Hi, coming back to audiophilia after 25 years, so I don't really know the modern scene.
And, I'm an analog guy, primarily. But that doesn't mean I don't want to know what's going on on the digital side of the fence.
'Back in the day', it seemed like analog VASTLY improved as you moved up the price scale... digital, not so much. There was the allegedly wonderful Meridian Pro CD player back then, but for the most part, seemed like 'a CD player was a CD player was a CD player'... they largely sounded all the same.
Is that more or less still the case, or do expensive CD players and DACs bring big improvements over good but run-of-the-mill CD players w/integrated DACs (like Onkyo)? And if so, is that level of improvement anywhere near comparable to what you get by moving up the price scale on the analog side?
I remember reading something about a company called Theta Data putting a run-of-the-mill Phillips player in a fancy box, charging $5K for it, and actually getting rave reviews from the big Hi-Fi magazines, lol. I'd imagine they wouldn't have been able to get away with that if the differences between cheap and mainstream digital players were huge/immediately noticeable, but perhaps I'm reading too much into that one incident.
Just wondering how things are nowadays. Oh, and do CD players sound any better than they did in the '80s?
I know digital recording techniques have likely improved since then, but back then, a good $500 table ($1000-ish nowadays) like a Systemdek IIX or Rega Planar 3 with a cheap cart would sound about as good or a bit better than CD, and a really good 'table like a Linn Sondek or Michell or Goldmund would just pulverize CD.
Still the case? (I assume both CD players and analog front-ends have improved since the '80s, but by how much for each?)
Hi, coming back to audiophilia after 25 years, so I don't really know the modern scene.
And, I'm an analog guy, primarily. But that doesn't mean I don't want to know what's going on on the digital side of the fence.
'Back in the day', it seemed like analog VASTLY improved as you moved up the price scale... digital, not so much. There was the allegedly wonderful Meridian Pro CD player back then, but for the most part, seemed like 'a CD player was a CD player was a CD player'... they largely sounded all the same.
Is that more or less still the case, or do expensive CD players and DACs bring big improvements over good but run-of-the-mill CD players w/integrated DACs (like Onkyo)? And if so, is that level of improvement anywhere near comparable to what you get by moving up the price scale on the analog side?
I remember reading something about a company called Theta Data putting a run-of-the-mill Phillips player in a fancy box, charging $5K for it, and actually getting rave reviews from the big Hi-Fi magazines, lol. I'd imagine they wouldn't have been able to get away with that if the differences between cheap and mainstream digital players were huge/immediately noticeable, but perhaps I'm reading too much into that one incident.
Just wondering how things are nowadays. Oh, and do CD players sound any better than they did in the '80s?
I know digital recording techniques have likely improved since then, but back then, a good $500 table ($1000-ish nowadays) like a Systemdek IIX or Rega Planar 3 with a cheap cart would sound about as good or a bit better than CD, and a really good 'table like a Linn Sondek or Michell or Goldmund would just pulverize CD.
Still the case? (I assume both CD players and analog front-ends have improved since the '80s, but by how much for each?)