Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Pioneer 563 vs. Nad 541....CD player challenge!!

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..........

Nice comparison...

Few Days ago I also did some comparison on the ($299) NAD C521BEE vs. my Toshiba SD4960 Universal Player. My Experience is opposite of yours. Both were hooked up to an analog interconnect to HK235. I found the NAD to be more precise than the Toshiba. The Toshiba's sound is not controlled campared to the NAD. The NAD had more natural sound and well controlled. Clarity on the NAD was superior to the Toshiba as well. For what I evaluated; I would opt an extra $150.00 for the NAD. I would definitely love to compare the C542 to the C521BEE.

I guess it depends what type of listing you prefer.

Thank you for the honest comparison. Frankly, I was surprised to read it, although I agree with your conclusions. Often with these sorts of tests, you get the superiority of one over the other coming out because audial memory is so incredibly short. When Peter, Adam, and I were comparing the M50s and M22s, we found the best way to do it was to switch between them in the middle of the song (without stopping the player) just so we could tell the difference. Often when one of us had left, we didn't know which speaker was playing, despite the differing characteristics of the two.

I did an abc comparison of the 521 BEE and the C542 by Nad and a California Audio unit. Unfortunately I can't remember the model of that one. It was one of the last ones they produced. I could definitely tell a difference between all three. The 542 is clearly better than the 521 BEE. There was no doubt to these ears.
The California Audio was very close to the C542. Very hard to hear any difference but once again clearly better than the 521. Your mileage may vary.
Sorry to put a gas reference in here.
oz

Thank you for the input...I will be borrowing these units in the next day or two from my dealer. I want to see if its worth extra $200.

I should tell you that the NAD 541 has a 24bit Burr-Brown chip and I know the Pioneer has a 24bit chip and I also think it is a Burr-Brown. The specs between the NAD 541 and 542 seem to me on paper, hardly any different. Of course I know it's our ears that count.

Hey Todd nice post..
Please allow me to tell my experience similar to yours when a/b to very different cd players.
I a/b my new pioneer universal player Pioneer DV588AS $116.00
Verses an old [5years] JVC xzmc22 300 disk player.
588 hooked up with optical and the JVC with analog cable.
Put two of the same disk-DMB stand up in both and hit play on both.
With a few friends we compared- all were in agreement that there was little or no difference between the two. I was amazed myself when we did it.
The Pioneer some said was a little clearer, but others did not hear it.
I can’t remember the post but awhile ago Alan mention that he himself did not think there was much difference between players.
Again enjoyed your finding a lot.

For me there was no question that it was worth the 200.00 extra. The bottom end was much richer. I was all ready to order the 542 when the night before placing the order I got a great deal on ebay for something else.

Todd, I dislike the redbook playback of my Pioneer 563. After I had my 563 for a while, I took it over to my buddy's place (who I had talked into getting Axiom M80s, btw), plugged it in, and compared it to his NAD 542. We thought the NAD was superior. Soundstage was more precise, less muddy, with detailed highs, not the grainy highs from the pioneer (forgive the adjectives). The Pioneer seemed to mush everything together and this was easy for us to hear. Incidentally, I had a Technics changer that was five years older than the Pioneer which I thought sounded better in many areas.

Later, I got a Njoe Tjoeb and while this proved an even better improvement over my buddy's NAD, I did not feel it was worth the price and posted those thoughts here. I was then insulted for my gullibility or to put it another way, my personal choice how to spend my disposable income. ??? Good to see no one has told you that you have tin ears. Even if you did, it wouldn't matter. What I am getting at is, just listen to what you like and be happy you have determined that you made the right choice...for you. I'm still enjoying the Njoe Tjoeb and have reconsidered selling.

My vinyl beats all though in all areas. Even shopping for music. I wouldn't trade my afternoons rummaging crates for lps for all the money in the world.

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My vinyl beats all though in all areas. Even shopping for music. I wouldn't trade my afternoons rummaging crates for lps for all the money in the world.

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I totally agree with you. I'll take a $2.00 LP over a compressed digitally remastered CD anyday.