My system: Ascend Acoustic 340s/170s rear with HK 435 avr.
When looking for a cd player I found myself gravitating towards the marantz cd player at accessoriesforless people have talked about.
Only problem is that all the reviews say how warm and laid back it is. Now I really like my own system's warm and rich sound, but before I bought it my favorite speaker experience was some nice metal dome tweeter speakers I had in my old car. Very different sound, and I miss some of that sometimes.
So I was thinking maybe getting a more bright or forward cd player to bring a little of that magic back and/or balance out an already laid back sound of my current system.
I'm looking for something relatively cheap. $150-$300 price range. Currently I'm just using my Panasonic s77 cd player, which all in all, isn't that bad.
I actually found the NAD c542 to be warmer than the Marantz, which I would actually characterize more as on the crisp side of neutral. It has a nice sparkle and pop dynamism.
On the other hand if you truly want "bright" then keep your s77, or try a Pioneer universal player.
Jeffrey-WNY
Unregistered guest
Posted on
This is from a review of the Panasonic S-97; an engineer took it apart and was impressed by its internal components:
I was surprised by the high quality components used in the player given the price -- Panasonic's positioning in the high volume, low margin end of the consumer electronics market must give them good purchasing power. Their philosophy seems to be to select components that are just one step below flagship, allowing superior (but not "state of the art") performance for a much lower cost.
On the underside of the board are four sets of Burr Brown PCM1791 DACs (each handling two channels) plus JRC 4580 dual-channel op amps. The PCM1791 is an "advanced segment" DAC (hybrid ladder/delta sigma) delivering 113dB S/N and 0.001% THD+N. It is capable of generating full scale analogue output voltage, so the JRC 4580 op amps are presumably used as low pass filters for analogue reconstruction. Altogether, the four sets of DACs and op amps provide eight channels out audio, allowing (possibly downmixed) 2-ch and 5.1-ch analogue outputs to be active simultaneously. In terms of quality, the PCM1791 and JRC 4580 combo is not bad, and obviously chosen for cost considerations. The flagship PCM1792 plus NJM5534 combo would have been better, but would have been much more expensive and required more power. In addition there is a BA5838FM DVD/CD controller, and SDR RAM (about 24MB in total across three chips).
All in all, I would say the player is very well designed, with an obvious focus on cost but also some thought towards quality where possible. This is a design that leverages the economies of scale and the custom IC design capabilities based on Panasonic's status as a high volume major electronics manufacturer, and the player would have been a lot more expensive if it was designed and manufactured by a second tier or boutique vendor, so we are getting great value for money here. The DVD-S97 delivered superb audio performance given the price, with no obvious signs of digital artifacts typical with low-end and mid-priced players. However, compared to a higher reference, the player can sound a bit heavy and ponderous and uncertain, with high frequencies perhaps a bit recessed and lacking conviction. The audio quality for the price is fantastic, but again if you only want the best of the best, look further (but be prepared to spend a LOT more!) In the end, given the array of features and configurability available, I would have to strongly recommend this player. If it's not the "best of the best" in terms of audio/video quality, it is at least very close. Given the price of the player, I would say the value for money is unbeatable.