Have you ever heard a digital recording meet or exceed an analog recording?

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Id go for the Ayre CX-7e that is about $3500, I know that player is an awesome match with the 275 and the 2300, used it here during the review. See if you can get an audition on one of those.

Personally, I think that's going to give you exactly the sound you are after. Make sure you hear it first to be sure, but based on everything you have been talking about, I predict this one will be the winner for you.

If you don't have a dealer nearby, send me a PM and I'll put you in touch with their sales mgr and arrange a demo for you.

That, or if you can spend more, I'd highly suggest the Meridian 808. With the new 808.2 model out, the 808's are relatively worthless on the market now (they used to be 16 grand and you can pick one up for about 5500), but are FANTASTIC players.

I had an 808 for about a year and a half before I got the Naim and it is one of the best I've heard.
 
Back on topic, there aren't too many CDs that outshine the LP versions of the same recordings. An exception, I was told by a reliable source, is Andreas Vollenweider's Book of Roses CD, long out of print but available used. I purchased the CD on that basis quite a while ago and am satisfied, and it's a great recording I recommend. In contrast, Tracy Chapman's self-titled debut album on CD pales in comparison to the LP, almost sounding like a different recording. If you see the LP, get it.
 
all I know is every red book cd I have ever heard on any system has always produced the same dark dry characteristics from my system to the CLX with the mark levinson cd player at DaVinci media to a setup I heard at barrets which included mac cd player,mc501's and B&W 802's as well as many others. believe me the sound on any of these is great its just that they all suffered from the same source problem 44.1khz is just not enough. you can upscale a video source all you want but can never get any more detail than what you started with this is not an opinion but a fact.
 
DrJRapp said:
. And, that Ortofon cartridge of yours does a great job of making some poor quality black pizza sound better...unfortunately at the cost of detail. I have the 2M Blue in one of my systems, and the Blue and Bronze are very similar in that regard.
Click to expand...

do you assume I only listen to poor quality garage purchased pizza ???
 
Hi Fish,

It's obvious no one is going to convince you that better digital means better sound or that a digital source can be as musically involving as an LP.

Fine with me because this is like pounding sand.

I will make one last comment. My Cary does upsample in the analogue and digital domaine. To my ears, there is an audible increase in detail once you find the correct upsampling settings for both. If you haven't heard the player, you can't substantiate your statement.

Have fun with your black pizzas and I'll have fun with my CD's.

Same comment (first paragraph) to Mr. Walsh.

IMO, these types of discussions are inevitably useless.

Bye.

GG
 
Gordon Gray said:
Hi Fish,

It's obvious no one is going to convince you that better digital means better sound or that a digital source can be as musically involving as an LP.

Fine with me because this is like pounding sand.

I will make one last comment. My Cary does upsample in the analogue and digital domaine. To my ears, there is an audible increase in detail once you find the correct upsampling settings for both. If you haven't heard the player, you can't substantiate your statement.

Have fun with your black pizzas and I'll have fun with my CD's.

Same comment (first paragraph) to Mr. Walsh.

IMO, these types of discussions are inevitably useless.

Bye.

GG
Click to expand...

that's fine I am going to take my toys home now and play by myself:rolleyes:
 
Perhaps tonepub would be so kind as to give us a short list of easily obtainable red book discs that in his opinion come as close as possible to outperforming any given black pizza? as this is closer to what the thread was started for in the first place
 
What you hear will be entirely dependant on the quality of your CDP and analogue playback system.

If you have a high quality turntable / arm / cartridge setup and a mediocre CDP playing back a well recorded / pressed record and a well recorded CD, which medium do you think is going to sound better?

I think I got a pretty good guess.

This is why the issue is circular and has no "right" answer.

Absent having the same "relative" quality playback system for both, the observed difference(s) between the two are meaningless.
 
Why post if when you get rebuttals , you get all defensive. Jeff Dorgy has stated his opinion and YOU doubted it. Questionably ! OK, Many others including my self has responded and you chose to pick which response you will answer. Its obvious you are set on your decision . Use your mid fi equipment and complain that digital is bad and listen to your average LP player.


Why did you ask in the first place?? This site is pretty informative,. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN AUDIO ? HIGH END AUDIO. I hate to tell you ROTEL and Marantz is not High end and will not give you the sound to make a valid comparison. Sorry to tell you , but its the facts.

I have heard the Meridian , Naim, Krell, and the Mark Levinson, as well as Mod Wright Tube players that many here RAVE about. The Audio Resaerch Top end player and Theta's best ! The Marantz and the NAD, as well as the Rotels to the Denons. My quest for good digital didn't start yesterday !

Sorry I will not tolerate the Analogue Vs Digital threads and listen to someone who basses it on demos or their average digital set up. Not to blast DaVinci, but that room is not the best for the CLX , Furthermore the Mark Levinson Player is not the best player to bass a digital profile on.

Spin away and be happy as that is what audio is all about ! What makes your ears happy !
 
Just something else for the "mix".

I personally find much more of a difference between a mid-priced turntable and and expensive one, compared to a mid priced CD player and an expensive one.

That's all, really...

Also Fish, if your liking your 275, i.e. tube sound in general, then maybe a CD player with a tubed output stage would make things more to your liking CD wise. Only a suggestion... just rely on your gut instincts, as I know you do anyway.

Or just decide which one you like best (I think we all know), and throw your money that way long term.
 
other top notch cd players

NWO 2.0 @ approximately @20k basically a reworked Esoteric
Playback Designs supposedly the worlds best @approximately $15k
Of course there is the Meitner @around $11.5k.

Further research reveals the Playback Designs also uses an Esoteric transport.
It sort of begs the question. As good as they are, why is it that no Esoteric player is considered a contender for worlds best?
I have switched to digital for the time being.
 
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C.A.P said:
Why post if when you get rebuttals , you get all defensive. Jeff Dorgy has stated his opinion and YOU doubted it. Questionably ! OK, Many others including my self has responded and you chose to pick which response you will answer. Its obvious you are set on your decision . Use your mid fi equipment and complain that digital is bad and listen to your average LP player.


Why did you ask in the first place?? This site is pretty informative,. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN AUDIO ? HIGH END AUDIO. I hate to tell you ROTEL and Marantz is not High end and will not give you the sound to make a valid comparison. Sorry to tell you , but its the facts.

I have heard the Meridian , Naim, Krell, and the Mark Levinson, as well as Mod Wright Tube players that many here RAVE about. The Audio Resaerch Top end player and Theta's best ! The Marantz and the NAD, as well as the Rotels to the Denons. My quest for good digital didn't start yesterday !

Sorry I will not tolerate the Analogue Vs Digital threads and listen to someone who basses it on demos or their average digital set up. Not to blast DaVinci, but that room is not the best for the CLX , Furthermore the Mark Levinson Player is not the best player to bass a digital profile on.

Spin away and be happy as that is what audio is all about ! What makes your ears happy !
Click to expand...

you know it does not take me long to sort out the BS from the real deal and let me tell you that their is more BS in this hobby than any other.

so what is good enough for the correct comparison apparently I have not run across it yet this digital format seems to be very elusive lol

the simple fact is that the sample rate on a red book cd is very poor and their is no magic dust that krell can sprinkle on it to make it any better
 
Darn Bernard,

I forgot to mention that. Actually, Ron at Marigo does do a major mod on Cary CDP's utilizing, in part, THE DOTS. :eek:

GG
 
Here's a couple of CD's off the top of my head that I think are mastered better on CD than LP:

Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes
Black Sabbath: Paranoid (the newest remaster 3 disc set)
Crowded House: Woodface
Tears For Fears: Sowing the Seeds of Love
Def Leppard: Pyromania
Peter Gabriel: Security
Bruce Springsteen: Wild, Innocent & the E street Shuffle (my japanese remaster sounds way better than the three LP's I've got)
Patti Smith: Trampin
Robin Trower: Bridge of Sighs (MoFi Gold CD sounds better than my LP versions)

That's just a few and you are certainly welcome to your opinion. And I'm sure on your system, you enjoy the sound of your table better than your CD player. Also, you are riding the wave of "I just got a new turntable" enthusiasm, which is fun.

However, I personally don't care about the outcome. I just make a mental note of CD's that sound quite good and compare them to an LP if I have it. You asked for an opinion and I gave it to you. Until I bought the Naim, I didn't think digital could even get close to vinyl. The Meridian 808 was the first step to convince me and when I had the Meridian as my digital reference, I had about a 10k analog front end. At that point, I was pretty equally happy listening to digital and analog as well. Then when I stepped the game up to the SG-2 and Raven tables with Dynavector XV-1s and Lyra Skala (and for a little while the Olympos), the digital half of my system needed to make a jump to be competitive.

I still think that if you made a jump to the Ayre player, you would be fairly close in performance to where you are now and would be much happier with the digital half of your system. And of course, if you go further down the analog path, the same thing will happen.

So the answer is no, you don't have to buy a Naim CD555 (or equivalent) to enjoy digital as much as vinyl, but you do if you have a table like the SG-2, Continuum, SME 20, SME 30, etc.

It's really about balance.
 
thanks tonepub I will give a couple of those a listen on my mid fi equipment.
 
so you guys can tear that up as well no thanks I will not provide you all with any more ammunition. all I will say is that my collection is about 5 ft wide that's about it

I have many that are matches
 
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