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August 9, 2006 - 7:35pm
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The acid test for ultimate detail
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Given that the Recommended Components list had to assign an elevated category (A+) for that player it shouldn't be surprizing that not many will come close to it, and even fewer will come close for substantially less than $20K. Try to audition the Ayre C-5xe (same A+designation). It goes for about $6K and JA liked it so well that he bought one for his system. If that price tag is also too steep, as it was for me, try the Marantz SA11S1 at about $3K. I think mine is great.
This is actually the new Meridian 808 reference player, it retails for $12,995.00. I have listened to the Ayre, it doesn't hold a candle to this player, yes, it's that good. You can't hear the same level of the detail on the track I mentioned above when played trough the Ayre.
The funny thing is that when you hear resolution like that, you strain to hear it in your own rig. Sometimes, you can almost convince yourself that you almost heard it in your own system.
I hate it when that happens. That sort of thing can nag at you every time you listen to the tune.
I know what brand shoes and color of them, my system has THAT kind of resolution. $13K for a Cd player is insane. SACD players for well under a $1,000 Are the way to go. AND I heard the BRAND of wood floor....can that CD player do that?
Funny, that's exactly what I did when I got home. I even turned the volume way up, but nope, it's simply not there.
Which cd player do you own? If you don't mind sharing. BTW, I would recommend you first paste your postings in a word processing program like MS Word, run the grammar-check function, then copy and paste it back in this forum. Just a suggestion.
I've got the JVC XRCD of this album (I sorta regret not picking up the DCC Steve Hoffman discs, but, enjoy the XRCDs), and I hear the footsteps clearly after the whistle and Miles talks, before the piano comes in.
I'm glad I'm not alone on this one. I just saw a review of this very player at the absolute sound home page.
OK guys, i'm really confused by your posts. I no longer have the single CD of Relaxin' but the boxed set "Chronicle: the complete Prestige recordings 1951 - 1956", where "You're my Everything" is Track 3 on Disc 8.
On my CD, Miles is not talking but playing between :25 and :30, and the piano starts the track. There is no talking and no whistle as far as I can tell.
So it seems that my version may be truncated. My version is 4:45 long. Can anyone please advise the length of the single CD version, or otherwise shed any light on this?
(BTW, I did listen to an MP3 sample of the track at CDuniverse just to confirm that I was listening to the correct track!)
Thanks,
Richard.
What about EMMLABS? www.emmlabs.com CD-SA upsamples CD to over 5mghz And it plays SACD...less than the Meridian and SACD too. If a player can't do SACD why bother with it, A CD only player is dopey....In this day and time. www.emmlabs.com Music Direct has em, when do they drop in price? When the MK II comes out?
I heard that kind of detail in the dCS stack.... That is insanely expensive though, even more than the Meridian! It also doesn't play DVD-A if I remember correctly.
I would like to compare the Meridian 808 to my C-5xe in my current setup. The only issue is, even if it does sound better, I wouldn't want to buy it because it doesn't accommodate SACD.
On that note, does anyone know of any players that have the level of detail of the 808, that plays DVD-A, SACD, and CD? The dCS stack revealed harmonics in Steve Vai's song "Sisters" that I haven't heard on cheaper players. I would like to find something that is a universal player, that also reveals that level of detail on all the formats.
Thanks.
Hi Richard - Welcome to the forum. I only just saw your post today. The time is listed as 5:18 on the packaging for the track in question on my disc.
Hi Jeff, thanks for the reply. It seems I am missing 33 seconds of the track. Seems I'll need to buy the single disc version again!
- Richard.