Need advise on quality CD player ($1k budget)

Oppo 95. But you have to sacrifice Airplay.

^^^

if you are connecting via hdmi, the dac in the player is totally irrelevant*, as it never gets used...

the 93 would be a much better buy...

it would make no sense to feed the mrx analog and have it re-digitize it to process and then feed it through the dac in the mrx anyway...

* in all likelihood, the dac in the 95 and the mrx would be indistinguishable in a controlled test anyway...

No player is going to satisfy ALL your requirements. Either you compromise in some way OR get more than one player.

Generally no player outputs upsampled audio via any digital means, except the CA CDPs IIRC. The CA 751 does NOT do that: upsampled audio is sent internally to the DAC and analogue.

Generally no player outputs SACD (DSD or PCM) via coax/optical, well some do but is downsampled so forget this idea. DVD-A is restricted to 48kHz via coax/optical. So if you care about high res audio, HDMI or analogue are the only options.

No AVR is known to be able to handle incoming PCM 384kHz let alone do further DSP with it. I think the CA CDPs only outputs 192kHz via digital. So forget 384kHz completely.

If you really care about high sampling, note the Oppo and CA 751 decimate (convert) DSD (from SACD) to PCM at only 88.2kHz, some including myself consider this as a DOWNSAMPLING, while other players output 176.4kHz straight away.

First think critically if you really need upsampling from streamed media. I'm not familiar with Apple products so not sure exactly what you need for what content. I only see DD 5.1 for MCH in the Appletv page, the other formats I presume are all 2CH (both lossy and lossless). There's not much point (or worth the trouble) upsampling compressed lossy audio if that's what you have. If you download 2CH high res files they don't need further upsampling.

Upsampling for 2CH can be accomplished but not for MCH if you want digital output from a player. Some high-end stuff like Meridian and Anthem D2V upsample everything but are overkill and very expensive.

For players it's limited to one of the CA CDPs you've looked at for 2CH sources (using coax output) and a universal player for SACD and DVD-A 2CH and MCH (using HDMI) - these don't need more upsampling. The current Yamaha BD-A1010 outputs PCM 176.4kHz from SACDs and is cheaper (in street price) than Oppo. If you don't need Blu-ray then some older universal DVD players on the used market with HDMI will do.

PS. Since you already have a PS3 (from the other thread) which can output PCM 176.4kHz from SACD, do you really need DVD-A and thus another player?

Did you consider getting an avr that upsamples? The denon 3313 has AL24+ upsampling fr/fl to 24/192. The 4311 upsamples all 7 channels. Having a reciever do it simplifies things, now all you sources are upsampled.

If upsampling is really that important to you, you should buy a stanbalone DAC instead.

Well you could connecting both hdmi AND analog for CD

have you considered the new nad m51? 24 / 192 pfft try 35/844 !

http://nadelectronics.com/products/m...ct-Digital-DAC

No upsampling, but have you looked at Marantz? Otherwise I would recommend Cambridge 751BD, which has the upsampling, but it slightly over your budget and is a universal player. Does not expose the USB prot / DAC functionality you are looking for though.

There is only one player I would even look twice at; the OPPO BDP-95.

In terms of audio quality (CD and SACD), it is noticeably better-sounding than my Ayre C5xe/MP, which I paid $6000 for 6 years ago. The Ayre was the best player for under $10,000 until the BDP-95 came along.

As far as I am concerned, the BDP-95 makes all of the players selling from $800 to $8000 obsolete and irrelevant; if I was a manufacturer of one of those players, I would be running scared.

The BDP-95 is the product of the decade IMO; revolutionary. It is simply an incredible bargain at only $1000; it would still be a bargain at $3000.

That's likely due to not level matching properly when comparing.

kzhtoo,

Why do you want to upsample the digital audio?

There was a long argument discussion in the thread about the new Dolby upsampled audio. The conclusion (so far as I'm concerned) was that upsampling the end-user audio data does no good and usually causes harm. High sampling rates are needed during the data acquisition and audio mixing, but not once the audio has been finalized.

What parametrics are responsible for the Oppo's superior sound quality? THD? Freq Resp? Low-level linearity? IMD?

If the adio quality is the key, I would suggest Cambridge Azure 840C.
Has top level DAC, upscaling, digital ins, balanced outs. Well it does not do nothing more than CD but upscales and DACs superb.
Sounds better vs Oppo95. I have both and playing CDs exceptionally on Cambridge.
Edited by bordo32 - 6/7/12 at 1:05pm

^^^

ummm... adc?

that post doesn't fill one with confidence..

DACs, they are DACs, not the ADCs, typo, ofcourse its typo.
But as the subject says "CD Player", the specialized CD player would perform best, as more playable multimedia formats added to the list, as the price will start going beyond the target $1000 or quality will start deviating from described: SUPERB AUDIO QUALITY.
But I agree with others, OPPO95 has one of the best ratio for audio quality/price/the ammount of formats it plays, just a superb machine over all.
Edited by bordo32 - 6/7/12 at 1:18pm

Disc players with superb audio quality can be had for around $100 new.

Go with the Oppo 95.

Upsampling audio is pointless.

192/24 playback is pointless, too.

read this:
http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html

ehh, a lot depends on the quality of the power supply and the DAC used in the player, and $100 players don't invest in quality parts for either of the aforementioned areas.

So what? Do those "areas" make +- $100 disc player audibly inferior to more expensive ones?

It depends on your definition of "audibly inferior". For many people, just knowing that the equipment is using inexpensive parts can make its music less enjoyable. That's sometimes called "expectation bias".

Personally, I use HDMI connections, so the analog performance of the player is irrelevant: it's just being used as a transport. As a result, the quality of the processing and the analog components in the downstream electronics is what matters.

I should have phrased "audible difference". Speaker is one of downstream electronics so yes, I agree.

Audibly inferior? yes, to some peoples' ears, and no to others. A lot will depend on the rest of the equipment being used, and the environment where it's being played.

If you have it connected to a pair of $30 speakers in your garage, then no, it won't make any difference at all. The quality of the DAC will make a bigger difference than downloadable content that's encoded at 192/24, vs 96/16, though. I am mainly speaking to the OP, though with my responses, as he was the one asking for a good CD player in the $1000 range, and he had a list of requirements, some of which won't make any difference, and some of which will.

If using HDMI or toslink you only need a transport. Cheapest player will do that can handle the formats. I use analog outs, so went with a decent lower-mid-fi machine (HK HD 990) and like it.

PS3

I owuld avoid the PS3 unless you're an avid sony console gamer. it requires bluetooth to operate via remote which most universal HT remotes do not natively support.
I also tend to see a high failure rate with game consoles, including the PS3