in a box.
So, I want to know when did all CD players start sounding the same?
And, since I see no proof of that anywhere, which ones are you people talking about.
Also, looking at NTTY's (and others) tests, they do not all (each & every one) make the grade.

Thanks for being condescending, too.
People work with what they can get. Not always the same as what you can get.
You could just say: "Well, those Coby's, they weren't so great and maybe explain why.

But, instead, you choose to go out of your way to be nasty and say:

"LOL, *Coby*.

OK, you are *way* down on the audio food chain with that."

 

[EJ3]

Those who say cd players are mostly used by audiophiles are wrong, it's mostly the older generations (+40) that still use them, and still buy cd's. The younger generation mostly uses streaming or vinyl, or sometimes local files, but many older are not so used to work with a computer or a smartphone and still rely on the old way. I very often got the question what to buy to replace their old cd player that breaks down, and my answer is mostly the Marantz or the Denon that i mentioned before. And altough their convertors are not the latests best measuring ones, they are good enough for that public.

Younger who tend to buy cd players (yes they exist) mostly use an external dac, but the older generations in general don't, they want a one box solution that is easy to use, and the standard cd players do that right enough for them. It's the same public that still buys "en mass" the old style integrated amps to use with their (mostly older) speaker set. Those are also not state of the art, but good enough for them, and easy to use (no digital menu's and so).

I'm a bit different (an aberration, perhaps) but still want the CD player with it's INTERNAL DAC to be excellent and to not add clutter (a separate DAC would be considered that).
I have 2 APT/Holman Preamps (one controlling the other) so that I can both do quad and have many inputs for the available (not everything can be put into the system at once): (not going into brands here, just what they are) 2 Reel to Reel, 2 cassette decks, 2 TT's, 2 CD players, 1 4K Universal Disk Player, 3 FM tuners (well AM too but no), 1 for general use, 1 for DXing & 1 for HD, a Blue Tooth Transceiver so that I can run things that are playing on my computers (via Blue Tooth transmitters) through the stereo and likely some other things rotating around here from time to time. This runs into between 3 & 6 NAD 2200 & 2 NAD 2100 amps (NOT INTEGRATED AMPS) that are setup for different configurations be Tri-amped or more. 1 amp per main speaker and 1 amp bridged mono per sub.
No streaming (not something one can do where I am at, even IF one wanted to, which I don't). When it does happen, that will likely mean that I am too close to lots of others.
The population density here is 36 people per square mile (excluding waterways, lakes, ponds, etc.) Probably why streaming isn't a thing around here.
It's due to this lack of population density that it doesn't matter how loud (or not at all [& just listen to the river in front of my home] {which I do more often than not}) that I play my system in my home or on my deck. My not so near neighbors say that they get 36 channels of over the air HD TV. I might get a TV (haven't owned one since 2007) & throw up an antenna attached to the chimney this year and see if I get the same.

 

[danadam]

Most people that own CD players are not audiophiles.

In my area I don't think that streaming is the norm, not even close.

A wise person once said:

What makes you think that all others are like you?

 

[rank]

You know you can ignore a member?!

 

[EJ3]

You know you can ignore a member?!

Thank you! for reminding me (and others of that).
I have actually done that to a couple of members.
Chrispy has some good things that he writes and I find many of them worth reading,
as does krabapple.
I am just choosing to no longer engage either of them on this particular subject but being courteous and letting them know why I am choosing this move.

 

[Vacceo]

Those who say cd players are mostly used by audiophiles are wrong, it's mostly the older generations (+40) that still use them, and still buy cd's. The younger generation mostly uses streaming or vinyl, or sometimes local files, but many older are not so used to work with a computer or a smartphone and still rely on the old way. I very often got the question what to buy to replace their old cd player that breaks down, and my answer is mostly the Marantz or the Denon that i mentioned before. And altough their convertors are not the latests best measuring ones, they are good enough for that public.

Younger who tend to buy cd players (yes they exist) mostly use an external dac, but the older generations in general don't, they want a one box solution that is easy to use, and the standard cd players do that right enough for them. It's the same public that still buys "en mass" the old style integrated amps to use with their (mostly older) speaker set. Those are also not state of the art, but good enough for them, and easy to use (no digital menu's and so).

In some niche genres, CD's are popular as a way to support artists to keep them making music.

Most of the time, if it can be played, there is not much attention given to the gear.

I'm a bit different (an aberration, perhaps) but still want the CD player with it's INTERNAL DAC to be excellent and to not add clutter (a separate DAC would be considered that).
I have 2 APT/Holman Preamps (one controlling the other) so that I can both do quad and have many inputs for the available (not everything can be put into the system at once): (not going into brands here, just what they are) 2 Reel to Reel, 2 cassette decks, 2 TT's, 2 CD players, 1 4K Universal Disk Player, 3 FM tuners (well AM too but no), 1 for general use, 1 for DXing & 1 for HD, a Blue Tooth Transceiver so that I can run things that are playing on my computers (via Blue Tooth transmitters) through the stereo and likely some other things rotating around here from time to time. This runs into between 3 & 6 NAD 2200 & 2 NAD 2100 amps (NOT INTEGRATED AMPS) that are setup for different configurations be Tri-amped or more. 1 amp per main speaker and 1 amp bridged mono per sub.
No streaming (not something one can do where I am at, even IF one wanted to, which I don't). When it does happen, that will likely mean that I am too close to lots of others.
The population density here is 36 people per square mile (excluding waterways, lakes, ponds, etc.) Probably why streaming isn't a thing around here.
It's due to this lack of population density that it doesn't matter how loud (or not at all [& just listen to the river in front of my home] {which I do more often than not}) that I play my system in my home or on my deck. My not so near neighbors say that they get 36 channels of over the air HD TV. I might get a TV (haven't owned one since 2007) & throw up an antenna attached to the chimney this year and see if I get the same.

Many preamps and integrated amps already include good dac's. That is also quite true with AVR/AVP's in multichannel systems. That is why transports may make sense, as in theory, they can save you some money because you already have a competent DAC.

 

[Sal1950]

It's been near 25 years since I sold my stand-alone CD player, mainly do to my switching to computer file based audio.
The transports in my computers since have done an perfect job of ripping CD, DVD, and BluRays to my various hard drives.
I do have a number of BD players around for various reasons but since the fall of optical media I find very few uses for the
any more.
Time marches on.

 

[EJ3]

In some niche genres, CD's are popular as a way to support artists to keep them making music.

Most of the time, if it can be played, there is not much attention given to the gear.


Many preamps and integrated amps already include good dac's. That is also quite true with AVR/AVP's in multichannel systems. That is why transports may make sense, as in theory, they can save you some money because you already have a competent DAC.

I must say that I thought that theory about transports saving you money would be proven to be true (and maybe I haven't looked in the right places) but transports seem to be rather high priced to me.

 

[Doodski]

LOL ej3 at it again. What a strange troll....

LoL... He's been around the world multiple times, is from the South USA and thinks different that us westerners.

 

[Chrispy]

LoL... He's been around the world multiple times, is from the South USA and thinks different that us westerners.

More from the southeast it seems. Much of the country is "western" but does vary quite a bit as to what it means to others.

 

[Petrushka]

I must say that I thought that theory about transports saving you money would be proven to be true (and maybe I haven't looked in the right places) but transports seem to be rather high priced to me.

The most expensive component in an audio system is the customer’s wallet.

 

[Doodski]

More from the southeast it seems. Much of the country is "western" but does vary quite a bit as to what it means to others.

True that. I've been up and down the west coast of Canada and the USA and the Central USA and across Canada and wow... The differences in people can be very large. Like very large sometimes. The Maritimes in the East was a mind blowing experience. Everything from the food to the houses and fashion and beliefs.