15-Apr-2020, 08:30
Damon - In a way I am with you on this one. I have always had a CD player of some kind connected to my Devialet, and on occasion it is nice just to slide in a disc and listen. I sometimes borrow CD's, and have a habit of buying second hand CD's, very often these will have their first play on arrival as a physical disc, prior to being ripped. Perhaps only an emotional thing, but there is something a little nicer about playing a physical disc.
That said, Jean-Marie makes a good point ripping your existing CD's is probably the sensible choice. With regard to CD Player versus CD transport, some of us have been crawling over the various Devialet measurements that have been posted elsewhere. One thing these measurements appear to show is that the Devialet performs best via the S/PDIF input. OK - measurements are not everything, but my ears also tell me that very good results can be achieved with a CD player feeding the Devialet via S/PDIF.
For a long time I used an old Musical Fidelity CD player with my Devialet. This was not a transport, but did sound best via digital out. I have also tried my previous Blu-ray player, a Pioneer BDP-450, via digital out. To me this sounded nowhere near as good as the very much older Musical Fidelity CD player.
Over on my streaming thread, I have previously posted about the surprisingly good results that I got with a second hand Arcam BDP300. This is something that cost me £200 via Ebay, and feeding my Mutec MC3+USB, it actually performed just as well as the highly regarded sMS-200ultra Neo and tX-USBultra combination. When I tried the Arcam direct to the Devialet via S/PDIF, this too sounded excellent. A dedicated CD player should of course be even better than a "universal disc player" / Blu-ray player. That said, I did try the Arcam in a head to head with the much older Musical Fidelity dedicated CD player and the Arcam was best, so technology moves on and things get better. So even though this is digital feed only, the quality of the source does seem to matter.
So with more modern kit, I would say that very good results can be achieved for not much money. If spent wisely, your budget of $1000 CDN second hand could indeed get you something that would perform very well indeed.
A link to my streaming thread below. There are a few posts from here that mention the surprisingly good results I got from my cheap and cheerful "universal disc player".
https://devialetchat.com/Thread-A-Confus...7#pid86107
That said, Jean-Marie makes a good point ripping your existing CD's is probably the sensible choice. With regard to CD Player versus CD transport, some of us have been crawling over the various Devialet measurements that have been posted elsewhere. One thing these measurements appear to show is that the Devialet performs best via the S/PDIF input. OK - measurements are not everything, but my ears also tell me that very good results can be achieved with a CD player feeding the Devialet via S/PDIF.
For a long time I used an old Musical Fidelity CD player with my Devialet. This was not a transport, but did sound best via digital out. I have also tried my previous Blu-ray player, a Pioneer BDP-450, via digital out. To me this sounded nowhere near as good as the very much older Musical Fidelity CD player.
Over on my streaming thread, I have previously posted about the surprisingly good results that I got with a second hand Arcam BDP300. This is something that cost me £200 via Ebay, and feeding my Mutec MC3+USB, it actually performed just as well as the highly regarded sMS-200ultra Neo and tX-USBultra combination. When I tried the Arcam direct to the Devialet via S/PDIF, this too sounded excellent. A dedicated CD player should of course be even better than a "universal disc player" / Blu-ray player. That said, I did try the Arcam in a head to head with the much older Musical Fidelity dedicated CD player and the Arcam was best, so technology moves on and things get better. So even though this is digital feed only, the quality of the source does seem to matter.
So with more modern kit, I would say that very good results can be achieved for not much money. If spent wisely, your budget of $1000 CDN second hand could indeed get you something that would perform very well indeed.
A link to my streaming thread below. There are a few posts from here that mention the surprisingly good results I got from my cheap and cheerful "universal disc player".
https://devialetchat.com/Thread-A-Confus...7#pid86107
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
