guiller
Toscaninichus Australis
Similar issues have been also discussed on http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=294183
My point of view is that is a very subjective matter, that may also be highly biased by the music material used and the audio gear. For example, last week I hooked up to my system a Philips CD-350, which is a good quality vintage CDP, a Sony Blu-ray BDP-s360 and chepos Pioneer DVD and laserdisc players. The sound quality of all of these were quite inferior to that of my standard CDP , a Cambridge Audio 640 C version 2. I listen to classical music only, no electronics involved in the instruments themselves. My system is quite transparent, and is composed of a Audio Research LS-3 preamp, a Bryston 4B power amp and DIY speakers with Yamaha NS-1000 beryllium midranges, Seas tweeters, 12 inches woofers with passive radiators and high quality crossovers. My conlusion was that the Sony sounded artificial, a bassoon didn´t sound like a bassoon. Perhaps it has some sort of loudness built in that is optimazed to reproduce other sorts of music. The Philips was reasonable, but far from the clarity of the Cambridge Audio. The Pioneer cheapos were very unnatural sounding, no string instruments could sound like the real thing. This was not a scientific test, but I´ve invited a few friends, including professional musicians and the conclusion was pretty much the same for all the people there.
My conclusion is: if for one´s ears a cheapo DVD sounds as good as a high quality redbook CDP, one can save a lot of money and this is good news. But for other group of people, sound differences are there and this unfortunately implies spending more money looking for a more natural sounding CDP. I am myself in this process now and looking for a Cambridge Audio 840 or a Naim CDP.
My point of view is that is a very subjective matter, that may also be highly biased by the music material used and the audio gear. For example, last week I hooked up to my system a Philips CD-350, which is a good quality vintage CDP, a Sony Blu-ray BDP-s360 and chepos Pioneer DVD and laserdisc players. The sound quality of all of these were quite inferior to that of my standard CDP , a Cambridge Audio 640 C version 2. I listen to classical music only, no electronics involved in the instruments themselves. My system is quite transparent, and is composed of a Audio Research LS-3 preamp, a Bryston 4B power amp and DIY speakers with Yamaha NS-1000 beryllium midranges, Seas tweeters, 12 inches woofers with passive radiators and high quality crossovers. My conlusion was that the Sony sounded artificial, a bassoon didn´t sound like a bassoon. Perhaps it has some sort of loudness built in that is optimazed to reproduce other sorts of music. The Philips was reasonable, but far from the clarity of the Cambridge Audio. The Pioneer cheapos were very unnatural sounding, no string instruments could sound like the real thing. This was not a scientific test, but I´ve invited a few friends, including professional musicians and the conclusion was pretty much the same for all the people there.
My conclusion is: if for one´s ears a cheapo DVD sounds as good as a high quality redbook CDP, one can save a lot of money and this is good news. But for other group of people, sound differences are there and this unfortunately implies spending more money looking for a more natural sounding CDP. I am myself in this process now and looking for a Cambridge Audio 840 or a Naim CDP.
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