I’ve written extensively for years about how silver discs are my favorite way to listen to music.
They’ve had enormous potential from day one and reward you for putting effort into the format the same way you do for vinyl. It has always made sense to pursue higher achieving CD players rather than skewer the format while listening to a portable Radio Shack player or $249 Chinese bucket of bolts.
We all know that getting a better table, arm and cartridge, will make big improvements. Also, the skill of the physical set up of these table related components makes a difference.
Why shouldn’t we have been doing the same with CD players, or transports & DACs?
Well, some of us HAVE. And we’ve enjoyed and appreciated the CD format along the way. The magazine reviewers… have been elitist, short sighted and looked down on the format. It’s a shame they’ve missed the boat.
They’ve ridden the frustrating mechanical bucking bronco of vinyl. That has often been a train wreck of rumble and collapsing cantilevers. Why were they so NAY SAY to CDs all this time? They’ve sadly thought, if it’s digital it can’t be good. Think again.
Well, a few of them are finally catching on.
For the second time in a month I’ve read reviewers from TAS say that they’re getting fabulous results while playing CDs. In both cases, the reviewers are surprised because they’ve been prejudiced against the format for decades.
One fellow ran his new transport into his $14k British DAC. The light bulb went on that CDs can actually sound great after missing the forest through the trees for 4 decades.
The other fellow thinks his streamer is a server, so we have to keep that in perspective. Yet to his credit, he loves the expensive CD player he just reviewed and offered, “Is it possible that hard digital media might be on the cusp of what happened to vinyl in the CD area?”
Yup. It is.
The heck of it is… for many of us, we never gave up on the format. We just kept up with the evolution of the gear as it improved. But hey, the band wagon has plenty of room. It’s not too late. Please jump on!
A fun way to do it is with a marvelous Atoll CD player.
Atoll CD200 – $2950
Atoll CD100 – $2200
Atoll CD80 – $1750
