I'm far from qualified to answer your question Dave, but I will say this. IMO you can't imply sonic excellence (or ineptness) based on any number that is listed above....no matter what the value. I think understanding your personal goals and preferences and the design goals of the designer are more likely to indicate whether a piece of kit is likely to scratch your itch or not.
Good point Chris. I guess what I'm looking for is a baseline for what is considered "good", then taking it from there. Personal preference and system synergy I would imagine are much more important.
The output voltake nd impedence are useful, to see if the output will match that of other componants, making for even volume with a given vc position, and not the terror of playing a source with a very large output right after a source with a very small one.
CD specs are largely the same across the board. You won't find your answer in these simple numbers. Yes, higher sampling rates will help but in 99% of the material you'll want you're limited by the source disc to 44/16.
So do you want to spend the money for a unit that upsamples? A good one isn't cheap and you still have no more information from the disc, all upsampling of 44/16 allows is a better filter action above 20kHz with less aliasing of the frequencies beneath that point - slightly less hash.
Slightly less hash doesn't equate to anything in particular, not better staging, not better timbre and not better pacing. That's either in the design of the unit or it's not. Looking at CD player specs is like looking at any other spec, the numbers are too broad to have much significance.
You really have to read a bit and then listen a lot. You have more than enough options right now, with high quality DAC's going for a few hundred dollars to several thousand. The Benchmark DAC is one of the best values from all reports. Plug it into an Oppo player (or better) for a transport and the results would appear to be quite satisfactory for most listeners. That gets you a very good system for under $2k with upgradeability to boot.
Players around $2-3k are about all you need in most cases, after that you're picking flavors for the most part. By $5k you've hit a wall. The $1,500 or so Cambridge has been getting excellent reviews but that was at the middle of last year. Digital is still moving forward and lots of people say they won't invest in another player when servers are the coming thing. Do away with the physical disc and you do away with a lot of digital's problems.
I've only heard the Saturn and Apollo players in different systems. "So far above"? wouldn't seem to take into account diminishing returns of any rising price. At $1k most people would consider the Apollo to be outrageously priced as is and not that much "better" than most.
However, over the decades I've come to expect and trust Rega only to market what they felt offered actual performance gains. No one I have seen or heard of comparing the two players side by side has not ranked the Saturn as having higher quality in various areas and as the overall "better" unit when price is not a consideration.
Stereophile's ST has stated the Saturn and a few other players around the $2.5-3k price range might be as good as anyone actually needs at this point in time with a dedicated CD player. I suppose that's for any one person to decide but gains are certainly smaller in nature above that price. Fortunately, what was out of my price range last year will be in my price range this year when it comes to digital. If I was buying that is.
For me my personal experience with CD players has taught me not to spend more than $1k on any CD player and to hold on to that player for years so the Apollo suits what I need and works well with the rest of my system IMO. Even if I had the money to spend on the Saturn, I would have a difficult time parting with that much money for a CD player. I'm glad MW can and that way I frequently get to hear the Saturn.
There is always better. For me, for the last four decades I told my clients and believed it myself that if you are only concerned with what's "better", you'll always eventually be disappointed and usually in hifi in very short time. There is always better hifi somewhere out there. Buy something today and hear something "better" next week. Too often that's the way this hobby works.
Finding what fits you and your needs and being satisfied with that as "best" for you is far more important than constantly finding what is better than the last thing you or anyone else owned. That way you get to go home and enjoy your music without worrying about whether you have the "best" system. IMO the music sounds better that way.
Jan- I third the Apollo. Great machine. I have auditioned it in my system with a few sub 1k cdp's before purchasing it, and felt it outweighed its cost mush better than the other brands.
Nuck- I would buy the Bryston over the Rega in a heartbeat. Not saying that it is the best sounding unit(which it very well could be) but after dealing with these guys and owning their gear, nothing tops their build and service. When it comes time for another move for source its going to be a Bryston DAC for me. Then to build myself a sick music server. *** It would make you sick to know the cost I can build one for***lol
To add : Bryston cdp would be a better synergy match with an all Bryston setup obviously. Thats not to say that the Saturn wouldn't win our in most systems. I would probably think the Rega cdp's would sound better with some Mac's.
If something sounds better with one Mac I suspect it would sound better in all Macs.
FWIW
Since you did not ask;
I think the Saturn and Apollo each have their strengths they play to, not all being the same. I think I mentioned to Art on a post about a year ago that one plays unamplified music better than the other and reciprocally one plays amplified music better than the other, but both do both well at the least. Chew on that for a moment...
Nuck, I'm very happy with my 640C - the dual Wolfson DACs make for a very detailed, crisp sound. It sure would be nice to utilize those DACs from another source like the 840C, though. The 840 is an awesome unit.
Nuck, next time you're in SoCal, call:: My 840c is well conditioned and ready to go. I am soon to add an airport express to stream tunes from my Mac, in Apple Lossless, using one of those 'extra' inputs. That should 'bout ice it. If I spend another nickel on this stuff, my wife will have my head on a stick.
