High End ($$$$) CD/SACD Players

[mikesinger]

How could I forget another brilliant source. Do DACs count in this thread or is it CD only.

The Tube Technology Fulcrum DAC64.......a little cheaper than the Goldmund, but amazing all the same!

I heard the cd player at the local shop and it is AMAZING. However there are a couple drawbacks to the Tube Technology from the last time I looked at them.

-no USA distributor (coming out of Canada who eventually dropped the line)
-horrible customer service (according to the Canadian distributor)

Again I dont know how they are in Europe/Aussie but cant get the units or service here in North America.

What is the latest on the company ?

 

[amey01]

I heard the cd player at the local shop and it is AMAZING. However there are a couple drawbacks to the Tube Technology from the last time I looked at them.

-no USA distributor (coming out of Canada who eventually dropped the line)
-horrible customer service (according to the Canadian distributor)

Again I dont know how they are in Europe/Aussie but cant get the units or service here in North America.

What is the latest on the company ?

I believe the one I heard here in Australia was a special import but that was some time ago. Not sure what the situation is now though.

Can't afford it anyway.......

 

[pambs]

if you can get your hands in any of these 2

AMR CD-77
Audio aero capitole reference, give them a try, i didnt heard them but i ve been reading very encouraging comments for both

in any case you should test somthing in your system 1-2 weeks before buying it since ur a going to spend a lot

 

[Burke]

Blue Smoke - Black Box

I heard the "Black Box" from Blue Smoke Entertainment Systems of Deerfield, IL last weekend. It is technically a music server but I think these are just the CD players of the future. They used the "Power DAC" from MSB Technology and the pair sounded unbelievable.

One of the points they made was that all of the CD players have about 10-20% read errors and how they CD player fills in those gaps (error recovery) is a big piece of the sound. The Black Box, uses a program similar to EAC that picks up 100% of the data when it does the ripping, and so sounds better. They also upsample to 176.4 (4x). The demo they ran was to play a CD on the mbl 1621 A - CD Transport ($26K) through the power DAC, and then ripped the cd and played the same track using the same equipment (they just moved the spdif coax cable from the mbl to the black box). They difference was easy to hear, and there were about 40 Chicago Audio Society members present.

I definitely think this player belongs on the list if you are looking for something high end.

--burke

 

[MiTT]

I just went to the Blue Smoke website and configured a middle of the road system with a simple CPU, 1TB of storage a touchscreen monitor and remote and it came to $7250.00!

I have been playing with memory based players lately, most notably the Linn Music Server, the Memory Player and the new Boulder player. There really is something to digital music played back from solid state memory as opposed to ANY sort of opto-mechanical device, but I'm not sure my pockets are deep enough yet to take the plunge. I'll keep monitoring this media though - it shows great promise I believe.

(Yeah - this is coming from the die hard analog guy - don't faint Jon and Rich!)

 

[Burke]

(Yeah - this is coming from the die hard analog guy - don't faint Jon and Rich!)

The other claim from Blue Smoke (that they did not demo) was that if you ripped your vinyl to disk, it would sound better played back from the Black Box than the turntable. They stated the reason is that when you play a turntable it is in the same room as the speakers and the turntable, arm and cartridge are all effected by the sound being played. It makes some sense but I would like to hear it for myself. The system was built by computer engineer and audiophile that said he did it just to see the look on the face of Rob Lapporte owner of Ultimate Audio Video and a die hard analog guy. Rob was there and said he did it.

--burke

 

[twich54]

(Yeah - this is coming from the die hard analog guy - don't faint Jon and Rich!)

No....but I have placed a call to "TonyC" ! To those that don't know, he's our resident shrink. Geez Louise, would you quit drinking that cheap whiskey !

 

[Rich]

I'll keep monitoring this media though - it shows great promise I believe.

(Yeah - this is coming from the die hard analog guy - don't faint Jon and Rich!)

I'm with you, Tim. I expect to go this route at some point, but am just waiting for the technology to mature a bit. There are still lots of improvements to come to the hardware and the software GUI of these components. But in a few years, this will be THE way to play your music.

 

[MiTT]

Don't get me wrong guys, I'm NOT saying that I'm ready to dump analog in favor of a music server based system - in fact I still advocate that my analog rig is far and away a more musically satisfying experience in my system than anything else I've tried, and those who have heard my system (both experienced listeners and novices alike) all prefer music from my turntable over all other formats. I've got a signifcant investment in vinyl, and will contnue to support it.

That being said, I see no reason to dump significant additional money into digital formats (I've got a friggin' Esoteric player for Pete's sake), but I will monitor developments in solid state music delivery and suspect that one day I'll likely add such a setup to the system once prices for such systems drop.

For pure musical performance I think I'll be listening to vinyl for a long time yet to come.

 

[MiTT]

.... would you quit drinking that cheap whiskey !

Come now Dave, you know me better than that. In fact you supplied me with a very nice bottle of not very cheap whiskey (real Kentucky Burbon) at one time - so you know what I like!

 

[tonyc]

No....but I have placed a call to "TonyC" ! To those that don't know, he's our resident shrink. Geez Louise, would you quit drinking that cheap whiskey !

I'll drink to that!