What source do you have?
Sept 12, 2007 21:29:28 GMT
Post by PinkFloyd on Sept 12, 2007 21:29:28 GMT
I find it surprising there's not more discussion about sources, everyone seems more concerned with amplification. Thing is, it's a case of garbage in = garbage out so if your source is feeding your amp with garbage then it will only amplify that garbage.... it certainly won't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear that's for sure.
What source / sources do you use in your setup? My sources are all CD players. My reference CD player is a relatively old Marantz CD17ki sig which has recently started skipping occasionally (looks like a new laser asssembly is in the pipeline), an oldish Denon DCD-835 (modded), an MHZS CD33 running OPA2107 / NOS RCA 5670 output valves and a mint condition Marantz CD52 mkll.
I tend to use the CD17ki to evaluate headphone amps and actually do most of my general listening through the MHZS CD33 these days, I don't expect the laser to last anywhere near as long as the CD17ki (it's one of those spurious Sony KSS types) but while it is working it's a bloody nice sounding machine for the money and different flavours can be achieved by rolling in different output valves.
The Denon DCD-835 gets an occasional airing. I say "occasional" because I really want to preserve it for future reference, when I was mad on tweaking I really did tweak the arse out of it to suit my own tastes and, even to this day, it's probably the most brutally revealing out of them all and will extract everything there is to extract from a CD in a clinical / microscopic way..... it's not an enjoyable listen but a great tool if you want to home in on the proceedings in an honest to goodness warts and all way..... a particularly good source to evaluate opamps in amps..... it chucks out everything there is on the disc. Not a "high end" player by any stretch of the imagination but I player I tuned to my own preferences over a period of 6 years..... a definite "keeper"
I picked the Marantz CD52 MKll up from a local charity shop for the princely sum of £3 recently! Perfect condition, swinging arm laser assembly.... plenty of potential for tweaking and as stock a bloody lovely sounding unit..... nice and warm with the typical Marantz house sound..... certainly no shame on it and £3 very well spent!
I was thinking of going back down the vinyl route and, yes, vinyl definitely does sound better than any other format commonly available but have decided it would be a backward step in a few other respects. A: I sold my HUGE record collection in 1985 and went over to CD (as did a few of my mates...... idiots!) there is no way I could ever build up a collection like that again and it would be expensive to try it. B: I don't have a turntable, again more expense buying a good turntable / arm / cartridge. C: I don't have a phono stage (more expense again) D: I'm not sure I want a couple of thousand 12 inch vinyl discs kicking about the place taking up room.
Nope, I'll stick with my CD collection and CD players I think. I can remember just how addictive it was rolling in flavour of the month cartridges, setting the tracking weight / anti skating etc., dealing with warped discs, the cracks and the pops, the replacing of belts, the wow and flutter..... nope! I've convinced myself, CD it is!
This has got me to thinking just how happy I was with my first CD player (Philips CD100) and not only "happy" I felt I was genuinely going into a new era (and I was) I still have the original first pressings of Dire Straits / Money for nothing and Fleetwood Mac / tango in the night..... most of the first releases in fact....... There were 3 of us in my street in London who had enough money to blow on a "CD player" and man did we blow money big time on the Compact discs themselves!
I got £900 from a record dealer (back in 1985 / a lot of money) for my LP collection and my Father's LP collection (father passed away in 1981) My dads collection was mostly classical deutsche gramaphone pressings and quite a few masters and acetates..... My collection was contemporary 1973 - 1984 but with the addition of MANY beatles originals I had inherited from my cousin (mono versions / 2 of them signed
)
The dealer really must have skinned me BIG time but I was happy with my £900.... the minute he drove off in his van from my house with my record collection on board I legged it to "spin it", my local record shop in Willesden Green London to see what CD's they had in stock.... I remember the CD's were on a top shelf displayed like fine cuban cigars and they were bloody expensive like £16 EACH! The first CD I bought was dire straits / Money for nothing and I played that thing to death for MONTHS!
Invited anyone and everyone I could grab from the hood in to see and listen to my "CD player"!! I even scored with girls back then who thought not only the CD player was cool but so was I
Halcyon days and light years ahead of the vinyl dinosaurs who were still wearing tank tops and riding chopper bicycles.
Seriously, for those of you who don't know...... CD and the CD player was a revolution at the time and not everybody took to it with open arms. A few went with the flow but the majority classed CD as something that wouldn't last...... I was one of those that embraced the new technology and stuck to my guns.
By 1989 (or thereabouts) CD had become accepted as the way to go. I still believe that the early CD players are the best..... absolute BATTLESHIPS that were trying to sound like vinyl to please the vinyl die hards... some of these early BATTLESHIPS shit all over modern day CD players in every respect. Track access time was rocket fast back in the day thanks to the swinging arm laser assembly..... CD players would come with transit screws which would lock the mechanism should you want to move the unit from A to B.
Modern mechanisms are shite in comparison, absolute shite, they operate on a worm and peg gearing system which, being fine for transporting purposes, is shite when it comes down to track access times...... swinging arm being a thousand times better.
The early transports are, without doubt, THE best. CD peaked a good while ago and IMO anything generally available circa 2000 is crap on a stick.... give me a good philips swinging arm mechanism any day over the current worm and peg type.
What source / sources do you use in your setup? My sources are all CD players. My reference CD player is a relatively old Marantz CD17ki sig which has recently started skipping occasionally (looks like a new laser asssembly is in the pipeline), an oldish Denon DCD-835 (modded), an MHZS CD33 running OPA2107 / NOS RCA 5670 output valves and a mint condition Marantz CD52 mkll.
I tend to use the CD17ki to evaluate headphone amps and actually do most of my general listening through the MHZS CD33 these days, I don't expect the laser to last anywhere near as long as the CD17ki (it's one of those spurious Sony KSS types) but while it is working it's a bloody nice sounding machine for the money and different flavours can be achieved by rolling in different output valves.
The Denon DCD-835 gets an occasional airing. I say "occasional" because I really want to preserve it for future reference, when I was mad on tweaking I really did tweak the arse out of it to suit my own tastes and, even to this day, it's probably the most brutally revealing out of them all and will extract everything there is to extract from a CD in a clinical / microscopic way..... it's not an enjoyable listen but a great tool if you want to home in on the proceedings in an honest to goodness warts and all way..... a particularly good source to evaluate opamps in amps..... it chucks out everything there is on the disc. Not a "high end" player by any stretch of the imagination but I player I tuned to my own preferences over a period of 6 years..... a definite "keeper"
I picked the Marantz CD52 MKll up from a local charity shop for the princely sum of £3 recently! Perfect condition, swinging arm laser assembly.... plenty of potential for tweaking and as stock a bloody lovely sounding unit..... nice and warm with the typical Marantz house sound..... certainly no shame on it and £3 very well spent!
I was thinking of going back down the vinyl route and, yes, vinyl definitely does sound better than any other format commonly available but have decided it would be a backward step in a few other respects. A: I sold my HUGE record collection in 1985 and went over to CD (as did a few of my mates...... idiots!) there is no way I could ever build up a collection like that again and it would be expensive to try it. B: I don't have a turntable, again more expense buying a good turntable / arm / cartridge. C: I don't have a phono stage (more expense again) D: I'm not sure I want a couple of thousand 12 inch vinyl discs kicking about the place taking up room.
Nope, I'll stick with my CD collection and CD players I think. I can remember just how addictive it was rolling in flavour of the month cartridges, setting the tracking weight / anti skating etc., dealing with warped discs, the cracks and the pops, the replacing of belts, the wow and flutter..... nope! I've convinced myself, CD it is!
This has got me to thinking just how happy I was with my first CD player (Philips CD100) and not only "happy" I felt I was genuinely going into a new era (and I was) I still have the original first pressings of Dire Straits / Money for nothing and Fleetwood Mac / tango in the night..... most of the first releases in fact....... There were 3 of us in my street in London who had enough money to blow on a "CD player" and man did we blow money big time on the Compact discs themselves!
I got £900 from a record dealer (back in 1985 / a lot of money) for my LP collection and my Father's LP collection (father passed away in 1981) My dads collection was mostly classical deutsche gramaphone pressings and quite a few masters and acetates..... My collection was contemporary 1973 - 1984 but with the addition of MANY beatles originals I had inherited from my cousin (mono versions / 2 of them signed
) The dealer really must have skinned me BIG time but I was happy with my £900.... the minute he drove off in his van from my house with my record collection on board I legged it to "spin it", my local record shop in Willesden Green London to see what CD's they had in stock.... I remember the CD's were on a top shelf displayed like fine cuban cigars and they were bloody expensive like £16 EACH! The first CD I bought was dire straits / Money for nothing and I played that thing to death for MONTHS!
Invited anyone and everyone I could grab from the hood in to see and listen to my "CD player"!! I even scored with girls back then who thought not only the CD player was cool but so was I
Halcyon days and light years ahead of the vinyl dinosaurs who were still wearing tank tops and riding chopper bicycles.Seriously, for those of you who don't know...... CD and the CD player was a revolution at the time and not everybody took to it with open arms. A few went with the flow but the majority classed CD as something that wouldn't last...... I was one of those that embraced the new technology and stuck to my guns.
By 1989 (or thereabouts) CD had become accepted as the way to go. I still believe that the early CD players are the best..... absolute BATTLESHIPS that were trying to sound like vinyl to please the vinyl die hards... some of these early BATTLESHIPS shit all over modern day CD players in every respect. Track access time was rocket fast back in the day thanks to the swinging arm laser assembly..... CD players would come with transit screws which would lock the mechanism should you want to move the unit from A to B.
Modern mechanisms are shite in comparison, absolute shite, they operate on a worm and peg gearing system which, being fine for transporting purposes, is shite when it comes down to track access times...... swinging arm being a thousand times better.
The early transports are, without doubt, THE best. CD peaked a good while ago and IMO anything generally available circa 2000 is crap on a stick.... give me a good philips swinging arm mechanism any day over the current worm and peg type.
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