Dinyaar:
I am curious about something. The CA 640 and 540 were praised to heaven by a number of magazines. I did hear the 640 sometime ago with the matching 640 amplifier connected to a pair of Quad 11L bookshelves. I felt the system sounded extremely good.
Did you even consider looking at the CA CD players for your friend's requirement? If not any particular reason?
The reason I am asking is that I am looking for a CD Player (budget, of course) that will become part of my system over the next few months. My other components will include a high end HTPC and an external DAC. My music tastes are quite diverse - soft rock, western classical, Hindustani, Carnatic, instrumentals, and of course film songs. The only genre I may keep away from is hard rock.
I am considering the CA, Marantz, and Emotiva ERC-1.
I am travelling to Dubai in January, and that will be a good opportunity to pick up a unit. I have written to Emotiva for pricing for delivery in Dubai. At US$400 it is very attractive.
Cheers
No venkat I did not consider the CA. I have a liking for marantz cdps and I think they are excellent in the budget range. The thing that appeals apart from the sound is the reliability of the machines. There are always lemons but in my experience marantz has fewer lemons!!!!
Its a gift for my cousin not a friend. I do not like a CA product period. I have heard the 740 & 840 are good but have never heard them. The 640 I have heard when it was just launched and I found nothing I liked in spite of the raving by What HIFI. See WHF would give 10 stars(if they didn't have to stop at 5) to a cyrus product and I owned one and am still shaking my head as to why someone could lavish such praise on such a cdp !!!!!
A CA amp maybe but only if someone puts a gun to my head!!!! I would take a simple no fuss NAD and be much much happier.
Actually for the music u mention a marantz seems a good option for a cdp.
Guns it was the 515 or is there a 516 in the Nad. Thats the cdp I tried. I had bought the 542 for myself for 24K and the 521 for 16 K and am hence comparing all three. I must add that only one Nad was auditioned this time.
Frankly I just didn't like it so am un aware of pricing but keeping regular distributor mark ups must be 20 K or higher.
Rikhav I did not really pit this marantz 6003 with the Accuphase/Esoteric. Rather compared it to the 5003,6002 & the Nad. This cdp is a gift and i am also looking for a good cdp for myself. Then I intend to sell the arcam CD 192, shift my Yamaha CDS 2000 in its place and use whatever I buy with my Accuphase amp.
But keeping in mind that I heard these cdps that cost upwards of 3L last week & these marantz/Nad a few days later I said that one can get reasonable sound from a cd using a simple, budget marantz or equivalent cdp.
U know Rikhav when I enlisted on this forum I mentioned that Its really difficult for me to select a cdp for myself. An amp / speakers is relatively easier. There are differences in cdps naturally but there are always a few things I like in every cdp I try which may or may not be as good in the other. I am yet not decided on a cdp and I am listening to as many as I can.
A whole load of my friends have ' heavily raved about' cdps from the biggies and I just cant get myself to stretch that far on a digital player.
Maybe I am wrong but one has to do what appeals to the ear,heart & the head I guess.
Rgds
