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ATC CDA2 Mk I - Noisy/slow CD mech?

Woodface said:
How good is it as a CD player? I am seriously thinking about going for a one box solution. I currently have a cdx/xpas2 feeding a 252/supercap/250. Quite like the idea of active speakers with a simple front end.
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I sold the last of my Naim this week, having been very happy with it for 20 years. The catalyst was when I had passive SCM 40s on the end of an LP12/CDX.72/HC, powered by one and subsequently two 250s (passively biamping). I looked at how much capital I had tied up in the power amps for a still less than optimum solution and it didn't make sense, financially.

Was looking at getting a P1 or P2 or shifting to active 40s, when a pair of active 50s came up. I grabbed a mytek brooklyn from the classifieds off here, as I wanted something with balanced outputs to drive the 50s and I had no stand alone DAC. I reasoned that with the Brooklyn, I could then ditch the CDX and use any old CD player (I had a couple knocking around the house) and if the phono stage was good enough, maybe ditch the p75.

Aesthetically, I didn't get on very well with the Mytek. I loved its flexibility and it worked flawlessly. As an analogue preamp, I preferred the 72. The phono stage was more noisey and obviously less flexible than the P75.

Then both CD players went tits up.

Then the CDA2 Mk1 became available at a good price. I had it for a week, before making a decision about the CD transport. However, it sounded utterly fantastic. I don't how much of the improvement in sound was due to the CD, the DAC or the preamp, but both CD and tidal via optical out from Chromecast sounded wonderful. It was dramatically better than what I'd been hearing before: deeper bass, much more attack on notes, more detail, just more 'real' and not at all fatiguing.

I know it's a cliche but I did keep reaching for stuff I knew well, to see what might be on the recording that I hadn't heard before.

I spent Sunday afternoon dozing on the couch with a Tidal 'mix' of Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, Miles, etc. I kept waking up periodically, "thinking f**king hell, that's just brilliant, I've never heard that before!"

How much did I like the CDA2? I've just ordered a Mk 2.
 
Sean K said:
I sold the last of my Naim this week, having been very happy with it for 20 years. The catalyst was when I had passive SCM 40s on the end of an LP12/CDX.72/HC, powered by one and subsequently two 250s (passively biamping). I looked at how much capital I had tied up in the power amps for a still less than optimum solution and it didn't make sense, financially.

Was looking at getting a P1 or P2 or shifting to active 40s, when a pair of active 50s came up. I grabbed a mytek brooklyn from the classifieds off here, as I wanted something with balanced outputs to drive the 50s and I had no stand alone DAC. I reasoned that with the Brooklyn, I could then ditch the CDX and use any old CD player (I had a couple knocking around the house) and if the phono stage was good enough, maybe ditch the p75.

Aesthetically, I didn't get on very well with the Mytek. I loved its flexibility and it worked flawlessly. As an analogue preamp, I preferred the 72. The phono stage was more noisey and obviously less flexible than the P75.

Then both CD players went tits up.

Then the CDA2 Mk1 became available at a good price. I had it for a week, before making a decision about the CD transport. However, it sounded utterly fantastic. I don't how much of the improvement in sound was due to the CD, the DAC or the preamp, but both CD and tidal via optical out from Chromecast sounded wonderful. It was dramatically better than what I'd been hearing before: deeper bass, much more attack on notes, more detail, just more 'real' and not at all fatiguing.

I know it's a cliche but I did keep reaching for stuff I knew well, to see what might be on the recording that I hadn't heard before.

I spent Sunday afternoon dozing on the couch with a Tidal 'mix' of Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, Miles, etc. I kept waking up periodically, "thinking f**king hell, that's just brilliant, I've never heard that before!"

How much did I like the CDA2? I've just ordered a Mk 2.
Click to expand...
My local dealer stocks ATC & naim so main thing will be try speakers in room & go from there. My main concern with current set up is that CDX could go at any time & the 252 has way more inputs & functions than I need.
 
Just a brief update. Ive had my CDA2 Mk2 for 3 days now, it sounds absolutely stunning, I couldn't be happier with it. I'm not sure of the relative contribution of the DAC and CD transport but silver discs and tidal via both usb out from PC and optical from chromecast sound terrific.

There was about 10 days without music between sending the used mk1 back to the seller and receiving this one, so it's hard to do objective comparisons, but there just seems more of everything, it's so dynamic, with obvious impact on imaging. Bob Cranshaw's bass intro on God Bless the Child now has so much substance. Overall, there's so much more bass extension compared to the mytek and nac72 I had until a couple of weeks ago; this has been the most surprising thing; I hadn't expected changing preamps would make this kind of difference.

Over and above the qualities of the DAC and CD player, it's such a very, very good analogue preamp. Listening to my 1970 six-eye stereo KoB and 70s UK Pressing of Innervisions, it's like they're different recordings, there's so much more detail than before, in a way that just makes everything sound more realistic and weighty. And this is still with a cartridge that's part it's best.

A cracking preamp!
 
Woodface said:
My local dealer stocks ATC & naim so main thing will be try speakers in room & go from there. My main concern with current set up is that CDX could go at any time & the 252 has way more inputs & functions than I need.
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Did you get a chance to listen to it at your dealers?
 
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