Hi,

I am currently using a 30wpc Luxman LX33 Tube amplifier with Vandersteen 1C
speakers and a Panasonic DVD/CD Player DVD-F65 5 disc changer. Will
upgrading the cd player make a big difference in the sound? What is a good
cd player with a warm, sweet sound for jazz? Thank you.

"Alon Wolman" wrote in message
news:%VIuc.21574$pt3.9924@attbi_s03...
Hi,

I am currently using a 30wpc Luxman LX33 Tube amplifier with Vandersteen
1C
speakers and a Panasonic DVD/CD Player DVD-F65 5 disc changer. Will
upgrading the cd player make a big difference in the sound? What is a good
cd player with a warm, sweet sound for jazz? Thank you.

I aplogize in advance for this long reply, but I do answer your
question directly below. Feel free to skip the longwindedness.

I believe that you asked earlier about upgrading your speakers to
Vandersteen 2, and whether your Luxman would drive them. A couple
of people, including me, suggested that it would not really do. So I
take it that you have decided to stay with your Vandy 1 and are
looking for a better place to spend your money, and are now considering
the CD player.

I think that you have a fine system as it is. Everything seems well
suited for everything else, in my opinion. And that's the problem,
and I've been there. The result was spending money needlessly.

If you want to upgrade meaningfully, you are talking in the range of $5,000:
integrated amp w/100 watts per channel for $1-$1.5 thousand;
speakers in the range of $2,500-$3,000. A Musical Fidelity CD player
will run $1,500, but you can consider Cambridge, which
my friend reports being very musical and a bargain at around $500.

Such a system will deliver. And if you keep your current system as
a second system, you will come back to it time and again and marvel
at how close it comes to the one to which you upgraded. This does
not mean to say you should not upgrade, but that when you do upgrade,
you should wait until you can afford (don't borrow!) a system that knocks
your socks off.

Good luck on whatever you decide!

Curt Simon

On 6/5/04 8:26 PM, in article Hwtwc.50289$eY2.48726@attbi_s02, "Curt Simon"
wrote:

I think that you have a fine system as it is. Everything seems well
suited for everything else, in my opinion. And that's the problem,
and I've been there. The result was spending money needlessly.

If you want to upgrade meaningfully, you are talking in the range of $5,000:
integrated amp w/100 watts per channel for $1-$1.5 thousand;
speakers in the range of $2,500-$3,000. A Musical Fidelity CD player
will run $1,500, but you can consider Cambridge, which
my friend reports being very musical and a bargain at around $500.

I would put speakers as #1, & amplifier to drive them.

If you like your amplifier and want new speakers - a set of high efficiency
ones would do well (JM Labs springs to mind - efficiencies usually around
91dB or so)

A new CD -- you shouldn't need to spend much more than $1000 on a really
good one. The NAD C541i or 542 will run ~ $500 new and will match just
about anything up to about $1500.

Indeed, I am currently very satisfied. That means just about everyday I'm
like 'wow that sounds good'. It's hard to believe this amp (Japanese made)
is still working. My dad bought it new in the early 1980's. None of the
lights work anymore, though, and the amp does not have the cleanest sound
I've ever heard. If you turn the volume all the way down you can hear a
little buzz with headphones. By clean I mean having full detail and
complexity in the sound, without any added noise. Most of the detail is
there, not a lot of noise, and it's an extremely *warm*, fat, spread sound
especially with the Vandersteen's which are themselves very warm. My
friend's solid-state Denon amp had more clarity and sharpness in the sound
but not as much warmth and musicality and roundness. That's my impression.
When I am ready to upgrade I will follow your advice, though, sounds good to
me, and I will definately keep this as a second system. Right now I am
working on getting a better sound from my computer, which is hooked up to
the same system. I recently ordered a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card but
it has not arrived yet so I can't comment on it. Currently the sound I get
out of my computer, whether using a sound card or onboard audio is much
lower quality than the sound I get from my cd player. It is much noisier
(yes you can hear the computer accessing drives, memory, etc, in the form of
electronic static in the background.) I am hoping to get better results from
the Turtle Beach sound card. And that I got for $30. It is true I might have
been better off with an external card with RCA jacks (this one only has mini
stereo outs) but I figured it wouldn't affect the sound quality that much.


"Curt Simon" wrote in message
news:Hwtwc.50289$eY2.48726@attbi_s02...
"Alon Wolman" wrote in message
news:%VIuc.21574$pt3.9924@attbi_s03...
Hi,

I am currently using a 30wpc Luxman LX33 Tube amplifier with Vandersteen
1C
speakers and a Panasonic DVD/CD Player DVD-F65 5 disc changer. Will
upgrading the cd player make a big difference in the sound? What is a
good
cd player with a warm, sweet sound for jazz? Thank you.

I aplogize in advance for this long reply, but I do answer your
question directly below. Feel free to skip the longwindedness.

I believe that you asked earlier about upgrading your speakers to
Vandersteen 2, and whether your Luxman would drive them. A couple
of people, including me, suggested that it would not really do. So I
take it that you have decided to stay with your Vandy 1 and are
looking for a better place to spend your money, and are now considering
the CD player.

I think that you have a fine system as it is. Everything seems well
suited for everything else, in my opinion. And that's the problem,
and I've been there. The result was spending money needlessly.

If you want to upgrade meaningfully, you are talking in the range of
$5,000:
integrated amp w/100 watts per channel for $1-$1.5 thousand;
speakers in the range of $2,500-$3,000. A Musical Fidelity CD player
will run $1,500, but you can consider Cambridge, which
my friend reports being very musical and a bargain at around $500.

Such a system will deliver. And if you keep your current system as
a second system, you will come back to it time and again and marvel
at how close it comes to the one to which you upgraded. This does
not mean to say you should not upgrade, but that when you do upgrade,
you should wait until you can afford (don't borrow!) a system that knocks
your socks off.

Good luck on whatever you decide!

Curt Simon