Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo denondcm cd player vs. Nad C541i

Thanks for the advice on the m80 speakers.One more question .I presently am using a DenonDCM 380 cd changer.I can get a NAD C541I cd player for agood price ($299).Will there me any discernable difference on the m80 speakers?

I do think that CD players make a bigger difference in sound than amplifiers do. NAD is well known for their quality. I do think that the players will sound virtually the same except for you will hear a slight bit more nuances on the NAD. Just like Axioms, if something is badly recorded, you will be able to tell just a little more through the NAD. But I'm sure the differences would be minor and the Denon already is a 5 disk changer. I don't really see a reason to change, unless you want to move up to "audiophile" components.

Quick question...

The previous post defies logic to me. I would appreciate some enlightenment, if possible.

If cd "sound" is really just bits comprised of 1's and 0's, then how would a cd player that is just reading the bit stream sound any different? What is it doing to the 1's and 0's that the other cd player isn't doing?

In other words, is it reading MORE 1's and )'s and getting a more complete picture of what is contained on the cd? If not, how does it sound better?

My suspicion is that the pyscho-acoustic factor is in play (if I paid more, it must sound better), or the NAD does something to the signal (processing, etc.) to make it sound different (maybe by boosting certain frequencies which make the music sound richer?)

Any comments would be appreciated.

On a side note - I am interested in where this thread is going, since I'll be buying a new cd player, and would like to be convinced as to why I should NOT buy an el cheapo cd player (aside from build quality concerns)

For the reason you state, there should be absolutely no difference, audible or inaudible, if you use the cd player's digital output. (There may be notable build quality differences of course) If you use the analog outputs however, the player is doing the D/A conversion, and there will be a difference depending on the quality of the player.

I see. Thanks. I kind of thought that this might be the case. Out to buy an el cheapo player I go. (and an optical input)

Ash, the only discernible difference on the M80(or any other speaker)would be that when the one disc in the NAD was over, there wouldn't be any more. It might be worthwhile to move up to a megachanger from your present 5 disc player, but in my view there's no good reason these days to seriously consider putting up with a single disc player.

*roll eyes & sigh*...

.... here we go again....

I have a megachanger, and am very happy with it so far. I still haven't figured out all the features it has because I'm at work most of the day and just haven't really spent the time on it. But just being able to change the cd playing by clicking keys on a remote is really a great thing. Also, since mine can read "cd-text" what I did was put a burned copy (with cd-text burned) of each cd into the player instead of the original. So I never had to enter the titles, and all the track names come up when the cd is playing (although you can't view track names of a non-playing cd). Also this means my cds are not all tied up in the changer. I know it has programming features I haven't looked into, which I plan to exercise before I throw my next party so that I can just ignore the music the whole night.

Some here might say to get the closest thing to a "universal" megachanger, but I personally think that relying on a single device to do everything tends to be a bad idea. From my experience they tend to do nothing quite as well as dedicated units would, and it's a ton of parts all in one box just waiting to break.

I think I have the same mega-changer as you. It is pretty cool, IMO. But for $100 more you can get the one that plays DVDs and has increased storage to 400 discs. Could be useful versatility in the years to come.

In reply to:

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My suspicion is that the pyscho-acoustic factor is in play (if I paid more, it must sound better), or the NAD does something to the signal (processing, etc.) to make it sound different (maybe by boosting certain frequencies which make the music sound richer?)

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I'm pretty sure no CDPs do signal processing to the digital outputs, but if they do, they should lose the use of the Compact Disc logo, much like copy protected "CDs" do. Compact Disc audio has to conform to the Redbook standard (IEC 908 - Philips & Sony) and in the last few years, publishers scared by the media reports of rampant CD copying have started adding corrupted data tracks (effectively making it a mixed-mode/CD-XA/etc disc) to confuse CD-ROMs and other players capable of reading data tracks.

I'm not pro-audio piracy - I own two CDs that are burned copies - that I will replace when the albums become available again (they're deletes - Skinny Puppy - Bites & Remission and Bootsauce - Bull) but when the Draconian measures to prevent it keep the disc from playing in all devices, they've gone too far.

Bren R.