I don’t think it’s that hard to find a nice system, you just need to be able to try loads of stuff to be able to work out what is good / what is bad / what plays nicely together or not. Then you will find the correct one for you. Are you talking about the original HE90? The one back from 1990 if so I heard it at the time it was out and I have heard it again since, it was very good but you can do so much better at a lower price. Anyway what I was getting at is you don’t need a 200K Amp / Speakers to get the best out of a 28K CD player. Throwing money at a problem does not promise a fix of the problem, but good matching and a bit of homework will solve the problem at a lower price.
yes, the one from early 90's. best headphones i've ever listened. also with my own cdp, the studer d730 had next level sound. the thing was recapped/etc by sennheiser. i have the baby orpheus he60. the he90 is totally next level. is it worth it, only when you have more than enough money. it seems the he90 is still better than the new sennheiser flagship. so, as you can see. even cdp's which are far less than 28k could give next level sound when you have a good headphones, or a good speaker/amp setup. to me, it's stupid to buy a 28k cdp when you don't have a good setup. this cdp will be perhaps a little better as cheaper cdp's. TT's are a different beast.
I don't know if you are referring to your setup or mine? You don't know what setup i have. I would not but the CD player anyway as i have no need for one.
it's not about mine or yours. it's about a good cdp needs a good setup to get all the details of the music.
I am not disputing that, but what I am asking is do you still maintain you need a 200K Amp / Speakers to enjoy a 28K CD player?
yes, because a cheaper cdp isn't much worse than a 28k cdp. if you want to hear all the details. that 1%, you need alot of $$ in amp/speaker to get that 1%. conclusion: i would prefer a cheaper cdp and use the money for a better amp/speaker. TT's are different.
Well we will have to agree to disagree, not wanting to be rude but I don’t think you know what you are talking about I can put a 28K CD player on my system and a 5K or 10K CD Player on system and I will hear a huge difference and my Pre / Power Amp / Speaker combo is not 200K.
I am not going to argue with anyone here, we have Audiogon forum for that! My 5 cents of initial experience stay the same: Their site: Pro Musica, and sorry about misspelling the name, it should be John Schwarz. The guy went into trouble of playing my $200 Harman Kardon CD player, then Rega Planet, then Naim CDX, all fed into $1k integrated and ~$1k mini-monitors. It was in their "for beginners" room upstairs with mostly Rega kit, so it must have been Mira and Ara. The difference was stunning for a true believer (that was me) that "digital is digital" It is true that at the Audio Show you won't see many four-figure CD players connected to a $2k system
I know what you are talking about Jorge. We tried my Friends Wadia CD player in my system when he was getting the Nagra CD player. We compared the Nagra and Wadia, the Wadia was £3K and the Nagra was £10K. The Nagra destroyed the Wadia, it made the Wadia sound like it was broken and my Amp / Speaker combo is not £200K but nearer £20K. If we could hear that much of a difference, imagine if we put a £28K Spectral CD player in my system it will show a huge different over the Wadia and Nagra.
ok, we disagree. i prefer older cdp's and a good setup, than alot of money in a new cdp. that's the beauty of audio, create your own setup.
Very interesting, esp considering that recently Naim and Focal had teamed together. As an incurable lover of "Naim sound" I spend quite some time in Naim rooms at the shows and I hear the same thing: except for their old SBLs and DBLs they have just average sound, not the worst at the show, but not the best. My local Naim dealers (both of them!) combine Naim with Harbeth, and although these speakers have zero "Wife Acceptance Factor" (ugly as a square box can be!), the result is usually pretty involving.
Yes Focal now owns Naim. How do they expect to put 2 bright things together and have a pleasant sound? From what I have heard from Focal / Naim dealers Focal is meant to have re-voiced their speakers to work well with Naim electronics, going by what I heard at the show they need to go back to the drawing board. The Focal / Naim room was the worst I heard at the show. After the demo I had a lengthy talk with the guy doing the demo. I said to him I would have never played that first track which was female vocal and he agreed with me and said it was not his choice but had to play what he was told to play. This track was painful to listen to. The second track was male, sounded better but was still terrible. The third track was classical and it worked very well. The forth and fifth track were still bad. I said to him it sounded like Focal of old very shouty and in your face. He agreed with everything I said, I also said I was not surprised those 2 people walked out before the first track finished. At the price they want for that combo, I would expect to throw any music at it and it should play it well. I think your dealers are correct to pair Naim with Harbeth, sound like good combination. Naim bright and in your face, Harbeth revealing detailed but forgiving.
Yep, here is an empty Naim/Focal room at LA Audio Show 2017. I was polite (I hope) but left in a hurry! And here is the room where I intended to spend the rest of that day: but then some "press" dude walked in with a stack of Fleetwood Mac LPs and I had to leave... My hi-end craze started with an idea of moving towards Wilsons, but so far I never had any luck hearing a good demonstration. At least here I blamed it on the MQA streamed off Tidal: all the other dudes in the room were mightily impressed, so it's just me Unfortunately, LAAS 2018 got cancelled: AnalogPlanet
