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Struggling which cd player is better?

jameselmer66

jameselmer66

Active Member
Onkyo DX 1400 vs h\k HD7325. I currently have the h\k and like the sound. I have an opportunity to get the Onkyo. The only reason I am thinking of changing is because I run a Onkyo/Integra TX-88. I know the whole "timbre" debate but I was wondering if there is an overwhelming opinion leaning towards either one as far as sound and build quality goes.
 
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I'd personally be surprised if you heard any difference at all between the two units. I can't tell the difference between an old Yamaha, Toshiba DVD player, and a Samsung DVD SACD player that I own.

Some will say my gear sucks or I'm deaf, so take my opinion for what it is...my opinion.
 
Cd players are so close in sound , if there is a difference , there is something wrong with one of them .
 
Thanks for comments. Think I will stay with the h/k, its looks better.:thmbsp:

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I've heard the Onkyo in question. It's a good CD player, but I've heard many HK's and preferred them. I just like HK's sound, and yes I can hear vast differences between CD players, so take my opinion as opinion as well.
 
There is also system synergy to be considered. Do you like the sound of your HK with your system now? I would stick with it if so.
 
The most honest article I've read in Absolute Sound was a comparo of a range of CD players. The author said it took weeks to be able to discern the tiniest difference in CD reproduction between the cheapest (an early OPPO) and the $10k units.

Mostly, he claimed to hear difference in the sustain of notes and harmonics.

That's been pretty much my experience too. There was a nice review on AK a few years ago comparing 4 units - 2 Sonys, an OPPO, and a Pioneer.
 
Differences among CDPs can be quite noticeable, in particular for mid to high level models, at least in my own experience. These differences always become more evident while listening to classical music (no amplification or electronics involved at the source), and with instruments with complex coloration, like piano, oboes, violins, cymbals or human voices. I would certainly accept that some people would not find any differences between different models, as well as those who will notice clear differences. IMHO, the important thing is to notice that whatever our own experience is, it cannot be extended or generalized to other's and to accept that there is no absolute truth in this (as well as in several other audio related) issue. For what is worth, my CDP progression evolved from Technics SPL-220 --> Denon DCD-620 --> Philips CD-350--> Denon DCD-1500 --> Denon DCD-1650G (Japan internal market) --> Cambridge Audio CD 4 SE --> Cambridge Audio 640 C V2 --> Astin Trew AT 3500+ . All the changes implied better, more realistic sound (as compared to the actual sound of the acoustic instruments according to my memory, which I try to maintain by going to live concerts frequently). My own journey brought me only recently to my first really satisfactory experience of a CDP sound, that of the Astin Trew one.
 
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See post #3 . Julian Hirsch tested more Cd players than you can shake a stick and he was always hard pressed to hear any differences .
 
OK, I repeat my point of view here: the "authority principle" is a mechanism that might work to discourage some people on arguing, but not me, because I know that my experiences are as valuable as anybody else's. Please, consider accepting other people's experience. Is it so difficult to accept that there is no universal agreement on this, as in many other issues? Many AKrs besides me have left in this forum similar experiences. Julian Hirsch may have his as well.
 
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I can hear a difference between CD players. I can tell a crappy one from a good one, and it has nothing to do with price. I've done side-by-side comparisons between cheap DVD players' analog outputs as source vs. the same player's digital output into my standalone DAC and it's sometimes a real night and day experience. But... sometimes there's no discernible difference. Really it depends on what's in there for D/A conversion (including clock recovery and filtering/upsampling) and the output stage. In the last couple of years it's really tough to find a shitty op-amp... you have to really try to make them sound bad (if you follow the typical implementation schematic on the datasheet). The price of really high quality DAC chips is very low as well, so there's usually good to very good components in all players regardless of price. Things like board layout and wiring can and do make a difference, though. RFI, crosstalk, attenuation, etc. can creep up into the audible range. The power supply in cheap stuff is usually far different than better models.
 
Your right Montycat, that is a bad pic. I was trying to get one of those neato close up pics and it just didn't work out. I too can hear vast differences in cd players. I used a stock JVC single disc before the h\k and although it didn't sound bad the h\k has more detail. I think there is alot to be said of system synergy also which is why I was considering the Onkyo. Its been my experience that like branded components seem to sound better together. Not always the case but more than not in my experience.
 
I think it is difficult to hear differences when switching back and forth between components, but it is easy to hear differences over the long listening session. Everything starts sounding the same when you switch back and forth between them, even if there are some large differences in actuality. For instance, when I first go from system to system at a RMAF, the systems sound completely different. However, by the end of the day, I've done so much comparing, they all start sounding the same. But, if you live with just one system for a while, you start to understand all of its sound characteristics.

I've owned at least a dozen different CD players and could tell the differences between some of them, but not all of them. There are just as many reasons as to why CD players sound different as there are for amplifiers or receivers to sound different, after all, most people use the analog outputs and the design of the analogue section surely has an effect on the sound. Plus, there are many ways for the CD player to process the bits. There are also varying levels of jitter, switching distortion, bit retrieval, error correction, filtering, etc. among CD players, so to say that all CD players sound the same is just plain wrong, IMO.

Recently, at my house I had a get together of music loving audio nuts like me and we listened to some CDs via my Pioneer Elite CD player. We all agreed that my system didn't sound nearly as good as it did via my turntable. The Pioneer actually sounded harsh, to my ears. Actually, we were listening mostly to SACDs. I also have an Ayre QB-9 DAC in my system and am very pleased that normal CD quality files (redbook, 44.1K) sound better, processed through it, than SACDs do from the Pioneer unit. It's not the media, it's the implementation.
 
There is more than just your ears involved when you hear differences in cd players, imo...especially vast differences, as one poster claims.
 
dspear99ca said:
I can hear a difference between CD players. I can tell a crappy one from a good one, and it has nothing to do with price. I've done side-by-side comparisons between cheap DVD players' analog outputs as source vs. the same player's digital output into my standalone DAC and it's sometimes a real night and day experience. But... sometimes there's no discernible difference. Really it depends on what's in there for D/A conversion (including clock recovery and filtering/upsampling) and the output stage. In the last couple of years it's really tough to find a shitty op-amp... you have to really try to make them sound bad (if you follow the typical implementation schematic on the datasheet). The price of really high quality DAC chips is very low as well, so there's usually good to very good components in all players regardless of price. Things like board layout and wiring can and do make a difference, though. RFI, crosstalk, attenuation, etc. can creep up into the audible range. The power supply in cheap stuff is usually far different than better models.
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+1 on this post.

My experience with this subject is that I used to own a Yamaha CD player that I replaced with a Denon with a Burr-Brown DAC. I was blown away at the difference. The Denon was not as feature functional but totally smoked the Yamaha in sound quality.
 
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