Interesting Digital Revelation from an analog guy. And a question.

Fury161

Active Member
By most accounts, I'm a vintage analog kind of guy. I have a Chromecast audio but usually just use it for background music (Pandora) around the house. But I do have ton of CD's packed away from back in the day and I'm not doing much with them. (I haven't had a CD player for many years.) So, I got on the prowl for a CD player and came across this baby:

A4IYau0h.jpg


Pioneer Elite DV45a. A quick bit of googling confirmed this was what I wanted and for $13, well....

So I got it hooked up yesterday and was immediately blown away by the quality of what I was getting out of it. To start with, I grabbed my son's Daft Punk CD and what a crazy full sound that had. So I pulled it up on Amazon Music and played the same track through the Cromecast and there was really NO comparison. The CD player blew the Chromecast in every respect! It was also much louder than the CCA.

I did a bit more reading on it and apparently the Burr Brown DAC's in the Pioneer are the bee's knees. So, here's the question (finally, I know...) is the difference in fullness and richness of the sound a result of the superior DACs in the DV45a? If so, I assume a dedicated DAC for the CCA will help? If so, any suggestions on a decent unit, preferably around the $100 mark?
 
By most accounts, I'm a vintage analog kind of guy. I have a Chromecast audio but usually just use it for background music (Pandora) around the house. But I do have ton of CD's packed away from back in the day and I'm not doing much with them. (I haven't had a CD player for many years.) So, I got on the prowl for a CD player and came across this baby:

A4IYau0h.jpg


Pioneer Elite DV45a. A quick bit of googling confirmed this was what I wanted and for $13, well....

So I got it hooked up yesterday and was immediately blown away by the quality of what I was getting out of it. To start with, I grabbed my son's Daft Punk CD and what a crazy full sound that had. So I pulled it up on Amazon Music and played the same track through the Cromecast and there was really NO comparison. The CD player blew the Chromecast in every respect! It was also much louder than the CCA.

I did a bit more reading on it and apparently the Burr Brown DAC's are the bee's knees. So, here's the question (finally, I know...) is the difference in fullness and richness of the sound a result of the superior DACs in the DV45a? If so, I assume a dedicated DAC for the CCA will help? If so, any suggestions on a decent unit, preferably around the $100 mark?

I have a Topping D30 and it sounds great. Optical out of the CCA to the Topping is pretty great. I replaced the Topping with an older Parasound DAC-1100 just to try new/old stuff in the main system, but you really can't go wrong with Topping. The D30 is dead simple to use and punches way above it's price-range.
 
Interesting. Right price point and simple enough to use. Any issue with just leaving it on? Given my setup now, it would have to be tucked away.
 
In answer to your questions, Yes & Yes. You've just discovered the difference in sound quality produced from device to device.

An external DAC will help with the Pandora ===> Chromecast signal.
 
Interesting. Right price point and simple enough to use. Any issue with just leaving it on? Given my setup now, it would have to be tucked away.

I always turned it off. It's got an easy to access power switch on the front.

Don't see why you couldn't though....I just don't like leaving gear powered on when not in use.
 
So, here's the question (finally, I know...) is the difference in fullness and richness of the sound a result of the superior DACs in the DV45a? If so, I assume a dedicated DAC for the CCA will help? If so, any suggestions on a decent unit, preferably around the $100 mark?
It's more likely due to the power supply and analog output stage. Yes, using an external DAC can certainly improve the performance of a CCA.

Sorry, have little experience with units at that price point.
 
So I pulled it up on Amazon Music and played the same track through the Cromecast and there was really NO comparison

What format was the Amazon source? The same Redbook 44.1k/16bit as the CD? Or a lossy, compressed MP3?

If the latter, it's not much of a surprise that you found the CD better.

Then there's the CCA. A tiny little thing that cost $30. Not much room for high quality analogue circuitry, and not much money left after you've done the networking, the rendering engine, the PSU & the DAC. Again, not too much surprise that the CD player sounds better.

So, yes, an external DAC will test and sound better. But you still need to make sure you're comparing apples and apples with the source material.
 
A fairer test would be to rip the Daft Punk CD to FLAC, and play that to the Chromecast, using a player that can stream FLAC to Chromecast; BubbleUPnP for instance.
 
I have a DV45a and CCA. Using both stand alone the CDP may have a slight edge over the CCA :dunno: but I am playing at least red book through the CCA. Running both through my SMSL M8a the stream through the CCA is better every time compared the CD’s I actually own. I am streaming Tidal in either Masters or HiFi depending on the device I am controlling Tidal with. YMMV
 
You’re hearing the difference between Amazon’s mp3 256 kbs streaming and red book cd quality.

This. Neither Pandora nor Amazon Music is CD quality. There may be other stuff going on here, but that's the main thing.
 
The less expensive Elite players are nice, I have a DV-45AV. But it sits the bench as I've found some of the older Sony decks really hit the spot for me. I like when I can purchase decks that retailed for $1000 or more for $80 lol.

dv-48av.jpg

Have several different models but liking the DVP NS900V.sony900v.gif
 
The less expensive Elite players are nice, I have a DV-45AV. But it sits the bench as I've found some of the older Sony decks really hit the spot for me. I like when I can purchase decks that retailed for $1000 or more for $80 lol.

View attachment 1399207

Have several different models but liking the DVP NS900V.View attachment 1399214

Do you know if they offered that in black? May look for one to try out if so.
 
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