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Arny Krueger
 
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Default Any difference between cheapo CD players and super expensive high end cd players?

"Guitarboy" wrote in message


I know a guy that just got a $1500 CD player. I mean i dont know about
you but while I understand purchasing an expensive turntable and
cartridge I have never heard any difference between CD players. If
there were a difference wouldn't you see some of these high priced cd
players poping up in high end studios? all i ever see are consumer
models. just wondering.


The differences among nominally competent CD players is today and in general
far less dramatic than the differences among turntables. Not to say that all
CD players sound identically the same, but many of them are very difficult
to distinguish sonically.

Being mechanical, and representing legacy technology there are few if any
technological forces that would cause the price of a turntable/arm with a
given level of performance to decrease. It has always been pretty easy to
sonically distinguish between various turntables/arms/cartrdiges/preamps as
typically used, and it requires fairly close matching of
turntable/arm/cartridge/preamp parameters to make distinguishing them even
slightly challenging for a trained listener.

In contrast, being digital and being current technology, there are powerful
forces that can and have caused dramatic drops in the cost of CD players
with a given level of performance. It can be very difficult to distinguish
between a $150 DVD player and a $1500 CD player in a carefully-run
comparison. That would be a comparison that is level-matched,
time-synchronized and blind.