Thread: Any audiophiles here? Need advice

I've been wanting to get a CD player for ages, but always felt naive towards what to look for and overwhelmed by the varities. At the moment I listen to my CDs through my PS3/TV.

What should I look into? Stand alone players, hi fi's, speakers? I want something simple, not expensive, and nothing too grand. Just simply to play CD's with decent sound.

Cheers

Perhaps a small hi-fi system would do. A integrated unit that usually comes with a CD player, radio tuner, USB capability, some sort of equalizer and a pair of speakers. Some of these systems also have pretty nice designs. Anyway, unless you buy something terribly cheap, you should get a much better sound experience than through your TV.

Personally, I use a CD player plus amplifier and headphones.

But there are also rather good PC speaker systems out there, so if your PC can play CDs, you could also consider that, which might be the least expensive option.

[QUOTE=jdk;373633]I've been wanting to get a CD player for ages, but always felt naive towards what to look for and overwhelmed by the varities. At the moment I listen to my CDs through my PS3/TV.

Playstation 3

Actually gamers have very discerning taste! They do tend to buy the latest and the greatest.

Audio hi-fi has gone down the chute with those awful multi-media black boxes which play everything from DVDs, CDs, SACDs, Blue-Ray etc.

If you're on a budget, it's really worthwhile thinking about the whole audio system, rather than just a part: that is the source material (e.g. CD player) + interconnects (cables) + Pre-Amp (Signal purity) + Amplifier (self-explanatory) + cables + speakers.

Your cheapest quality bet would be to do some research and get something like a 24bit Burr Brown DAC CD player (probably ~US$200 and 1990's vintage pre-amps+amps+ speakers. The 'vintage' high era of the market upped in the 1990's and then just went downhill to mostly plastic crud boxes will all singing, shaving, red lights and beacons flashing gaming console music boxes with automatic beer chillers and popcorn dispensers.

I might be wrong, but several hundred $ cheaper for the sound quality: the modern stuff just went 'satellite' for surround sound systems, made in cheaper labour countries with expensive western labels.

The www.hi-fi.org site is pretty good for guidance, even on non-headphone stuff. If you're a frequent traveller and adamant on travelling with CDs, the market for contemporary portable CD players is really slim. They are mostly budget cheap things with limited functions (like ... no optical output for direct recording; no line-ins; cruddy built-in amps and promises of non-skip functions which skip all the time). The cheapest highest quality portable sound system I've found, is a top end mini-disc player, with a portable amplifier + high class closed backed headphones. You have the inconvenience of ripping your CDs onto minidisc, but at least that way, you don't scratch the CDs. There is the cassette player, but I think in this phase of 'blitz-technology', most people don't get it. The tape cassette lasted for over 50 years: can we say the same about iPods, when CDs have only been around for about 30 years...?

I often get asked why I like tape cassettes: high quality amp; warm non-clinical non-harsh and smoother dynamic sound compared to the overly bright metallic and grainy CD sound. Granted, you probably aren't on such a 'budget' that you're going to be reduced to buying a tape cassette player lol.

I like tapes: it reminds me of the passage of time. You have no sense of this with an iPod; temporal amnesia, and the obliteration of careful music programming for the listener, is a part of this technology's legacy. The listener is supposed to know best, and just creates his own 24hr/7s jukebox.

Anyway, granddad speech over. If you're listening to music from your t.v., you could try listening to it on headphones first, to see if you notice any improvement. Try some decent ones - like the Ultrasones Pro900s or above or something from the stables of AKG and Audio-Technica for the same price range. You might not need speakers...

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I agree with Head_case, you can get a very good s/h system for a relatively small outlay.
I have an old Rotel cd (built like a tank) very minimal and understated looks, but very nice, imho, sound. Cost £300 in the 80's I bought it for £40
I also have a couple of amps, the one I use most is a "T" amp (based on the ta2020 tripath chip, hence the name) It's very small and runs cool. A bit of a giant killer, sound wise. There are several different versions from very cheap Chinese (watch for some of them, as they have variable build quality) to higher end models for several hundred pounds.
I don't know where you are in the world? But there are several good websites around.
A lot depends on where you are going to be listening too it? the room can make large differences in what kit would be best
Happy hunting.

Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated I have been browsing around in stores, checking out sites and I think a mini hi-fi is the best way to go under my circumstances. I am on a budget... but I've found a good deal on a hi-fi, 360W, Sony, which I'm leaning towards. I use my ipod on the go, but at home I just need music to blast through the air

Hey JDK -

the small mini (or micro) hi-fis tend to be mostly consumer models. I wouldn't be surprised if that 360W isn't RMS and is just peak power.

Of the smaller micro/mini consumer hifis, the Onkyo and the Technics models were pretty audiophile like. Sony ...probably not. Bass heavy and little audio signal purity. But a very nice lifestyle package.

Depending on what music you like to listen to, it can be very hard to listen at soft volumes with a micro system, without struggling to hear it. On a tube/valve amp system, rather than transistor based (like the Sony), you get a warmth and richness, which is very suited to classical music (but not always the hard drive of metal and rock).

The Onkyo system gets a lot of respect: the Japanese sound engineers really know their stuff, and although they are commercial mainstream (not as mainstream as Sony though), their developments make them popular, as do their traditional values for sound. You can get a non-internet stream version for around 60% of the cost of the live stream version:

http://www.whathifi.com/news/onkyo-m...nboard-spotify

Originally Posted by Head_case

The Onkyo system gets a lot of respect: the Japanese sound engineers really know their stuff, and although they are commercial mainstream (not as mainstream as Sony though), their developments make them popular, as do their traditional values for sound.

Yes. My first hi-fi consisted of a set of Onkyo components. This was in 1993. Great overall quality. The CD player lasted around 15 years, and the amp is still going strong to this day I hear (I gave it to a friend of mine some years ago).

The small systems are fine. The starter home theater systems you can get at most discount stores are crap. I actually play a lot through a cheap boom box, it has speakers built in.

Other than that you may need to look in Amazon for an old fashioned two channel amp, speakers and CD player. Actually, the cheapest solution is a 40 dollar DVD player to play CDs. You plug in the two stereo lines to amp, leave off the video cable. It will simply play the CD track by track. Multi CD changers are more expensive.

I have this amp. Has worked for a year. Match speakers according to watts stated. I have I think 50 W speakers.
http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-TX-8255B...uner+amplifier

here is a single CD player
http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-C-7030-C...ref=pd_sim_e_5

You are not going to hear differences in CD players, the stereo is the sound.

I like tapes: it reminds me of the passage of time. You have no sense of this with an iPod; temporal amnesia, and the obliteration of careful music programming for the listener, is a part of this technology's legacy. The listener is supposed to know best, and just creates his own 24hr/7s jukebox.

I have no problem saying, for my own listening pleasure, I DO know best. One can still listen to full albums on an iPod; in fact I usually do. And using an iPod doesn't mean you never leave the programming in someone else's hands; there are plenty of internet radios available for use on mobile devices.

Originally Posted by jdk

I've been wanting to get a CD player for ages, but always felt naive towards what to look for and overwhelmed by the varities. At the moment I listen to my CDs through my PS3/TV.

What should I look into? Stand alone players, hi fi's, speakers? I want something simple, not expensive, and nothing too grand. Just simply to play CD's with decent sound.

Cheers

You would need to state your budget. For the best sound you would need separates; an integrated amp (or receiver), CDP, and bookshelf speakers. And it is better to buy used hi-end gear than a package deal of new chinese-built crap. I would not recommend Sony amps or speakers, but I agree that Onkyo would be a great way to go.
And please take ur time starting with online research. I have made several purchasing mistakes that wasted about $1000.

Originally Posted by Andreas

Yes. My first hi-fi consisted of a set of Onkyo components. This was in 1993. Great overall quality. The CD player lasted around 15 years, and the amp is still going strong to this day I hear (I gave it to a friend of mine some years ago).

Lol. My first 'hi-fi' was the size of a coffin and had flashing disco lights with a 5x multi-CD changer, built in radio, shaver, FTSE stock index index and calculator with automatic beer dispenser made by Aiwa.

It was boomy horrible but I loved it. What teenager wouldn't

The Onkyo are really respectable; I slip mine in my luggage when I work away from home for long periods. The laser can be replaced after it wears. The mini- TEAC systems are up there along with the Onkyo: I see Onkyo's mini system receiver has won the What Hi-Fi Award for this year again.

You're spot on about their amplifiers: I still have my mini-amplifiier which has outputs for four speakers. It can be daisy-chained to another amp to achieve a real punch of a sound.

This is my main CD player:



It was produced by an English company called Musical Fidelity. Its sound is incredibly transparent and analytically detailed. They stopped making them back in the 90's, but upgraded it with uglier modern black boxes. I still prefer the vintage classic. The amp system for the Musical Fidelity X series is just incredible.

Music Fidelity is still building excellent HiFi gear.

My budget was very little, so $200 mark was my budget but this hi fi (I thought) was best in the range, and got $100 off RRP online. That said, I've bought a hi fi and can happily say listening to classical is amazing, amongst my other genres. It's 360 Watts RMS, 12 ohms... honestly still not sure if that's good but for the price, I'm very happy with the sound I'm getting from it.

Thanks again for all the advice and help In future reference with a higher budget, I'll confidently know what to look for.

Cheers

I find it hilarious that there are people that spend $25+ a meter on cables for their hi-fi equipment. The signal path involved in recording their chosen music has inevitably been through many meters of comparatively cheap wire, outboard and patch bays.

Originally Posted by Mesa

I find it hilarious that there are people that spend $25+ a meter on cables for their hi-fi equipment. The signal path involved in recording their chosen music has inevitably been through many meters of comparatively cheap wire, outboard and patch bays.

1. Not necessary, but not the cheapest either.

2. Maybe China or Russia.