CD Player/Amp Advice

[Nordo]

I currently have a 10 year old Pioneer PD-M427 6 sticker CD player. The DAC is PD2026B.
The player is analogue connected to a 40 year old Cambridge A60 integrated amp.

I am in the middle of building some good quality transmission line speakers. Probably with a sensitivity of 82-85 dB.

I am now thinking that I should also be looking at updating my player and amp. But that would be an expense I have not allowed for, so I'm on a budget (best bang- for- buck).

I need suggestions for a player/amp combinations with a good sound and DAC for a total budget under $1000au ($600us).
Alternatively, if you think the existing equipment isn't too bad, maybe I should be just looking at an external DAC?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[dsnyder0cnn]

This stack from Topping would be a rather dramatic increase in sound quality over what you have:

Fiio HiFi Audio Players, headphone AMP, DACs and earphones | HiFiGO

If you are following the HiFi audio scene for the past few years, you know FiiO is the top-most leader in HiFi audio gear from China. They got established back in 2007 with experience in the research and development of countless portable HiFi audio products. The brand name FiiO is composed of...

hifigo.com

I guess it depends on how loud you listen. According to tests over at ASR, the PA5 is clean up to 48 watts into 8Ω or 83 watts into 4Ω. That's not a ton less than what you have now with the A60 (less than 1 dB difference in peak output, if my math is right), so perhaps it would be fine.

Nice thing about this solution is that you can later add a Raspberry Pi (assuming they are ever in stock again) and dip a toe into streaming.

 

[Nordo]

Thanks dsnyder0cnn.
That's a great pairing.
I'll have to find out some information about my CD player (low noise, transport, etc.) to make sure it doesn't become the weak link.
Thanks again.

 

[dsnyder0cnn]

I'll have to find out some information about my CD player (low noise, transport, etc.) to make sure it doesn't become the weak link.

That's one of the nice things about these new DACs. Upstream jitter or noise is not much of a concern. The DAC will reclock the input signal, so as long as you have a reasonable digital output and decent 75Ω COAX S/PDIF cable, you should be good to go until the laser fails.

 

[Nordo]

Are you saying you prefer Coax over optical fibre?
I've always used optical fibre when available, as I always thought it would transfer the cleaner signal.

 

[dsnyder0cnn]

Are you saying you prefer Coax over optical fibre?
I've always used optical fibre when available, as I always thought it would transfer the cleaner signal.

COAX S/PDIF has significantly lower inherent jitter than TOSLINK. This is less consequential with modern DACs that reclock the signal, but TOSLINK can have other limitations too. For example, some implementations limit TOSLINK to 24-bits, 96 kHz while COAX S/PDIF is capable of 24-bits, 192 kHz and, in some cases, DSD64 over DoP.

This page describes what Allo discovered when designing a digital output to be used with Raspberry Pi computers:

DigiOne SPDIF Output

Raspberry PI hat with SPDIF and BNC audio interface with 0.22ps jitter.

allo.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We started designing a digital (S/PDIF) transport for RPI with one goal in mind: Absolut best S/PDIF output.

Now let me explain… behind the grandiose wording there is an exact science. Since this is a digital stream the most important aspect for "absolut best" is jitter. Jitter in digital domain directly translates into analog errors. Second, is noise. Lowering the noise that’s injected in your DAC will produce some (small-to-none) improvements.

Then we went to work.

10 LDOs, 12 LPF, DC/DC convertors, galvanic isolator, WM8805, flip flops, buffers, NDK oscillators.

Optical had to go… by definition it has a jitter of 4ns. That’s 4000ps. We simply removed it. However, optical has galvanic isolation so we took the decision to use a digital isolator instead that separates the outputs from both RPI and WM8805.

DigiOne has 2 outputs: BNC and plain RCA (coaxial). On both, we have achieved jitter of 0.6ps (1 picosecond – time taken by light in a vacuum to travel approximately 0.30 mm).

Noise. 50uV (batteries have about 12uV of noise).

What we achieved, in our opinion and based on public measurements, is the best transport at any price point (yes, even when compared with 5k USD/EUR transports).

 

[Nordo]

Just an update.

I've narrowed my proposed CD player down to Marantz CD6007 or Denon DCD-600NE (Denon is half the price of the Marantz).
My understanding is that both have modern well reviewed onboard DACs.
Please butt in if you think otherwise.

So now I'm after suggestions for an integrated amp.
I don't really want to spend money on onboard extras that I don't want - phono stage and DAC.
It's only for home listening in our living room, so 40 - 60w per channel should be enough.
But obviously I want something that would do justice to the new CD player (and my new speakers).

 

[dsnyder0cnn]

Just an update.

I've narrowed my proposed CD player down to Marantz CD6007 or Denon DCD-600NE (Denon is half the price of the Marantz).
My understanding is that both have modern well reviewed onboard DACs.
Please butt in if you think otherwise.

So now I'm after suggestions for an integrated amp.
I don't really want to spend money on onboard extras that I don't want - phono stage and DAC.
It's only for home listening in our living room, so 40 - 60w per channel should be enough.
But obviously I want something that would do justice to the new CD player (and my new speakers).

I've not found much data on the DACs in either CD player. I guess my only concern is that this feels like a system that one would aspire to build 20-30 years ago but probably not today. Neither CD player has a digital input, so you can't use their internal DAC with another digital source, like a network streamer. I guess you can add an external DAC later, but if your Pioneer PD-M427 CD player is still working, why not keep it and go with an external DAC now?

 

[ddude003]

Here is another thought... If you don't already have a CD/DVD/BlyRay drive in your HTPC add one on the cheap (<$150.00)... Rip your CDs to the HTPC and stream instead of spinning... Or put your CD library on a jump drive if you don't want to stream from your HTPC over ethernet or wifi... Keep your current kit and add a Bluesound Node 2i...

 

[Nordo]

I've not found much data on the DACs in either CD player. I guess my only concern is that this feels like a system that one would aspire to build 20-30 years ago but probably not today. Neither CD player has a digital input, so you can't use their internal DAC with another digital source, like a network streamer. I guess you can add an external DAC later, but if your Pioneer PD-M427 CD player is still working, why not keep it and go with an external DAC now?

I'm not sure of the specs of my Pioneer PD-M427 CD player (drive quality, S/N, etc), but you keep making a lot of sense.
By keeping my CD player (and amp for the time being), and just add an external DAC, it makes a lot of sense.
EDIT - I just realised that the Pioneer CD player only has R and L analogue outputs (RCA).

But maybe I should be looking at separates - CD transport only and a stand-alone DAC?
I'm just trying to get best bang-for-buck for what is really a system for casual listening. I'm not an audiophile.

 

[ddude003]

I'm not an audiophile.

You don't have to be an audiophile to enjoy music streamed from your own library, free internet radio stations and/or subscription services such Qobuz and Tidal... It just takes the addition of a streamer and DAC... Connect the streamer to your home LAN/WAN and the DAC to your PreAmp or Integrated... Streamers and DACs can be combined like the Bluesound 2i I suggested above or separates like @dsnyder0cnn suggested above...