When did you start getting Good sound from CDs?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Robin L, Oct 20, 2014.

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  1. erniebert

    erniebert Shoe-string audiophile

    Location:
    Toronto area
    I never could get good sounds out of my CDs!
     
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  2. detroit muscle

    detroit muscle MIA

    Location:
    UK
    From the get go.
     
  3. Lovealego

    Lovealego Senior Member

    For me it was less about the player and more about my first real set of speakers.
    I had a small sony discman headphone out to a crap all in one Yorx stereo. I bought the Cambridge Soundworks Ensemble II Sub/Sat system and hooked it up to an old Fisher Receiver my dad gave to me at the same time with a new Magnavox CDB502. That was an amazing upgrade from the "Yorx" Stereo I had before it. The new sound had me in the music stores buying cds on a regular basis. This would have been 1990 ish.
     
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  4. Threshold

    Threshold Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Manchester NH
    When I added a used California Tube Dac to my Marantz cd player.
     
  5. Galley

    Galley Forum Resident

    Oct. 1985
     
  6. I'd say by 1988.
     
  7. apesfan

    apesfan "Going Ape"

    When I tried a CD in my Pioneer laserdisc Mash 1 bit after having the overblown Phillips 960. I realized how to buy and then I got a CAL lab dx-1 and CD was for me forever, 1994 Cal Lab dx-1 started my quest for the best. John M.
     
  8. head_unit

    head_unit Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA USA
    I started getting SOME aspects of good sound right away-even on a portable player going into a cassette adaptor! That led me to believe that the vast reduction in wow-and-flutter etc was a big deal to my brain. On the other hand, listening to a Phase Linear CD player, the sound was…well…digital (not in a good sense of the word). My Magnavox CDB650 sounded better side-by-side.

    I think "good sound" from CDs began when they began using masters that were not EQ'd for vinyl cutting!
     
  9. When I got rid of my Carver Time Lens cd player.
     
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  10. GuildX700

    GuildX700 Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Started out with a cheap player with cheap sound to go along with it. About 1989 I scored my Sansui CD-X711 player, still have it, now in a mixed vintage system. A very nice sounding player that gave me a good taste of decent digital.
     
  11. molinari

    molinari Forum Resident

    Location:
    new york city
  12. Bob_in_OKC

    Bob_in_OKC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dallas, Texas
    I thought I got very decent sound from my Pioneer PD7050 that I bought in 1987. It was probably better than my Marantz 6100 turntable, but I don't remember for sure.
     
  13. 80sjunkie

    80sjunkie Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dallas, Texas
    My portable Panasonic with MASH says it was built in 1996, so then. Couldn't afford anything fancy, so I'm strictly talking consumer-grade stuff for the decade and a half leading up to 1996.
     
  14. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    I never got there completely. But come January I will buy a nice DAC and maybe then I can find happiness.

    The CD format for me has been a way to enjoy my music without wearing out my precious vinyl copies with every play.

    The CDs are just tin discs in plastic cases. And now they are becoming files on a hard drive. Just there to surf over from Ron Carter to John Zorn, from George Jones to the Partridge Family.

    I don't expect real high quality sound out if them anymore. I might be surprised but not holding my breath anymore.
     
  15. tim185

    tim185 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Australia
    Since I added RME 8 channel conversion to the studio, digital playback now sounds really really good, still prefer LP's though. Some fall short, many are as good, and many better digital playback here.
     
  16. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Some CDs really do top the LPs. But it's not the audiophile, not the Classical or Rock nor Jazz.

    Surprisingly for me it's the cases when the labels drag out the original masters for some long ago almost forgotten hit singles artists. The Box Tops Soul Deep collection. Or Guess Who Anthology, or a Shirelles comp on Rhino where they might have remixed from 3-track, or found true masters not used in 35 years (previously used only to make copy tapes from).

    There are some revelations we have all come across where it is about source tapes, not the format.

    But I do like the way CDs deal with inner groove distortion.
     
    Last edited: Oct 21, 2014
  17. DaleH

    DaleH Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southeast
    Never, but I gave up early, about the time no-noise came out. My loss.
     
  18. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    When I got my first CD player while in college, the lovely little Sony CDP-310, in 1987.

    [​IMG]

    One of the first affordable units with a digital filter, it must have had an impressive analog amp in it, because it had a smooth, refined sound - none of the harshness that characterized a lot of other early units.

    Had a very hefty, solid feel as well. And I loved the colorful LCD display - a nice warmer contrast to harsh fluoroscopic and LED displays. For awhile there it looked like Sony was going to implement them across their product lines, but then they returned to using fluoroscopics except on portables.
     
  19. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    That looks like the one I had! Yes smooth sound, nicest one I ever owned. I sold it to a friend and got a 5-disc changer. That was a drag to hear my new player did not sound as good as the old one. How could that be, both were Sony?????
     
  20. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore Thread Starter

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    Good job!
     
  21. gd0

    gd0 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies

    Location:
    Golden Gate
    Freaky.
     
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  22. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    They'd probably moved on to one of the early 1-bit D/A converters.

    I'm not a fan.

    They've subsequently gotten better...

    (Also, they started skimping on the analog amps and such on all but the most expensive models. Arguably can make a MUCH greater difference than the D/A converter.)

    My uncle got his first CD player around the same time, my CPD-310's bigger brother, the Sony CDP-510. I loved his player as well.

    [​IMG]

    I cannot for the life of me remember what happened to it. My CDP-310 was stolen less than a year or so after I got it, along with the rest of my beloved Sony rack system (itself only 3 years old). I know at one point in the early '90s he replaced his 510 with a turntable-based Sony changer and I inherited the 510. I think at some point I replaced it with a Technics turntable changer which I never thought sounded quite as good. I don't remember donating it to Goodwill, so I must have given it to a friend.

    Eventually I got an HDCD-decoding Toshiba DVD changer, which I loved - smoothest sounding player since the Sony - but which died after just a couple of years. That sucked. Replaced it with that little silver Pioneer that played SACDs and DVD-Audio discs, which was a great unit for the price. By that point though I had ripped my CD collection and was streaming everything to my h/k receiver, which truth be told has a better D/A converter than any CD player I've ever owned.
     
  23. weirdo12

    weirdo12 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    I did get a nice Sony CD player in 1985 that served me well for years but they did sound better when I started playing CD's I'd ripped and listened to for years through a PC sound card through a Arcam rDAC via USB. That was good. My Bel Canto REFLink and Chord QuteHD combo is great. The question wasn't about great CD players...
     
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  24. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore Thread Starter

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    I don't know if I'd say "this is an improvement over LPs", more like "LP does these things right and CD does these things right but neither does everything right." The things CDs always do better than LPs are speed stability and background noise. In fact, as regards speed stability, LP has yet to catch up with CDs.
     
  25. The FRiNgE

    The FRiNgE Forum Resident

    CD's didn't get off the ground like LP's did for me. I couldn't wait to get my hands on the new shining discs. In 1984, I purchased a Yamaha CD-X2 and the very early Target discs. I was immediately disappointed, the CD-x2 advertised as a warmer sounding player, however that was overstated. So much was missing, no life, no inner detail. Sure, there wasn't any noise, and those sensational Telarc discs did impress, but that was all. Among the lifeless Hall of Fame CD's were Boz Scaggs "Silk Degrees"(MIJ Columbia, no ambience and dull) Michael Jackson "Off the Wall" (the currently valuable one) Linda Ronstadt's Gtst Hits Target (abysmal) Judy Collins "Judith" Target (dry and grainy) Other discs fared worse, shrill and brittle, "Elvis Golden Records vol. 1" (ice pick vocal) Fleetwood Mac "Rumors" (MIJ Warner, shrill sounding) The Doors "LA Woman" (1st CD target in wide box w/ plastic insert, shrill and dry as a bone) Does anyone remember "digital ready"? What a joke that was!

    The earliest discs and players were awful, but soon after improved.

    My first experience of getting good sound from CD's happened recently via an NAD T-550 DVD player. I have through the years enjoyed CD's mostly for their convenience and reliable acceptable sound quality. The NAD outperforms other players I had on hand, the Pioneer PDR-609, Philips CDR-880, Marantz CD-52, Marantz DV-7000. The DV-7000 comes close. The NAD lacks in read time and search speed, (very retarded) but its gorgeous open sound is worth the annoyance to me. The NAD is the first to really impress me, apparently great fidelity to be unleashed in the one's and zeros in many of the red book discs.
     
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