Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo CD Player

I am in need of a CD player. I auditioned the NAD C521i not long ago. I suppose it did well. To be honest, I could tell no difference between the NAD and the Arcam at the local hi-fi shop. I listened to both through a pair of Wharfedale Evo's. Anyway, I was just curious if any of you own a NAD CD player; especially the C521i.

In its price range ($300), are there any other CD players I should consider?

Mike, I'd suggest that the reason you could tell no difference was that there isn't any. You don't mention how large your CD collection is, but I would never consider a single disc player; the convenience of a changer is just too great and there's no difference in the sound quality. Consider at least the five disc players such as the Denon and HK, but my suggestion for a large collection would be a 300-400 disc changer such as the Sony.

Mike, you fail to mention whether you will be using the analogue outputs on the cd player or the digital output. This can make a difference. When using analogue, my 15yr old Hitachi cd player outperforms my 2 year old DVD player hands down. When using the digital outputs, you CAN'T tell the difference because all the DA conversion and line level amplification is done by the amp/receiver.

If you will be using the digital outputs, I would focus more on access times and features. My Hitachi has lightning fast spin up and track access. I tend to get frustrated at friends houses waiting for their cd players to "catch up". BTW, I hate changers for the exact same reason.

Your 15 year old cd player has better DAC's than your current receiver? Perhaps it's time to upgrade. I have a cheap Pioneer 656A dvd/dvd-a player and it's plugged into my Rotel 1066 processor. To tell you the truth, I can't hear the difference between using the Rotel's DAC's or the DAC's built into the dvd player. (I can easily swith on the fly between optical out or analog out of my dvd player with my Rotel's on-screen setup) Both sound equally good.

This tells me that either

1) I'm deaf
2) My Rotel DAC's suck
3) My dvd player's DAC's are great
4) Most current generation DAC's sound the same

I'm leaning towards the answer being #4. So unless DAC's have evolved backwards over the past 15 years, you may want to look into an inexpensive upgrade, no?

Anybody else have any thoughts?

Yeah, I second John's opinion in that if it were me to spend a few $100 on a new CD player, I would go with one of those 400 CD changers. You will lose NOTHING in sound quality, and gain A LOT in functionality.

I must say that I dont like the way big CD changers look. a nice slim one disc player would be my preference.

Mike:

I've had a NAD C540 (bought new) for about 10 months. I THINK the quality problems has been addressed, BUT occasionally my player skips when playing a brand new CD (that means no scratches), and the tray doesn't always want to open, after only a few months of use.

Make sure you get full warranty on your player if you do get NAD.

So, does NAD still have the notorious reliability problems???

Well, now you've gone and got me thinking...

(off topic aside - doesn't it make your stomach turn when your spouse walks into the room and begins "I was thinking..."?)

Anyhoo, I'm using a 5 disk carousel changer. I've always liked the very fast access times between disks on random play. Being able to queue 5 disks on random was a great revelation and good lifestyle change for me.

I've not shopped for megachangers in many years. They used to change disks slowly and noisily. Is that still true?

Does anyone have recommendations on models or manufacturers?

Are there better/worse interfaces for telling the player what it has in it so that you can find things easily?

Sorry for the dumb questions. tia.

Our present 5 disc Panasonic CP72 takes 12 seconds to change discs and begin play.

Yeah...I hate how long it takes my CP72 to start playing a disk.

I highly recommend Onkyo 6-disk carousel changers. I haven't timed the disk swapping, but I've always thought it was pretty speedy.

Keep in mind that a swap from, say, disk 1 to disk 4 will take longer that a swap to a neighbor.

The ultimate solution, of course, would be to rip all your CDs to uncompressed WAV or AIFF files -- you'll need a large hard disk -- and then pipe all your music to the stereo from your computer. We're talking millisecond access times here!

Agreed on the Panny CP72 slowness. That's why I still use my Yamaha CDC506 5-disk changer for CD's. Sounds great using digital connection to my H/K AVR520.

I bought the NAD C521i a few months ago. As far as analog output, it is like night and day compared to my Kenwood cheapo. The D/A converter in the Kenwood must be pure junk. My only complaint with the C521i is the display is difficult to see if the unit is placed too high or low from a straight ahead viewing position. It is a no nonsense type of player with basic features. Let me know if you have more specific questions about it.

Tom,

I believe only a few brands make those 200, 300, 400 CD changers -- Sony, Pioneer, JVC... That is about it, I guess. So, the easiest and best way for you to evaluate their ergonomics is to visit your local CC, BB, UE stores, and actually play around with them. You may want to bring your own pair of headphones.

Oi! 12 seconds! My ancient JVC 5 disk changer changes very quickly. It's a little noisy now, but I really don't notice much of a difference between the time to play from one disk to the next (on random) and one track to the next (on random). I'd say go for one of the big changers, but I don't know the speeds or noise on them.

i have a 5 disc nad,and i have problems with the tray too...ron

I bet you love the picture on the Toshiba more than you hate the 12 seconds.

I don't think I included enough information in my original thread.

The only source I currently have for playing CDs is my Toshiba SD2800 DVD player. To be honest, I have never even listened to a CD on this player. I use it for DVDs. My guess was that a CD player would do music better than my Toshiba DVD player; which is why I decided to visit the local hi-fi store and shop around.

I rarely listen to music as I live in an apartment. However, I began home shopping 3 weeks ago so its only a matter of time until I find my future home. I suspect that once I am in a home, I will re-discover my love for music again (no more worrying about the neighbors).

I just want a 'no-frills' CD player that does a respectable job. Secondly, I thought it would be nice to have matching components (have a NAD receiver).

Your Toshiba DVD player does an excellent job on music. The interface is a bit clunky, but the sound quality is excellent. The onboard DAC circuitry is first rate, and if you are use either of the digital outs, then the decoding will take place in your receiver. Any CD player being decoded by your receiver will sound the same. If you are looking for more features or a multi-disk player then by all means get a dedicated CD player. If you are looking for decent sound, well you have that already.

I guess the majority of "regulars" here would agree with tinfoilhat on this one. My personal take is, given the current (very mature) state of technologies for CD playback, the real bottleneck for the sound quality is the CD media format itself, NOT the playback hardware.

Hear, hear!

Many "golden-eared" audiophiles are saying that CDs are just now starting to become listenable.

If you listen to popular CDs mastered in the 80s -- take U2's Achtung Baby, for example -- and compare them to those released today -- say, Coldplay's A Rush of Blood to the Head -- the difference is obvious even to "tin-eared" audio enthusiasts wearing earmuffs!

I have an old copy of U2's Joshua Tree and I must say it sound like poo.

Thanks to all for the input.

In reply to:

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Many "golden-eared" audiophiles are saying that CDs are just now starting to become listenable.

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Peter,

Very true. But you are talking about the recording technologies and techniques, right? Really nothing to do with CD itself, eh?

In reply to:

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Very true. But you are talking about the recording technologies and techniques, right? Really nothing to do with CD itself, eh?

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You can listen. CDs do sound kinda quiet, but if you put your golden ears to the test you can hear them saying
"......a x i o mm sss.....

.ax i ooo mm ss....

....and Parasound Halo!!"

chesseroo,

You are mistaken. When you place a CD by your ear just so, what you are actually hearing is a reflection of the little voices in your head.

Chess, what did I tell you about mentioning Parasound.

I'm at their site again!!!

In reply to:

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Chess, what did I tell you about mentioning Parasound.

I'm at their site again!!!

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I seem to have this parasound problem for mentioning parasound a little too parasound often in my parasound conversations.
I'm really parasound sorry Semi.
Please accept my parasound halo apologies especially in regards to the A23 stereo amp $550 used Audiogon stuff..

I hate you.

At GG yesterday I could have picked up a returned A23 (the guy had just brought it back that day - was sitting at the register) for $600. 10 year warranty and all. I declined. I think I've gotten over my infatuation with that beautiful sound, the satin silver finish and those faintly glowing blue lights. I'd much rather have a new lawnmower and a pair of earrings for the Mrs.

^ That's why I'm never getting married.

Are you using windows? If so, here's a fix to help you avoid the parasound website.

First locate your hosts file:
Windows 95/98/Me -- c:\windows\hosts
Windows NT/2000/XP Pro -- c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Windows XP Home -- c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Open the file with notepad and add the following line to the bottom:

127.0.0.1 www.parasound.com

Save and close the file.

The next time you try to go to the parasound website, your browser won't find it!

In reply to:

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That's why I'm never getting married.

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Because you don't want a lawnmower?

Peter, that's blasphemy!!

I hope you're going to at least put a nice sound system in that mower -- even if it isn't a ride mower!

If you're using a Mac, I can help you with this problem as well.

For OS 9, create a file in SimpleText named hosts and type the following:

www.parasound.com      A               127.0.0.1

Save the file, and in the TCP/IP control panel, go to advanced settings (from the Edit menu, I believe), and press "Select Host file". Find the hosts file you created, and press OK to all the various dialog boxes.

For OS X, log in as root (if you need help with that, PM me) choose "Go to folder..." from the Go menu in the Finder, and type /etc

find the file named hosts and open it.

Enter the line

127.0.0.1 www.parasound.com

and save the file.

Get a single disk player so at least you get some excercise walking back and forth to the CD player...lol.

No riding mower. I've got a push mower with a 6 hp Briggs & Scrapiron on top. Don't need a stereo on it either, I'm already impressing the ladies on the street with my ability to push the mower with one hand and hang on to a bottle of beer with the other.

Well there's a nice image. Do you have an old mopar on the front lawn as well? j/k

What's a mopar?

Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth family of vehicles are also known as Mopar. Like Olds, Chevy, Buick, Caddy, Poncho (Pontiac) are known as GM.

More specifically, I believe, Mopar refers to the performance division at Chrysler. The term has become a blanket for their aftermarket parts and their (older) muscle cars. I don't know if anyone refers to a Viper as a Mopar, although I think it would be appropriate. (?)

OK, to bring this post back on topic -- it's about CD players, right? -- I found a great website (via Slashdot) that describes a DIY project for transforming a single tray CD player into a CD changer.

http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/tech/changer.html