How Much Hi-Res do you actually listen to/own compared to Redbook?

[NorthStar]

JVC XRCD-24 bit and SACD: One sounds better that the other on average?

 

[jtein]

Almost negligible. I don't know if there's anything wrong with my ears, but I much prefer RBCDs to SACDs. That's why I've made a downpayment for a Meridian 808.3 just today! Wahooo!

 

[NorthStar]

RBCDs: Rhythm'n'Blues CDs?

 

[LL21]

Almost negligible. I don't know if there's anything wrong with my ears, but I much prefer RBCDs to SACDs. That's why I've made a downpayment for a Meridian 808.3 just today! Wahooo!

Congrats...i have heard the 808.2 and it is a great player. I feel sure the 808.3 will even better...please post your impressions vs other players! would be interesting to hear how you think it compares. thanks!

 

[microstrip]

Almost negligible. I don't know if there's anything wrong with my ears, but I much prefer RBCDs to SACDs. That's why I've made a downpayment for a Meridian 808.3 just today! Wahooo!

Did you listen to SACDs in players of equivalent quality? Although I am not attracted by SACDs because I can not find much I want to buy in this format, I found that the quality was fabulous in good recordings with the top players. As the Meridian does not play SACDs how can you be absolutely sure it is the digital format your are judging, not the implementation of the reader?
BTW, the 808.3 is really very good!

 

[NorthStar]

The Meridian 808.3 CD player; is that an expensible (expensive?) playback device?

 

[jtein]

Congrats...i have heard the 808.2 and it is a great player. I feel sure the 808.3 will even better...please post your impressions vs other players! would be interesting to hear how you think it compares. thanks!

Thanks Lloyd....will do!

 

[jtein]

Did you listen to SACDs in players of equivalent quality? Although I am not attracted by SACDs because I can not find much I want to buy in this format, I found that the quality was fabulous in good recordings with the top players. As the Meridian does not play SACDs how can you be absolutely sure it is the digital format your are judging, not the implementation of the reader?
BTW, the 808.3 is really very good!

My observation is based on extensive listening to SACDs as well as Redbook CDs on my Esoteric X-03 SE. Of course, well-recorded SACDs probably sounds better than CDs, but I find it to be the exception rather than the norm.

 

[jtein]

The Meridian 803.3 CD player; is that an expensible (expensive?) playback device?

Retail is $20k....but I got it at an irresistible price :b

 

[NorthStar]

What! 20 Gs! Are you nuts or what?!!

* You get a very nice car (on the used market) for that amount.
And in some countries a very nice house. ...Or a huge piece of land.

 

[jtein]

What! 20 Gs! Are you nuts or what?!!

* You get a very nice car (on the used market) for that amount.
And in some countries a very nice house. ...Or a huge piece of land.

Aren't all audiophiles nuts?

Where I am, for 20k, you get only a basic compact car. To get a very nice house, you need at least 500k, and for a huge piece of land it's at least 2 million.....and I'm talking in terms of American dollars. Just to give you an example, a luxury apartment in my country will cost 500k-1mil in US dollars.

 

[NorthStar]

That Meridian 808.3 CD player's better sound real good or else ....

* By the way, not all countries are equal (cost of things).

 

[fas42]

Price is related to the effort that has gone into the product, balanced by numbers of units that they expect to sell, which dictates how the manufacture of the unit occurs. As a simple example, if my HT system had been created by a typical audiophile company it would most likely cost of the order of $10K, simply because of the amount of work that had to be done and cost of materials. I've seen photos of the inside of current Naim products, and there is nothing "superior" there: just that the engineers really know what they're doing; how to optimise the capability of completely standard parts, how to attach most things to each other "correctly" ...

Frank

 

[NorthStar]

...; how to optimise the capability of completely standard parts, how to attach most things to each other "correctly" ...

Frank

Frank, doez "optimize" zpell with a 'z'?

Thiz I believe. :b

 

[fas42]

Frank, doez "optimize" zpell with a 'z'?

Thiz I believe. :b

Bob, you need your meds, as Tim is fond of saying ...

:b:b,
Frank

 

[NorthStar]

Only when listening to Hi-Rez Audio Frank, only then. :b

 

[jtein]

That Meridian 808.3 CD player's better sound real good or else ....

Here's a review by RH on the Meridian 808.2. It's the immediate model before the 808.3. Not everyone would subscribe to this kind of sound, but it ticks all the right boxes for me.

http://www.avguide.com/review/tas-194-meridian-8082-reference-signature-cd-player

 

[fas42]

Here's a review by RH on the Meridian 808.2. It's the immediate model before the 808.3. Not everyone would subscribe to this kind of sound, but it ticks all the right boxes for me.

http://www.avguide.com/review/tas-194-meridian-8082-reference-signature-cd-player

From that review:

Despite these advances, CD has been fundamentally limited, we assumed, by its too-low sampling rate (44.1kHz) and too-short word length (16 bits)—parameters dictated by the state of late-1970s technology. Moreover, the vast majority of CDs in our music libraries were created with sub-optimum conversion and mastering technology, imprinting our favorite music with hardness, glare, and flatness. I’ve held a secret fantasy of hitting the lottery and using the money to re-master some of my favorite music (none of which has commercial potential), just so that I and other fans could replace our poor-sounding CDs with the best that today’s mastering technology can deliver. As much as CD playback has improved, it’s still fundamentally limited by the format’s parameters, and our libraries are plagued by the distortions introduced by the brickwall filters in A/D converters.

Amazing that this BS is still written in "authorative" magazines -- wakey, wakey, boys!!

Frank

 

[LL21]

Here's a review by RH on the Meridian 808.2. It's the immediate model before the 808.3. Not everyone would subscribe to this kind of sound, but it ticks all the right boxes for me.

http://www.avguide.com/review/tas-194-meridian-8082-reference-signature-cd-player

Hi JTein...here is another one by HifiCritic...Martin Collom's magainze which is my favorite. Very similar to the way audio journals were 20 years ago...no ads, very detailed, long articles, loads of reviews in a single issue. This review is for the 808.2 i believe.

http://www.hificritic.com/downloads/digital/HIFICRITIC_MeridianCDP808i.pdf

I wonder if you also find that going direct into the amp makes the big improvement that is noted in the review. (not using the built-in preamp for other products, but just going direct into amp and using the internal volume attenuator).

 

[jtein]

Hi JTein...here is another one by HifiCritic...Martin Collom's magainze which is my favorite. Very similar to the way audio journals were 20 years ago...no ads, very detailed, long articles, loads of reviews in a single issue. This review is for the 808.2 i believe.

http://www.hificritic.com/downloads/digital/HIFICRITIC_MeridianCDP808i.pdf

I wonder if you also find that going direct into the amp makes the big improvement that is noted in the review. (not using the built-in preamp for other products, but just going direct into amp and using the internal volume attenuator).

Thanks Lloyd, I've already read it a couple of days ago. In fact, I was going to post this as well but I thought it would be information overload if I posted 2 reviews Btw, I can't seem to figure out how the scoring system work.

I can't answer your question yet as I'm still waiting for my baby to arrive! Actually, I got a bit confused about not using the built-in preamp but going direct into the amp using the digital volume control. That would be like the Puccini and the Berkeley Alpha DAC. There are some that posit that this internal volume thingy can never match or take the place of a very good preamp.