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wrote:
On 14 Jan 2005 00:31:28 GMT, B&D wrote:

If you cannot give an example of a $5k player that sounds "as good" as
a
$500 one, then it would be good to just say so.

There's been much talk here about the differences between $5k and $500 CD
players. I'd be interested in hearing from those who think there isn't much
audible difference. How low can one go with the low priced unit before
you're not willing to make the same statement?

I own CD players that cost me $9, $10, $25, $30 & $150. The $10 player (a
portable) had many grave design defects; I consider it a failure. But the
other ones sound identical--identical to each other, and identical to a Rega
Planet to which they were compared. Not just to me, but also to other
people with excellent hearing who were strongly motivated to detect a
difference.

Norm

I have a Pioneer universal player that costs about $130, and I can't
tell that apart from another much more expensive player *after* I made
sure that the output levels are matched. It is very easy to tell
differences if they don't have the same levels, and I suspect that is
what happens when you listen to them in the showroom.

Mr. Lavo raved about a Panasonic player that sold for less than $100, so
that's another data point.

I also read the Stereophile review on the Apple iPod, and it measured
very well against stand-alone CD players, playing uncompressed files. I
suspect that there may be some detectible degradations in the cheap
portables, though.