I said in my previous post that in a fit of boredom, I had purchased both an Arcam CD93 and a Cambridge Audio CXC. I was away for the month of January to handle a family emergency in another state, and wasn't here when the Arcam finally arrived about four weeks after I bought it. I tested it and it must go back--there is a very loud (maybe -20 dBFS) hiss in the audio output and something is obviously amiss in the audio section. The digital output worked fine, but that's not the itch I was scratching with that purchase, so back it goes. But the itch still needed scratching, so I have purchased another CD player of vaunted sound qualities from about that era (early 2000's)--a Naim CD5. It should arrive next week.
No, I do not expect the Naim to sound particularly different than my current player, a Tascam CD-401, which I already can't distinguish from the Cambridge CXC feeding a Musical Fidelity DAC. But it uses a Philips transport that is more robust than the Sanyo transport in the Cambridge, and (a bit) more serviceable than the otherwise lovely Sony KSS151 in the older Tascam. And Naim reportedly kept a stock of parts, though I bet that doesn't last forever. But it lacks the usual fragile drawer--no plastic gears to crack and no belts to turn to goo. The drawerless Philips transport usually means a top-loader, but Naim mounted it to a rotating tray that rolls laterally out the front using human power, bringing the whole transport with it, and clamps the CD using a manually placed magnetic puck. Drawers have been the weak links in my CD player history, but a top-loader doesn't work in my setup.
(pic from Stereophile review.)
No, I'm not going to buy the "upgrade" power supply. Nor am I going to buy a Naim interconnect--I found an inexpensive but still well-shielded DIN to RCA adaptor on Amazon, and I'll make the link plug that allows the use of the internal power supply. The seller wrote in the listing that it can only be used with a Naim preamp and power supply. Uh, yeah.
If I am astounded by this or that when it arrives, I will seek to find out why in measurable terms. I suspect the CXC will be the more transparent, feeding into a Topping E30 as it will be once I unbox and install the latter. Even though I don't expect one to be better or worse than the other (or even different), I'm sort-of hoping that it is just to have something to talk about.
I really don't mind having two CD players in one system.
(The seller, in the discussion about the Arcam's fault and needed return, didn't take my word for it completely when I told him I tested it several times, alternating between the Arcam and my Tascam, using the same interconnects moved back and forth. He asked me to bypass the preamp and plug it straight into my amp, because preamps are "only needed for phonos". My amps, of course, have no volume controls. I told him conducting that test would ruin my speakers, my ears, possibly my amps, and certainly my domestic harmony, and not necessarily in that order. He relented.)
Rick "thinking the Philips transports were the more reliably built of those that were available in the early 2000's" Denney