Belt Driven CD Players?

[AgaBoogaBoo]

http://www.stereophile.com/cdplayers/1203burmester/

What the hell? $14,000 for a CD player? A salesman tried to tell me that they're compensating for poor recording which causes changes in the physical height of where the data is recorded and a bunch of other crap.

I didn't bother reading the article, but this is a bunch of snake oil, unfortunately, I saw other people at the store seriously looking at it and their whole line of products.

 

[vi edit]

A $14,000 CD player won't do crap if your original souce is compressed beyond belief.

 

[Greenman]

A fool and his money...

 

[PottedMeat]

You could use that money for a lot of plane and concert tickets hahah.

I read some of the article, looks like they took a standard cd player and shoehorned DSPs wherever they could and added opamps and digital potentiometers.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

What a load of garbage. An 0 is an 0 and a 1 is a 1. If I changed ONE sample from 44,100 per second I guarantee you NOBODY on Head-Fi.org would notice; until they used AccurateRip, then their ears would bleed. It is a reciever too though....
Know what probably sounds better than that CD player? A computer with an X-Fi and a 9 dollar CD drive. S/PDIF out to whatever awesome system you've got, and bam, you just got yourself a ~$300 CD player. I don't want warm or cold or bananas in my sound, S/PDIF out to a Denon receiver or something and some nice Klipsch speakers. Granted, college kid's budgets don't allow for that kind of shit, they barely allowed for a $100 Sony HTIB; but I know good sound when I hear it.

"I am, smack dab in the middle of multi-thousand-dollar interconnects and phono cartridges"
When you start paying a thousand dollars for CABLES, most of which, again, will give you a 0 or a 1 if you feed it a 0 or a 1 respectively, then you know you've gone too far.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: vi edit
A $14,000 CD player won't do crap if your original souce is compressed beyond belief.

I've loved nice audio equipment for a long time, but there are a couple things I don't get when it comes to audiophiles:

1. Analog media
2. Not a lot of bass

Personally, with a nice mp3 file, or a CD (not created from low quality mp3's), and I'm happy. I tried the whole turntable thing, and I personally don't see what's great about it. I don't hear any positive impact in the sound quality from a turntable and it's a hassle to have to get up and change the vinyl when you can simply click on a different file on your computer.

When it comes to bass, most audiophiles I know just like enough to acknowledge it's there. Isn't it more enjoyable to have the whole place shaking from it?

Music is entirely subjective though and so I guess there really isn't a discussion here

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: mrSHEiK124
What a load of garbage. An 0 is an 0 and a 1 is a 1. If I changed ONE sample from 44,100 per second I guarantee you NOBODY on Head-Fi.org would notice; until they used AccurateRip, then their ears would bleed. It is a reciever too though....
Know what probably sounds better than that CD player? A computer with an X-Fi and a 9 dollar CD drive. S/PDIF out to whatever awesome system you've got, and bam, you just got yourself a ~$300 CD player. I don't want warm or cold or bananas in my sound, S/PDIF out to a Denon receiver or something and some nice Klipsch speakers. Granted, college kid's budgets don't allow for that kind of shit, they barely allowed for a $100 Sony HTIB; but I know good sound when I hear it.

"I am, smack dab in the middle of multi-thousand-dollar interconnects and phono cartridges"
When you start paying a thousand dollars for CABLES, most of which, again, will give you a 0 or a 1 if you feed it a 0 or a 1 respectively, then you know you've gone too far.

See, that's my thought, the very minor differences that they do it for aren't easily heard. When you listen to music, do you listen for a small portion of a specific instrument to be off or do you enjoy it?

The whole thing about expensive cables really gets me laughing, but that's where they make even more money. I don't know what price the "high end brands" sell it at, but companies like Monster Cable sell $100 cables for $5 to stores like Best Buy. One of my past teachers spent a few thousand dollars on his cables for his 2.1 setup and at first, I was shocked, but then I realized how much of a tool he was.

Also, part of what the sales person was doing was basically describing the need for a buffer... not sure if he knows that buffers are used

 

[Nitemare]

rich retards have to spend their money somewhere

 

[JulesMaximus]

I was about as wrong as I've ever been in my life. After letting the 001 break in for about a week, I configured the system with it running into my VAC preamp and cued up Susan Tedeschi's Just Won't Burn (Tone-Cool CD TC 1164). "Rock Me Right" is a bit on the lean, edgy side, so I wasn't expecting a great match with the 001. But within just a few seconds, I found myself thinking, "Hmmm, this isn't too bad."

In fact, through the 001, Just Won't Burn was way better than "isn't too bad." The first thing that jumped out was the density of tonal colors and textures. Tedeschi's vocals had a weight and density that, unlike with most other CD players, suggested a person behind the voice?a chest and body rather than just a throat and mouth. Her guitar, too, seemed denser and more detailed. Rather than a constricted, two-dimensional portrait dominated by transients and strings, it was a bluesy, swampy mix of fundamentals and harmonics, with an immediacy that dropped me right into the middle of a cramped, overheated bar.

What a load of horseshit...

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: Nitemare
rich retards have to spend their money somewhere

What really hurts is when I see someone who has worked their whole life and started retirement, and they go and buy something like this trusting the salesman. I just hate to think about them dropping $20-30,000 on things that probably cost the store only $3-4k

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo

Originally posted by: Nitemare
rich retards have to spend their money somewhere

What really hurts is when I see someone who has worked their whole life and started retirement, and they go and buy something like this trusting the salesman. I just hate to think about them dropping $20-30,000 on things that probably cost the store only $3-4k

salesmen have no shame or soul and most would sell their own mother for a commission. I make a habit of never buying from any pushy salesman and usually buy it from someone else right in front of him with the stipulation that they don't share the sale.

 

[rivan]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

I was about as wrong as I've ever been in my life. After letting the 001 break in for about a week, I configured the system with it running into my VAC preamp and cued up Susan Tedeschi's Just Won't Burn (Tone-Cool CD TC 1164). "Rock Me Right" is a bit on the lean, edgy side, so I wasn't expecting a great match with the 001. But within just a few seconds, I found myself thinking, "Hmmm, this isn't too bad."

In fact, through the 001, Just Won't Burn was way better than "isn't too bad." The first thing that jumped out was the density of tonal colors and textures. Tedeschi's vocals had a weight and density that, unlike with most other CD players, suggested a person behind the voice?a chest and body rather than just a throat and mouth. Her guitar, too, seemed denser and more detailed. Rather than a constricted, two-dimensional portrait dominated by transients and strings, it was a bluesy, swampy mix of fundamentals and harmonics, with an immediacy that dropped me right into the middle of a cramped, overheated bar.

What a load of horseshit...

:thumbsup:

 

[Mxylplyx]

Reading that guys review, I'd have to say he is completely full of shit.

 

[moparacer]

The more I listened to the 001, the more I was struck by its portrayal of inner detail, tonal colors, and textures.

Way better ears then I have obviously.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

I was about as wrong as I've ever been in my life. After letting the 001 break in for about a week, I configured the system with it running into my VAC preamp and cued up Susan Tedeschi's Just Won't Burn (Tone-Cool CD TC 1164). "Rock Me Right" is a bit on the lean, edgy side, so I wasn't expecting a great match with the 001. But within just a few seconds, I found myself thinking, "Hmmm, this isn't too bad."

In fact, through the 001, Just Won't Burn was way better than "isn't too bad." The first thing that jumped out was the density of tonal colors and textures. Tedeschi's vocals had a weight and density that, unlike with most other CD players, suggested a person behind the voice?a chest and body rather than just a throat and mouth. Her guitar, too, seemed denser and more detailed. Rather than a constricted, two-dimensional portrait dominated by transients and strings, it was a bluesy, swampy mix of fundamentals and harmonics, with an immediacy that dropped me right into the middle of a cramped, overheated bar.

What a load of horseshit...

I would love to see him attempt to recognize the same density of tonal colors and textures in a double-blind test.

 

[0roo0roo]

goes well with audiophile power cable
http://gizmodo.com/371536/300-...ble-is-really-worth-15

theres a laser turn table.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_turntable
but its got more of a reason to exist than a belt cd player lol

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

I haven't looked inside of a cd drive in a desktop recently, but don't a lot of those use a small belt? A few of us should remove those and repackage it in something nice, increase the volume at which the signal is sent a little, and have these audiophile sites review it. We'll sell it for $3,000 so that the people who purchase it think they're getting a quality product, and we'll let Amazon deal with shipping, payments, etc.

Anyone want to join me? At $3k per drive, we can put some hand crafted wood or something on there too because as we all know, plastics emit frequencies that harm the sound, but a nice maple will give a richer sound to the tonal colors.

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo

Originally posted by: vi edit
A $14,000 CD player won't do crap if your original souce is compressed beyond belief.

I've loved nice audio equipment for a long time, but there are a couple things I don't get when it comes to audiophiles:

1. Analog media
2. Not a lot of bass

Personally, with a nice mp3 file, or a CD (not created from low quality mp3's), and I'm happy.

Music is entirely subjective though and so I guess there really isn't a discussion here

I'm just talking about the dynamic compression that a lot of CD's have anymore from the original transfer/production. It's the "Loud" effect. I can tell that it's there I'm far from cursed with the disease known as "audiophilia".

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
goes well with audiophile power cable
http://gizmodo.com/371536/300-...ble-is-really-worth-15

The newer stuff I saw was flat cables, and about 50 million reasons why it's better, and how it was developed under intensive use by the government, IBM, etc.

Don't remember pricing, but it was ridiculous to say the least.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: vi edit

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo

Originally posted by: vi edit
A $14,000 CD player won't do crap if your original souce is compressed beyond belief.

I've loved nice audio equipment for a long time, but there are a couple things I don't get when it comes to audiophiles:

1. Analog media
2. Not a lot of bass

Personally, with a nice mp3 file, or a CD (not created from low quality mp3's), and I'm happy.

Music is entirely subjective though and so I guess there really isn't a discussion here

I'm just talking about the dynamic compression that a lot of CD's have anymore from the original transfer/production. It's the "Loud" effect. I can tell that it's there I'm far from cursed with the disease known as "audiophilia".

Yeah, and that makes sense, but I guess if you're listening to Britney Spears or something, it doesn't really matter, heh

 

[nsafreak]

With the resulting methane gas from the BS that this guy is spewing I could run a small fleet of methane powered vehicles.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
I haven't looked inside of a cd drive in a desktop recently, but don't a lot of those use a small belt? A few of us should remove those and repackage it in something nice, increase the volume at which the signal is sent a little, and have these audiophile sites review it. We'll sell it for $3,000 so that the people who purchase it think they're getting a quality product, and we'll let Amazon deal with shipping, payments, etc.

Anyone want to join me? At $3k per drive, we can put some hand crafted wood or something on there too because as we all know, plastics emit frequencies that harm the sound, but a nice maple will give a richer sound to the tonal colors.

I'm in. Hell, if we're selling for $3k, we can even go ahead and actually put some alright audio equipment in there; if anyone can figure out how to get an X-Fi running without input from the PCI bus, let me know

 

[halik]

idiot and his money...

Too bad that tolerances on cd presses will result in far greater quality loss than any motor in a cd player.

 

[rockyct]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo

Originally posted by: vi edit
A $14,000 CD player won't do crap if your original souce is compressed beyond belief.

I've loved nice audio equipment for a long time, but there are a couple things I don't get when it comes to audiophiles:

1. Analog media
2. Not a lot of bass

Personally, with a nice mp3 file, or a CD (not created from low quality mp3's), and I'm happy. I tried the whole turntable thing, and I personally don't see what's great about it. I don't hear any positive impact in the sound quality from a turntable and it's a hassle to have to get up and change the vinyl when you can simply click on a different file on your computer.

When it comes to bass, most audiophiles I know just like enough to acknowledge it's there. Isn't it more enjoyable to have the whole place shaking from it?

Music is entirely subjective though and so I guess there really isn't a discussion here

Well, I think there are a few issues with audiophiles not liking excessive amounts of bass. First off, cheap headphones/speakers will overemphasize the low end to make people think that the quality is better than it really is. So, that makes audiophiles biased against heavy bass because they think it's covering other flaws. Second, the goal of an audiophile is to sort of hear everything in the music recording. You can't really do that when everything is shaking, so they want more of a "natural" response. Also, good bass is very crisp and blends in with the rest of the music.

Anyway, a lot also depends on the type of music you like to listen to. I don't pretend to be an audiophile but I honestly prefer to listen to a flat frequency response while casually listening to music. Pumping up the bass has it's place, but I prefer not to for normal listening.

BTW, if you guys think that Monster Cables are a joke, you should see some of the "audiophile" power cables for amps. Some people spend over $1,000 for essentially the same $2 cable that goes from your outlet to your power supply. In one forum, a guy told how his cat actually tore apart a $300 cable and it ended up being worth about $20 parts held together with hot glue.

 

[halik]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

I was about as wrong as I've ever been in my life. After letting the 001 break in for about a week, I configured the system with it running into my VAC preamp and cued up Susan Tedeschi's Just Won't Burn (Tone-Cool CD TC 1164). "Rock Me Right" is a bit on the lean, edgy side, so I wasn't expecting a great match with the 001. But within just a few seconds, I found myself thinking, "Hmmm, this isn't too bad."

In fact, through the 001, Just Won't Burn was way better than "isn't too bad." The first thing that jumped out was the density of tonal colors and textures. Tedeschi's vocals had a weight and density that, unlike with most other CD players, suggested a person behind the voice?a chest and body rather than just a throat and mouth. Her guitar, too, seemed denser and more detailed. Rather than a constricted, two-dimensional portrait dominated by transients and strings, it was a bluesy, swampy mix of fundamentals and harmonics, with an immediacy that dropped me right into the middle of a cramped, overheated bar.

What a load of horseshit...

I would love to see him attempt to recognize the same density of tonal colors and textures in a double-blind test.

I'll bet my car the jackass will fail and fail consistently. If you use a cdrom and feed it into a decent amp it will sound the same, since it's the same data that's being read.