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From: schaffa@ucla-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: shopping for a cd-player
Message-ID: <4430@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 20-Mar-85 20:05:14 EST
Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.4430
Posted: Wed Mar 20 20:05:14 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 23-Mar-85 04:08:57 EST
Distribution: na
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Lines: 54

I am in the "difficult" process of choosing a CD-Player.

I have been looking in the literature and basically I noticed that
the major electronic building blocks that the "sound" has to go thru
are: (in parenthesis is the characteristics of the block)

Error-Detection/Correction 
(single byte, block, interpolation)

Sampling
(44.1Khz, 2X44.1K, 4X44.1K)

D/A
(one or two)

Filter
(analog, digital)

Well, different units have a different path among these blocks:
Nakamichi :all error stuff, 4X sampling, 2(?) D/A and analog(?) filter
Yamaha CD-X1: all error stuff, 2X sampling, 1 D/A, digital filter
NAD: all error stuff, 1X sampling, 2 D/A, analog filter
NEC: all error stuff, 4X sampling, ?, ?
and so forth.

The price range goes from $1300 for the Nakamichi, $750 for the NEC,             $500 for the NAD, $300 for the CD-X1.

So far I have listened to the Naka, NAD, NEC, and Yamaha CD-2. All in different
systems. The sales person didn't want to connect them to the same system.
It doesn't make much difference he said, and of course, the Naka
is much better.(is it?) 

From the sound point of view, is there anybody out there that had
experienced the difference in quality among different CD-Players?

I know that by over-sampling, the filtration stage can be "simplified",
therefore, it makes it easier to built the filter. But I don't know
how different the analog and the digital filters sound.

By using a single D/A, a phase shift between the channels is created
due to the settling time of the D/A. Can we hear the difference?
Does that change the "image" of the sound?

Or the difference in sound quality is so small that I should go by
the "programmability" and others fancy stuff they can offer?

Thanks for any advice, opinion you can offer me. If I get enough
response, I will summarize to the net.

                                                 Frank

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