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I can't imagin any alone CD player can cost 1000s of pounds. Unless it's gold plated or something. 
PC with good sound card better than HiFi's
- Thread starter WatchTower
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WatchTower said:I can't imagin any alone CD player can cost 1000s of pounds. Unless it's gold plated or something.
I'm not even going to strat on expensive cd players, some of the uber expensive ones can be had for anything up to 50k if you find a special one
I got my free (paid for delivery) as it was dead, and will probably put out a sound that rivals most cdp's in the £600-£800, once i have put the remainder of my parts in. In total it would have cost me about £200, but most importantly it sounds stunning through my grado's !
Digital-to-Analogue Converter. The majority of sound is stored digitally (vinyl and tape are analogue, cds, mp3s and game sound effects are digital) these days so it has to go through a DAC at some point so it can be fed (after amplification) to the drivers in your speakers, which need an analogue signal.
As for why a cd player can cost £5000, I have no clue I paid £100 for my CD 6000 OSE LE (used). I guess you could say why pay a hundred grand for a Ferrari when a Nissan Micra will get you from A to B with equal success 
The more expensive CD players must sound better. Whether they sound enough better to be worth that amount of money, that's an individual choice.
As for why a cd player can cost £5000, I have no clue
I paid £100 for my CD 6000 OSE LE (used). I guess you could say why pay a hundred grand for a Ferrari when a Nissan Micra will get you from A to B with equal success The more expensive CD players must sound better. Whether they sound enough better to be worth that amount of money, that's an individual choice.WatchTower said:I can't imagin any alone CD player can cost 1000s of pounds. Unless it's gold plated or something.
£15,000 zanden model 2000 cd transport
£15,000 zanden model 5000 signature dac
If £30k is a bit to much you could always go for a mark levinson 390s. A bargain at £7000
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Associate
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Just sickening 
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What the eck makes them so expensive or is it just a rip off?
Erm, the way they sound...
I have:
£100 speakers
£250 amp
£250 CD player
So very low end seperates, I run my pc through my amp and speakers, I run a Xfi, it sounds DIABOLICAL compared to my £250 CD player doing anything. It lacks punch and the definition of the CD player to start, just sounds terrible in comparrisson.
I have used £200 PC speakers aswell, load of rubbish compared to my system now.
A HiFi just by its nature will always beat the soundcard as there will be less distortion and messing with the sound, and you don't usually deal with frequency amplification to make things 'sound' better.
It is a pointless debate, a £200 seperates system bought 2nd hand will completely wipe the floor with a £200 PC sound system. Without a doubt.
I have:
£100 speakers
£250 amp
£250 CD player
So very low end seperates, I run my pc through my amp and speakers, I run a Xfi, it sounds DIABOLICAL compared to my £250 CD player doing anything. It lacks punch and the definition of the CD player to start, just sounds terrible in comparrisson.
I have used £200 PC speakers aswell, load of rubbish compared to my system now.
A HiFi just by its nature will always beat the soundcard as there will be less distortion and messing with the sound, and you don't usually deal with frequency amplification to make things 'sound' better.
It is a pointless debate, a £200 seperates system bought 2nd hand will completely wipe the floor with a £200 PC sound system. Without a doubt.
I used to have some Logitech z640's (granted not great) and i have a mate who has the top end Creative Gigaworks 5.1 for comparison. Quite recently another mate bought a Cambridge A5 amp and some Eltax III speakers. Suffice to say i was in awe when i heard them. Waited a few weeks on eBay and eventually got myself geared up, bought a few metres of pro-grade cabling and i'm in audio heaven.
It hasn't got nothing on audiophile systems, but for me i'm absolutely delighted with what i've now got. The amp and speakers cost me little over £100.
It hasn't got nothing on audiophile systems, but for me i'm absolutely delighted with what i've now got. The amp and speakers cost me little over £100.
The Jet said:I used to have some Logitech z640's (granted not great) and i have a mate who has the top end Creative Gigaworks 5.1 for comparison. Quite recently another mate bought a Cambridge A5 amp and some Eltax III speakers. Suffice to say i was in awe when i heard them. Waited a few weeks on eBay and eventually got myself geared up, bought a few metres of pro-grade cabling and i'm in audio heaven.
It hasn't got nothing on audiophile systems, but for me i'm absolutely delighted with what i've now got. The amp and speakers cost me little over £100.
Nice one. Hi-fi really does show how poor pc speaker are for music.
One more thing, don't spend too much on cables as it really isn't worth it (waiting for the arguements to kick off). Speakers cable for no more than £2.50 /metre should do the the job nicely, like some of the 2.5mm spquared ixos stuff i have, or some van damme cable. For connecting up a cdp i recommend a mark grant stereo interconnect using canare cable (checj avforums cable section). Great value for £25 for the 1m length.
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I've got the Eltax Monitor 3's currently too and they sound fantastic to me (when setup right, on mass filled stands). Amazing that entry level hi-fi gear can sound so stunning. So clear and detailed, they really do shame the beeps and farts that come from most PC speakers And they're only £70 new.
Can just imagine how good the better stuff must sound. I'm in the middle of upgrading my speakers - looking at Wharfedale 9.1, B&W DM601, Mordaunt Short 902i and Monitor Audio Bronze B2.
And they're only £70 new.Can just imagine how good the better stuff must sound. I'm in the middle of upgrading my speakers - looking at Wharfedale 9.1, B&W DM601, Mordaunt Short 902i and Monitor Audio Bronze B2.
A few years ago, I had a pair of Yamaha Studio Monitors, which were infinitely superior to my current PC speakers, which are Altec Lansing 955 THX Jobs, however, the 955s are infinitely superior to my Soyn bag of sh1te, and my Sony is perhaps one of the best sounding HiFis that I could find at the time...
Anyone who says they have a good Hifi that is an all-in-one job are talking out of their rear ends, and yet, I have also heard some fairly expensive seperated that are quite frankly a load of old cack too!
I think this thread has gone completely doo-lally.
I know how well some higher end stuff can sound, I also know how well some low end stuff can sound too, and annoyingly, I also know how bad some expensive kit can be too ( My £600 JBL Dolby 6 Channel kit is not even connected to my TV cos its that crap, its just there for looks ).
What many of you are doing, is comparing kits that cost more than a bloody house against somethign on a PC that costs less money than it takes me to piddled on, and this is completely wrong and silly.
What would be a more fair comparison, is to compare what AMP / Speakers / CD etc, you can get on a PC or in Home Stereo/Hifi and at the same price range.
I think that if you are going to have say a limit of £200 then a PC would possibly edge out in front.
Saying that, my father has an old ( possibly 12-15 years ) Hifi, thats an Akai ( Dont laugh its good ) that has Optical Inputs on its AMP. I had to borrow it last year to compare the NF7S and the SB Audigy on both standard wired stereo and through the Optical and that has to be perhaps the best quality AMP I have heard in a very long time, especailly with playing through the Optical cable.
Anyone who says they have a good Hifi that is an all-in-one job are talking out of their rear ends, and yet, I have also heard some fairly expensive seperated that are quite frankly a load of old cack too!
I think this thread has gone completely doo-lally.
I know how well some higher end stuff can sound, I also know how well some low end stuff can sound too, and annoyingly, I also know how bad some expensive kit can be too ( My £600 JBL Dolby 6 Channel kit is not even connected to my TV cos its that crap, its just there for looks ).
What many of you are doing, is comparing kits that cost more than a bloody house against somethign on a PC that costs less money than it takes me to piddled on, and this is completely wrong and silly.
What would be a more fair comparison, is to compare what AMP / Speakers / CD etc, you can get on a PC or in Home Stereo/Hifi and at the same price range.
I think that if you are going to have say a limit of £200 then a PC would possibly edge out in front.
Saying that, my father has an old ( possibly 12-15 years ) Hifi, thats an Akai ( Dont laugh its good ) that has Optical Inputs on its AMP. I had to borrow it last year to compare the NF7S and the SB Audigy on both standard wired stereo and through the Optical and that has to be perhaps the best quality AMP I have heard in a very long time, especailly with playing through the Optical cable.
£200 would get you a nice used amp (or something like a Sonic Impact t-amp), decent used or even new bookshelf speakers, some used hi-fi stands and the cabling. And it would sound better than something like the Z5500. It wouldn't be surround sound and it wouldn't have a decoder, but for pure sound quality it would be superior, and if your main use for your PC was stereo music, then it's an option well worth considering.
Also IMO all-in-one systems aren't really 'hi-fi' as such, they're music systems, whereas to me hi-fi means seperates.
Also IMO all-in-one systems aren't really 'hi-fi' as such, they're music systems, whereas to me hi-fi means seperates.
Soldato
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i have. z5500's are good speakers, as far as pc audio goes. cant match a pair of amped bookshelf's for the same money though.
Well, no way in the world I'm going back to swapping bloody CDs. To spend over £100 on a CD player is just crazy, £15K?, I'm sure it's coated with gold and diamond. I don't believe a £15K cd player sounds much better than a £100 cd player. Speakers or amplifiers they do but cd players, no way. They're just trying to squeeze every single drop of milk from those blinded hard core hifi-nuts, who posting pics on message board "Look, I've just bought a £15K cd player and because it's 15K so it's the best". I used to visit head-fi.com a lot as I wanted to buy a good pair of ear-phone and after a few days my budget shot up from £70 to £350. Hifi-nuts there spending thousands on a pair of head phone is a norm.