advertisement


CD players with pucks

Alex N said:
I hadn’t realised the big lad was this much bigger (and heavier) until just now...

7-A2-D213-E-D5-B7-4-D6-E-A30-E-D660-BABB5-C8-E.jpg


If anyone would like to make me feel slightly less of a nerd by identifying these, that’d be great.
Click to expand...

Well, the small black one is from a Naim CDP. Obvious without even zooming in to see the name printed on it!

No idea re the big boy.
 
simon g said:
A puck is not a gimmick, it's a necessity for a top loading, slide cover player.
Click to expand...

Naim top loading CD players used a puck but didn't have a slide cover. Though you could argue that a slide cover is a gimmick?

My suggestion that is a gimmick is perhaps unfair as I think at least some of the companies who use pucks believe they are of benefit. I disagree. For example the idea that they aid rotational stability? It is suggested that traditional clamps may not be balanced but, if you've ever owned a Naim CD player, I've had three, you'll know that the puck can sit slightly off centre so may not be balanced either? And the puck is always heavier than the clamping plate on a spring loaded mechanism.

So in practice I just don't think it makes the slightest bit of difference whether a CD player uses a puck or not. CDs don't spin very quickly. The OP seems to be under the impression that a player with a puck will have a different sound to than one which doesn't and it's not the case. There is no correlation between sound quality and what type of clamp a player uses. I'm using a Rega Saturn-R which uses a very cheap CD transport designed for portable CD players, the CD clicks into place, and it's the best sounding CD player I've owned. They use the same transport in their flagship Isis player. I've had other players with basic plastic transports with spring clamps which beat more expensive Naim players too. I'm not saying a CD player with puck sounds bad, just that with regard to sound quality it's totally irrelevant.

It has practical and ergonomic implications though. Some find the use of the puck satisfying but it's a pain if you spin the puck inside the player and if you misplace it your player isn't working. Buy a spare.
 
Also - a cd mech doesn't benefit t all from rotational stability, because the rotation speed continually reduces as the disc is read (from inside to outside. so it slows from c 600 rpm to c 200 at end. Adding rotational inertia to that makes the servos react slower/ work harder - not a benefit, given the data passes through a FIFO buffer, and clocked out from there.
 
Piksky said:
I think purely because it adds to the physicality of playing a cd. Same as faffing around with a record: it’s part of the process.
Click to expand...

I would agree that it does. There is something nice about physically opening a Naim tray and the simple controls on older Naim players are lovely too. They look and feel lovely to use. By contrast I really dislike the CD tray on the Saturn-R. The finger holes are too small and in the wrong places, the lid doesn't open high enough and the way the CD clicks into place feels cheap but I don't buy CD players based on these things. I buy them to play music and the Rega does that better than anything else I've had.
 
Naim and Meridian had elegant solutions - you didn't need to put the player on the top shelf, and could top-load. Patented?
Both Rega and the Exposure player above are fiddly to use. Mind you, the Rotel CD11 is also a pain - to remove the CD from the drawer!
 
gingermrkettle said:
And the ongoing relief when it does actually read the disc and the laser hasn't borked itself (also an owner with a regular Christmas card to Colin Yallop).
Click to expand...

Well, when I bought this I also bought a new laser assembly from the eBay seller you linked in the for sale thread (for which, thanks). Hopefully I’ll never need it. And hopefully all of the other components in it hold up too!
 
Well seeing as we are providing info about makes and models with fancy photos ... here's my 'pucked' Cyrus dAD-7 I mentioned earlier ...



 
Mr Pig said:
Why? It does nothing for sound quality. It's a gimmick and has no bearing on whether a CD player is good, bad or indifferent.
Click to expand...

if you try using a 'pucked' CD player without its puck, I think you'll find it does actually make a considerable difference...
 


Just purchased this from a fellow forum member.

You can pick these up for a very decent price if you're prepared to hunt around for a while (Pro-Ject CD Box RS).
 
Let’s be clear, all CDPs have a puck - it’s the way of clamping the disc to the spin motor. Some are manual, some are part of the tray assembly and unseen by the user. Manual pucks reduce mechanical complexity, and could be argued cheaper to build. I think Naim used to say they limited clamping manual picks increased sound quality, but I think most of those early pucks are now replaced with puck5 with 4 rubber rings to clamp with.

Oh, add the Meracus Imagio to manual puck CDPs, and the early Micromega transports - along with my 2 CDIs part of the 4 manual puck machines I own…as I get older I dislike the additional step of loading a disc :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top