who needs bitsream?

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cressy
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#1 who needs bitsream?

Post by cressy »

ive just connected up an old philips cd 303. my mother in law has had this for about 20 years and on the offchance i asked if i could lend it for a few days to have a listen. initially i thought it was very harsh. its warmed up now after not being used for a couple of years and im speechless. the damned thing is absolutely brilliant. its got an old 14 bit dac and shitty captive leads but its so clean its unbelieveable. the bass seems about twice as fast and tight as my xray which was bloody fast and tight!, the imaging is very clear and each instrument is placed exactly. infact thats a good way to decribe it. exact. i can see why the flat earthers hated cd because i dont think i could listen to it theough anything transistor that was available at the time. i think this on the end of naim amps and linn kans would have been akin to chinese water torture! on the end of the el34 of mine though its magic! i wonder if she'll sell it me!
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#2

Post by cressy »

just an update in the poor old thing.... having had it on for several hours this morning, it packed up on the left channel. fearing the worst i had a look inside to see if thre was anything untoward. no smell of ozone or burnt wires so after hoovering it out (literally, it was full of fluff and other detritus from the last 25 years), i had a look at the cables. john (mi better halfs dad) had cut the cables shorter about 15 years ago for some reason he couldnt remember so i had a look under the insulating tape. the wire was twisted together but had become so corroded that it was literally falling apart at the joint. sod soldering it up i thought so ive installed a complete new set of leads. now its better again. surely i should be used to temperamental stuff after faffing with old and ancient turntables for the last couple of years!
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cressy
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#3

Post by cressy »

ok. after some quite extended listening ive decided i want one. trouble is she wont sell. bugger. time for plan b, ive seen a cd100 on fleabay so put a bid on. heres hoping. i love the 'futuristic' design of these ones too, they're more blakes seven than cd7! sure the old brute has its bad bits but id rather listen to exuberance than boring politeness any day.
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#4

Post by simon »

Mmm, there are all sorts of old players out there that sound better than modern ones. I have a few 104s (shhh!) which I'll replace the caps on one day...
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#5

Post by cressy »

what i find strange with this cd player is that it sounds very natural. one of the common things about cd is that it sounds mechanical, shrieky or uninvolving. the shrieky part of the argument yes i can see with this one as its rather uncultured at the top end. doesnt bother me though as it has a real rhythmic quality and a naturalness that my xray, the delta 170 and black box 3 or x24k dac and various 90s sonys didnt have. that was why i didnt really use cd too much and got into the murky (and expensive) world of vinyl instead. this one though has been on constantly and has performed very well. so much for 25 years worth of development, it seems that the things that were right at cds inception have been lost by sorting out what was wrong unless you spend thousands. quid pro quo? no. just far too many quids for me!
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#6

Post by cressy »

result! ive now got a meridian mcd on its way. apparently it an 'audiophile' cd player. int that great. well i thought if im going for an oldie i might as well have a golden oldie. having done some research before buying, it seems its a good un and even now the thing seems to have a fanbase. a review from 1985 is full of superlatives and apparently its very good. we shall see.
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#7

Post by cressy »

well i got the meridian mcd a few days ago and i have to say im mighty impressed with it. the sound is quite close to the cd303 but is a hell of a lot smoother. the treble has less glare and fizz, the mid is quite alot more open and the bass is about the same, very tight and goes as low as you want. after abit if a clean and re soldering a dry joint on the voltage regulator this evening i can say ill keep this one for a good while (or till it packs up!). my persoal reference is the xray i had and im not left wanting at all. strangely, the voltage regulator problem was exactly the same problem as encountered on an old sony that the old man fixed for me a while back. i wouldnt have even thought of it if i hadn't encountered it before. overall a lovely old thing. better than most modern things ive heard imho
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