DVD/HD for CD

[Assie Ian]

Hi Guys

My Nad Cd player kills my Toshiba DVD player for sound at half the price the dvd player sounds flat and lifeless Rega P3 kills them both by a mile. Can not wait to mod P3 Rb300 arm and new cartridge maybe Rondo bronze. any segestons on mods out there?

Thanks guys.

[Stratmangler]

Michell counterweight and Incognito rewiring would do you well Ian.

Chris

[Scottmoose]

£170 of Sony SACD spinner does it for me on CD. Could do with a little more grunt in the LF (though it's better than most CD spinners I've heard in this respect) -I might have to get the old soldering iron out at some point & replace a few parts. I've yet to hear anything conclusively better up to about £500 or so.

[Stratmangler]

My Pioneer DV656 does all the music disc duties here - I do not particularly feel the urge to get anything better to play CD's as most of my listening is to vinyl.

DVD duties are now down to my LG DR175 DVD writer - the images are far crisper than the Pioneer. That said, the Pioneer still does a good job of it all - it's video decoding is just getting a bit long in the tooth.

Chris

[hal55]

I have the 656 as well and it's a surprisingly capable machine for not much money. That bastion of sound advice, HiFi World, reviewed it pretty favourably and reckoned it responded well to simple tweaks like upgrading the output capacitors. By a REAL longshot, does anyone have experience of modifying Pioneer players? (Max Townsend, if your a member of the forum please respond!)
I'm using an external DAC but of course this doesn't do anything to help SACD of which my collection is growing painfully slowly. If there are any SACD players out there which can be picked up cheaply enough on Ebay I'd be interested - a Denon 2900 has been listed recently for $500 Australian , any other contenders to consider?

Hal Littlewood

[andrew ivimey]

To me, SACD on a Pioneer 656 is IMPRESSIVE and that is straight out of the box.

[Stratmangler]

I must admit, SACD does sound pretty damn good on the 656, as does DVD-Audio.
CD is not too bad either.

Anyone got any decent component tweaks to try ?

Chris

[hal55]

HiFi World apparently tweaked the player and, from memory, described the sound as opening out and flowing much better. Unfortunately they didn't go in to too much detail as to what they did or what they used. I think though that the mod wasn't extensive. If a small bit of work can close the player in on the top end machines it will be well worth it.
Certainly agreed that the player is great value for money - video, cd, SACD and, if you get one of the dual CD/DVD dual releases, higher sound quality from what is effectively I guess DVD Audio.
The sound from my LITE DAC 60 is better, but taken in isolation the 656 is a really fine machine, and Max Townsend rated it as one of the best transports on the market despite it's lowly price.

Hal Littlewood

[colin.hepburn]

In Most cases a budget CD player has muting transistors at the output too prevent switch on thump as these are in circuit when a CD is playing it has an affect on the sound by removing the four mute transistors this will open up the sound the top end CD players use a relay so this is out of circuit when playing so in my view this explains the the differences between say a 400 and £600 player

[Baggy Trousers]

Originally Posted by pre65

So what is "todays" wonder player for those of us (like me) with older budget players ?

Philip

Can't help you with the "wonder player" I'm afraid but I have just repalced my LG LDA511 which has worked well enough for a couple of years. Recently it has shown a reluctance to return the CDs posted through the slot and on Friday it refused to give back one of my favourite Beethoven quartets. There's only so much a chap will put up with so I scoured the usual "big box" emporia looking for a replacement having a proper loading tray and, if possible, a remote output/volume control.

The young man - why are they always yong men? - looked at me as if I had said "gramophone" when I asked to see some CD players. Gone apparently; it's all DVD with hyper uploading or something. The only dedicated CD players seem to be the frightfully expensive things which I neither need nor can afford. Same stuff inside I expect.

So, I returned home with an Onkyo DV-SP404(B). Wow! It's light years better than the LG with a vastly improved audio quality. Haven't tried the video yet but that doesn't concern me. I am wondering if there is really much difference now between digital and analogue recordings when reproduced through valve equipment. There is now doubt CD stuff has come a long way.

Very pleased (so far) with this new gizmo. Cost $130 which is about 70 quid. Not bad, really but it doesn't have the volume thingy like wot my old Sampo did.

Richard.