Arcam CDS50 CD / SACD Player And Streamer

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by jl151080, May 28, 2018.

  1. Classicrock

    Classicrock Senior Member

    Location:
    South West, UK.
    If it's multi voltage as you have been told it will have a switch mode power supply. They are not voltage sensitive. This is why so many products now come with a very cheap or cheapish switch mode brick rather than a linear supply. Also notice plugs that adapt to all international formats. It's all about cost cutting and standardisation at this price level. If you want real quality you might get it at well over £1k components. If the guarantee is 5 years you should be good though. I expect hi-fi to last a lot longer without issues. Richer in UK offer extended 6 yr warranties at around 10% of price which is low by any measure over here. I always take one out on a disc transport! Bet the build of these new models is flimsy compared with the old FMJ product. Looks like they discontinued all the old FMJ players a while back and this is now their only CD player. Maybe more new products to follow?
     
  2. The Beave

    The Beave My Wife Is My Life! And don’t I forget it!

    Good Points.
    The build quality is the same as the previous fmj27 model. In fact the insides are identical to the 27, the only thing I can see it the upgrade of the DAC chip. The heftiness comes from a thick top cover, that's the thing that adds weight to the deck.
    The thing that is hard to wrap my head around is, except for OPPO decks, most Chinese Electronic Audio Products are nowhere near as beefy build wise, then their British or Japanese made kits, but specs don't lie and this new breed, specifically the CDS50, is THE BEST SOUNDING CD player I've ever owned, equaling my OPPO udp 205 with it's ESS Sabre 9038 chip.
    Bummer the thing is so quirky that I've put it back up for sale, it's quirkiness just drives me nuts.
    But amazing sound.
    beave
     
  3. Classicrock

    Classicrock Senior Member

    Location:
    South West, UK.
    Why not try running Chromecast Audio through the Oppo using a mini toslink to toslink cable? I believe you can access internet radio through the google app.
     
  4. The Beave

    The Beave My Wife Is My Life! And don’t I forget it!

    That's a thought!
    Beave
     
  5. The Beave

    The Beave My Wife Is My Life! And don’t I forget it!

    Well, in my craziness I’ve changed my mind ONCE AGAIN! :D
    Listening to the OPPO 105 for the past week three things became apparent to me,
    1) The 9018 DAC in the 105 is an excellent sounding DAC, but the 9038 chip in the Arcam and OPPO 205 do indeed to my ears, trounce it pretty dramatically in my system.
    2) I really don’t need internet streaming because I have HD radio, and that has both my favorite NPR station, but also on it’s sub channel has its internet stream of it’s 24 ‘Jazz 24’ channel. So the internet radio thing is neat, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t really need it, but if I do, on those occasions where I want to futz with it, I can always use the Arcam. And on my HD radio it gives me ALL the information about a song that’s playing, and the streamers, didn’t, I got info on bit rates and stuff like that, but no song information.
    3) The OPPO, While a Beautiful looking Blu Ray deck, makes an Ugly Looking Stereo component.
    It just doesn’t fit with the other components.

    So because of the clunkiness of the Arcam that drives me nuts my solution to the whole shebang is this:
    I’m putting the Arcam back into the Stereo and will use it as a DAC and occasion internet streaming.
    Then I bought an Audiolab 6000CDT, Which is a transport only unit that uses a front slot loading mechanism and incorporates a buffer for reading cds, but reviews are excellent and it doesn’t seem to have the quirks in operation that the Arcam has.
    This way I get the best of all worlds, an excellent transport that I can use with the Arcam or any other DAC I might get in the future, still can play my few SACD’S on the Arcam, and still get my Jazz station with my current HD radio. And if I come across an internet station I’m interested in I can use the Arcam for that.

    And the OPPO can go back to being a beautiful UDP in the video room and NOT be an Ugly Stereo component.

    So, a lot of experimenting with a lot of different setups/gear. Lotsa fun and frustration but in the end a setup that should fit my needs sound wise and aesthetically.
    Good Sunday to you all!
    Beave
     
    adamos likes this.
  6. adamos

    adamos Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southeastern PA
    Glad you worked out something that will be a good fit for you. I was surprised when you said you were giving up on it because you’d seemed very happy with the DAC and SACD player despite the streaming frustrations. So nice that you’ll still be able to use those.

    I’ve been thinking of getting a CDS50 to go with the Arcam SA20 integrated amplifier that I got a few months ago, but I do a lot of streaming (mainly of my own FLACs on a NAS drive) so the streaming quirks have put me off for now. Instead I’ve got a Bluesound Node 2i connected to the SA20 for streaming which is working for me.
     
  7. barturtle

    barturtle New Member

    Location:
    Louisville, ky
    I'm new here and doing much research to find the correct player to get the best (within my budget) out of my SACD/CD, but best I can tell, this doesn't seem to be true. The ESS Sabre 9038 seems to handle both DSD and DoP and is the same chip used in the well regarded (but discontinued) OPPO UDP-205.
     
  8. barturtle

    barturtle New Member

    Location:
    Louisville, ky
    Best I can tell the OPPO205 and the CDS50 are using the same ESS Sabre 9038 chip. I would think the processing chain for DSD would be the same for both players.
     
  9. The Beave

    The Beave My Wife Is My Life! And don’t I forget it!

    You are right, but some people have a phobia about anything NOT straight through DSD, which is their prerogative.
    The Arcam has many operational quirks, but I can say that in my experience, it is the best, most Analog sounding cd player I've ever had or heard, other than the OPPO 205, which has the same quality of sound.
    Absolutely Music to my ears.
    beave
     
    gfong likes this.
  10. The Beave

    The Beave My Wife Is My Life! And don’t I forget it!

    Well something happened last night that’s weird, I put on a Brubeck disc and wanted to repeat it overnight for the cats so I hit the mode button which I had previously done many times and it would go from REPEAT 1 to REPEAT (ALL) then a third push would take all the repeat options off and it reverted back to normal play. Again, I’ve done this many times but last night while going through the Repeat sequence all of the sudden I got two more options, SHUFFLE & RANDOM..........I never had these options before, never. And again I’ve played with the mode button many times and it always went from Repeat (all) to normal play.
    So I’m either crazy or this player is crazy, or maybe the Russians are hacking my player. :goodie:

    On the Audiolab 6000 front, I’ve been running into all sorts of problems trying to actually get one, now I know why these Brands are hard to get in the USA, their limited distribution seems to be through very flaky stores.
    At first I was going to buy it from Hi-Fi Heaven, who sells through Amazon and their own website, but then I read some of their Amazon feedback reviews and a lot of them are negative with one person saying they used Bait and Switch on him, not good.
    So then I ordered the unit from Sight And Sound Gallery and got an email from the owner saying they were totally out of stock of both colors and they would get more in the third week of May and if I kept the order active he would give me a 5% discount. So I did. Then yesterday I thought I’d email them and let them know that I’d take a Silver one if they didn’t get any black ones in the next shipment.
    I got a pretty quick response email back saying he found two units and to go ahead and order one and he’d get it shipped right out.
    Problem is, I already ordered it last week and the order was ‘pending’ in their system!
    So I let him know this and then all the emails stopped and nothing for the rest of the day.
    Called numerous times to the store and just got a voicemail tree.

    Then I looked up some yelp reviews of S&SG and they’re even worse than HiFi Heaven.....
    So now I have to wait to see if Amazon Pay can stop payment, my card hasn’t been charged yet, but they want him to cancel the order, can you see how crazy this has got?
    And I don’t know of any other US store selling the Audiolab line.
    So this is like pulling teeth. Insane how stupid this has gotten.

    So maybe I’ll have to try and find a UK seller that will ship to the USA and buy a step up transformer to use the unit here.
    But we’ll have to wait and see if Amazon can get this order canceled first.
    Strange journey isn’t it!
    Beave
     
  11. The Beave

    The Beave My Wife Is My Life! And don’t I forget it!

    This is just a weird deck.
    I wish I could get someone from OPPO to rewrite the firmware for it.
    So many bugs could be eliminated.
    Beave
     
  12. rebellovw

    rebellovw Forum Resident

    Location:
    hell
    Yeah I’m really digging the Marantz. Came very close to buying this one.
     
  13. helloall

    helloall Member

    Location:
    FIJI
    But I have to say the cdp sounds indeed good and has been behaving lately
     
  14. The Beave

    The Beave My Wife Is My Life! And don’t I forget it!

    Excellent!
    One thing I did over the weekend was open it back up because it was getting testy with a lot of cd's, I would load them and was getting 'bad disc' errors. Eject the tray and reload it and it would read it fine. Hmmmm.

    What I found was there is a round plastic cover over the top disc stabilizer.
    That cover is locked into place by rotating it clockwise until it snaps into a locked state.
    That was loose, it wasn't fully locked.
    I also opened the top transport cover and saw some debris on the rubber part of the spindle that I got off with scotch tape.
    Time will tell but for the rest of the night it didn't fail once.
    Beave
     
  15. helloall

    helloall Member

    Location:
    FIJI
    That happens very very rarely to me and hitting play again will source the problem. Also very rarely when I turn on the cdp, it will start but shut down very quickly. Then need to press on again to start it.
     
  16. The Beave

    The Beave My Wife Is My Life! And don’t I forget it!

    LOL...... it's like these things have a mind of their own.
    But I can easily see that plastic disc loose as it fits with other loose things I've seen inside my Chinese manufactured electronics.
    That piece was almost tight, they just needed to turn it very little to get it to snap into it's final position. But again, it is what it is.

    I did get my Audiolab 6000CDT yesterday and man is it a beut!! Beefy construction and it looks gorgeous.
    Beave
     
  17. helloall

    helloall Member

    Location:
    FIJI
    Hope you find what you want. I'm settled with mine though I do prefer a bit more warmth/sweetness.
     
  18. The Beave

    The Beave My Wife Is My Life! And don’t I forget it!

    I'll never find what I want, although I'll come close, but that's what makes the hobby fun!!
    Beave
     
  19. helloall

    helloall Member

    Location:
    FIJI
    Spent a day at a local audio show listening different systems and sources. Have to correct my earlier comment. The sound of the CDP is not bright at all. Actually very analog and retains a sweetness and extension. It can stand confidently against MUCH more expensive setup.
     
  20. *Zod*

    *Zod* Forum Resident

    Location:
    New England
    does this player have seamless flac transitions between tracks?
     
  21. *Zod*

    *Zod* Forum Resident

    Location:
    New England
    how come no usb on the front panel?
     
  22. The Beave

    The Beave My Wife Is My Life! And don’t I forget it!

    Because their stupid!
    Listen, I reached out to Arcam to come and join the group so they could get some feedback on the 50, what I got was an arrogant smug reply of “everyone has their own opinion” and a no thank you, so I know where they stand.
    The 50 is a very quirky piece of gear. Try switching from streaming to disc play and it stubbornly goes back to streaming. But they don’t care. And for its price point it does pack a lot of features for the price:
    32 bit dac
    Streamer
    SACD player
    CD player
    Now Elac just introduced a player that does just streaming, dac and is a preamp, but it doesn’t spin discs, going for $2499.00!
    So Arcam probably thinks it’s got the market cornered at its price point, especially using the ESS SABRE 9038 DAC, WHICH VERY FEW kits use at this price point. And a lot of companies are still using the ESS SABRE 9018 dac chip in kits going for much more money than the 50. And I’ve heard the arguments that it’s the implementation that’s more important to the final sound then the actual chip but I’ve done extensive listening to bot the 9038 chip and the 9018 chip that’s in the OPPO 105 and 95 decks, and although those decks 2 channel performance is excellent, the 9038 for MY EARS takes the digital realm into analog sounding music in a natural way that those chips can’t touch, it’s that clear to me. In fact I did put up my Arcam for sale a few months ago disgusted with its quirky ness and put my OPPO 105 into my stereo with the intent that it would be my go to stereo disc spinner.......after a couple of weeks it was apparent to me that the sound was not all there compared to the 50 with that 9038 chip, so I put the 50 back and on the first cd I played that analog warm detailed sound was back and I knew I had to live with the quirkiness.

    So, you can’t always get what you want, and I’ll say it again that it’s a shame that Arcam is as arrogant as they are because this deck, with just a few tweaks to the firmware, could function the way it should, but alas, it is what it is.
    Beave
     
    *Zod* and Alan Beasley like this.
  23. Classicrock

    Classicrock Senior Member

    Location:
    South West, UK.
    Sounds like they don't have decent programmers and put it out quite aware of the limitations. With a bit of good will and a small investment they could easily update the firmware. Have they actually ever provided firmware updates for their products through their website or is everybody stuck with the factory configurations? How did you get round the refusal to switch to disc play? That is beyond quirky. As an SACD player it is a bargain and way cheaper than most of their old FMJ models.
     
  24. lv70smusic

    lv70smusic Senior Member

    Location:
    San Francisco, CA
    They definitely released many updates for their 850 A/V receiver. Arcam was raked over the coals online by many people for quite a long time due to their implementation of Dirac for users with subwoofers; while their initial replies were dismissive, they eventually got around to a firmware update that addressed the criticisms.
     
  25. The Beave

    The Beave My Wife Is My Life! And don’t I forget it!

    Because their stupid!
    Listen, I reached out to Arcam to come and join the group so they could get some feedback on the 50, what I got was an arrogant smug reply of “everyone has their own opinion” and a no thank you, so I know where they stand.
    The 50 is a very quirky piece of gear. Try switching from streaming to disc play and it stubbornly goes back to streaming. But they don’t care. And for its price point it does pack a lot of features for the price:
    32 bit dac
    Streamer
    SACD player
    CD player
    Now Elac just introduced a player that does 3 of these things but DOESNT play sacd’s,
    How I get around it is to pop out the cd, then hit ‘disc’ again on the remote then it usually stays in the disc mode.
    And I agree with your points, all good ones by the way. It IS a bargain for its price and that’s the rub.
    Now if I’m in dac mode, because remember I bought an Audiolab 6000CDT transport to use with the 50, and I switch the Arcam to ‘disc’ it goes right to it and starts playing the disc, not a glitch.
    But I figure I got the best of all worlds here. I use the 6000 for normal cd playing, using the 50 as it’s dac, then if I want to play a SACD then I use the Arcam. Kinda crazy but when you look at it I paid $858 for the Arcam and $440 for the Audiolab, for a total of $1298, about the price of an original OPPO 205. But I’ve got all bases covered and the Audiolabs transportation kills the Arcams plus it’s got a read ahead buffer, so NO JITTER!
    AND THEY BOTH LOOK REALLY NICE IN THE RACK!:D
    Beave
     

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