When did you start getting Good sound from CDs?

Here's a prime example. There's a fair number of copies of Walter Geseking's last recording of Beethoven's "Emperor" concerto on the late 1960s reissue for Seraphim floating around, there's also a CD reissue of the same that came out in the early 1990's. The original recording is very early stereo, 1956 or so. The LP is off center on side two of every copy I have owned, something on the order of six copies. So the slow and harmonically relativly static slow movement is sea-sick throughout. The CD has no issues with "wow" though the transfer exposes the inherent flutter of the old tape they used for the transfer. Maybe it was a second or third generation tape, I don't know. But the CD has audible flutter. Now try the recent Yefim Bronfman/David Zinman/Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich recording on Arte Nova, a fine, if not extraordinary, bit of audio engineering that manages to get out of the way of the music. No contest.

On the other hand, that near contemporaneous recording of Rhapsody In Blue? Stellar on the original six-eye Columbia LP.

I doubt I'd get a recording as recent as the Lang Lang on vinyl as the original's digital and given the option, I'd opt for a CD or SACD. I have heard LPs with digital masters or intermasters that are better on LP, but that seems to be strictly on a case by case basis and not all that common.

 

Yes, for me too it was the Meridian.

 

CDs and AlNiCo magneted speakers were made for each other soundwise... even though they weren't.

Seems to me: the AlNiCo speakers take a lot, not all, of the harshness out of the CDs (digital) sound. Sounds better, at least.

Don't presently use it with my new amp but: a BBE-462 Sonic Maximizer really helps the CDs sound too... for regular Mid-Fi vintage stereos. Amazingly so.

For 'vintage' stereos: the sound combination, for CDs, of the AlNiCo(s) and the BBE-462 is quite nice, impressive really.

 

Did you use Ultrapure Water, Distilled Water, Reagent grade water or tap water? Oops, wrong thread!

 

This notion that gets cast around about the harshness of CD. I have no idea, none, what on earth people are listening to music on, or if they've gone through life with ears stuffed with cotton wool.

Really, finding CDs that sound good is remarkably easy....here's a starter for you. Get a hold of the Three Colours Red soundtrack. Lovely.

 

There have been incremental improvements over the years through various player upgrades (Philips, Meridian, Marantz, Sony), but none as dramatic as my recent Esoteric K-03 SACD/CD player!

 

My first CD player what really gave my analog enough of a run for its money that I stopped actively pursuing vinyl was my CAL Alpha-Delta combo.