I am no audiophile by any means, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night..........
I did alot of searching on this forum and asked advice about CD players. I basically read that you would not hear much difference these days between an all-purpose player {like the Pioneer} and a stand alone player like the NAD. First of all, for those who don't know, the Pioneer plays SACD, CD, and DVD-A. This Nad plays CD's and HDCD discs. Well, against the advice of many, I went ahead and purchased the NAD 541 for around 295.00. It retailed for 499.00. I thought I was getting a good deal and also HDCD with it. So, I went for it. I did a number of tests so bare with me please. This was all done in two-channel stereo also.
The set up was both players plugged in with Radio Shack gold cables {I haven't bought into the cable theories yet} into by NAD 352 integrated amp. My speakers are Axiom m60's. The source discs I used was the Eagles first album and their greatest hits. Neither was re-mastered. I used three songs, Take it Easy, Witchy Women and Peaceful Easy Feeling. Now, I know these are two different discs and before you jump on this, know that after listening to all three songs, I immediately changed discs into the other player to get both sides of the sound.....so to speak. I did these three different times allowing no more than maybe a second difference between players and moreover exactly right on the same time. These three songs have some rocking, slow passages and good banjo. I thought it was a decent mix of songs.
I will tell you straight off that I wanted to hear a difference in players. I guess that is my bias going in. Assuming of course that the stand alone NAD would be a better player. After constant A/B switching between songs and players......I will tell you I hear no difference between the two players. I thought at times, I might have heard something jump out at me, but when I switched over, it was the same. Actually, I think I was disappointed that a retail 499.00 player did not sound any better TO ME and I stress again TO ME than my Pioneer 150.00 dollar unit.
I also did some A/B testing with SACD's and remastered dics.
The test discs SACD's because I had the regular rebook CD's were Elton John Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Honky Chateau, Clapton's 461 Ocean Blvd. and Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.
I also switched between players in this experiment knowing full well the Pioneer was a SACD player. I will tell you that there is a difference, even in two channel stereo sound, that is emitted from the SACD discs. I never changed the loudness on my amp and the sonic difference and clairity on both players was tremendously noticable with the SACD's. Remember, the NAD doesn't play the true SACD sound. So, to me, like some on this board, the SACD discs have been worth it. Especially the ones I have just mentioned above.
Lastly, I took on re-mastered discs in both players. My tests were E Pluribus Funk-Grand Funk Raiload, Madman Across the Water- Elton John and Kiss Alive. I have all three redbooks and re-masters of each. Once again, I will tell you the same effect as the SACD's. The re-mastered discs in each player was louder at the amp levels, more detailed and fuller sounding than the redbook CD's in two-channel stereo.
So for those who don't believe there is a difference in sound in two channel, I hope this might give you a different perspective. I will tell you this is MY EARS ONLY and as much as I could tell a difference in SACD to Redbook and Re-Mastered to Redbook, I simply could tell no difference between the NAD 541 and my Pioneer 563. By the way, I should mention that I enjoyed the HDCD discs in the NAD player. I just didn't think it was worth 300.00 for that privledge. I did not do a side by side with the HDCD, but the couple I did listen to like Mark Knopfler's- Sailing to Philadelphia, Lucinda Williams- Car Wheels on a Gravel Road sounded better with the Nad than the Pioneer. So for me anyway, I just don't see the need to upgrade to some un-holy amount of money for a CD player. If a player in the 500.00 dollar range sounds no different to me. I don't see myself needing another player other than the 563. Also, by the way. For Rebook CD's the Pioneer, by my ears, does just fine. Now, how about the 10 year old Monster Cables I found..........