Edster's budget CDP shootout results...
A. Shop's system:
NAD c372 integrated amp, Monitor Reference towers, some very expensive-looking flat fiber-optic-looking cables.
B. Contestants:
1. Sony CA7-ES carousel
2. Pioneer 563 universal player
3. Marantz 4300 carousel
4. NAD c542
C. Audition CD:
I brought five or six, but ended up mostly using the Norah Jones "Come Away With Me" CD because the shop had a copy too.
D. General impressions:
Well I have to give it to the CDP-Skeptics: differences DO exist, but for me were quite subtle for the most part. Certainly not anywhere as night-and-day as there can be with speakers and amps.
E. Specific impressions:
The Pioneer certainly had the harshest sound to my ears...Norah's voice became shrill and flat, quite unpleasant. Quick elimination.
The biggest surprise: my Sony ES was very very close to the NAD c542 in sound quality! After replaying the same 10 seconds of one of the songs on both machines, I did notice that the NAD had a slight edge in midrange smoothness and longer decay but they were neck and neck in every other respect.
The dark horse CDP: the Marantz 4300 had a very interesting and distinct sound---crisp, kinetic (as in snap crackle pop), and nice punchy bass notes. I noticed that its volume level was noticeably lower than the others for some reason; I always had to increase the amp's volume whenever I switched back to it from another CDP.
Of all of the CDPs I discovered that the Sony was the easiest to skip forwards and backwards within the same track. Ease of use and features were also superior.
Right now though I am finding that the NAD's slight improvement in midrange smoothness and the Marantz's punchy bass and very interesting delivery not quite enough to override my need to upgrade the subwoofer.
It is possible though that I should've brought more duplicate CDs of different musical genres, instead of basing my findings on just one CD. What do you guys think?
Also the shop guy recommended a different technique on auditioning than mine, which I tried for about 10 minutes before going back to mine.
My technique: isolate and analyze. I choose particular passages of individual songs (usually 10-20 seconds) and play them over and over again on different CDPs in quick succession at fairly high volumes (80db or so) and listen closely...often these are passages with sudden reversals, crescendos, etc.
His technique: globally listen. He recommended listening to several songs on one CDP to sort of "get the feel" fo it and arrive at whatever emotional state the musical presentation brings out, then listen to those songs again on a different CDP, again going with your gut reaction to the music. Supposedly your unconscious mind knows the difference, and you just have to give it a chance to do its work by stepping away from too much conscious analysis, kind of like how sometimes you go to bed thinking about some problem and when you wake up in the morning you have a Eureka moment as the answer pops up out of nowhere.
Very Zen-like, really, which I should like since I have been doing Zen meditation for the last couple of years---but to me it allows in far too many variables and also my knowledge that humans have an aural memory of about 3 seconds doesn't inspire much confidence.
Also ironic, because in my own personal life and philsophical orientation, I have very much of a mystical perspective but with audio I tend to lean the other direction.