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Blu-Ray player as CD transport.

P

Pure_Carbon

pfm Member
Apologies if this has been covered before.....

I already own a pretty good CDP.
Copland CDA825, but it's getting on, and uses the now impossible to replace Philps Pro2 drive, so I'm trying to save it for "best" !

So , been looking around for a 2nd CDP or transport ( have a separate external DAC) , but remembered in the meantime, I have 2 Bluray players, and decided to try them as a CDT.

Both are around 2009 builds, got decent 4* reviews, both about £300 ish new.
Sony BDP S760 , and Panasonic DMP BD35

1st in was the Sony , as it has both Toslink and Coax outs, could wire them both into the DAC and do A/B on the fly.
I liked the Optical , maybe a tad harsh, but very acceptable , but felt the Coax maybe had a tad more body and air , maybe.
Then popped the Panasonic in, Toslink Optical connection only.
To me, faster , more dynamic , maybe a retreived a bit more detail, so will be staying as the daily CD work horse for the forseeable future.
They were both puchased used, so maybe the Sony has seen more action, but either were a very good as a CDT.

Just for interest , ported the Copland into the DAC, and certainly it was better , the Philips drive and Copland build certainly had the edge , but not night and day , interesting, when the very large price differential is considered.
As an aside, don't want to start a new thread, using a cheapish Monster Toslink cable , 1m length, £20 ish, any benefits to a more expensive "audiophile"one, or a shorter one ?
I somehow doubt it.
 
great to read your thread . I am using a marantz sa8005 as a transport but fairly convinced a teac or moon transport would be worth getting

tried the bluray against my msb transport and there was just no contest , shame as i wanted to sell it . Some say transports make no difference but at some point be good to have a bake off
 
I use Sony 6700 and Oppo Blue ray players to play all my CDs and SA CDs. No complaints. At this point in time I don't see the point of a CD only player. CD only players are now more expensive than BD players, owing to, I suppose, economies of scale.

I also have a Yamaha 5 disc CD changer which is very convenient for playing box sets, don't find it lacking in SQ.
 
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A few years ago there was a vogue for hifi manufacturers to use DVD mechanisms in CD players, and all the nags got in line saying how *amazing* they all sounded. Yeah, right. I currently use a DVD player to play CDs in a second system, sounds OK. The main drawback is disc access time. Press play, go make a cup of tea, sit down, leaf through a magazine, oh hello, here's some music.
 
Something to be aware of. Many DVD/Blue Ray players output 48kHz as opposed to 44.1kHz. Not a problem for most DACs, but it does show that the signal has been processed by the player. Thus comparing a CD player digital out to BluRay digital out may not be quite comparing apples with apples.
 
stevec67 said:
A few years ago there was a vogue for hifi manufacturers to use DVD mechanisms in CD players, and all the nags got in line saying how *amazing* they all sounded. Yeah, right. I currently use a DVD player to play CDs in a second system, sounds OK. The main drawback is disc access time. Press play, go make a cup of tea, sit down, leaf through a magazine, oh hello, here's some music.
Click to expand...
There was certainly a vogue for declaring 'battleship-build' 'universal' players to be excellent CD transports. I heard a few of them and encountered nothing better than you could get from an old Pioneer 'stable platform' player.

Meridian declared their 596 'universal player' the finest transport they'd ever built.

Was it f***.

Unfortunately I didn't discover that until I'd bought one to replace a 500 transport and a moderately high-end Denon DVD. One box neater than two and all that.

The 596 didn't last a year before I replaced it. To add insult to injury, I didn't think it was any better on DVD than the Denon, which cost about 800 quid at the time.
 
stevec67 said:
A few years ago there was a vogue for hifi manufacturers to use DVD mechanisms in CD players, and all the nags got in line saying how *amazing* they all sounded. Yeah, right. I currently use a DVD player to play CDs in a second system, sounds OK. The main drawback is disc access time. Press play, go make a cup of tea, sit down, leaf through a magazine, oh hello, here's some music.
Click to expand...
i often find the dvd players or bluray have a whirr which is absent with most decent cd players . cant stand that whirr
 
I use a denon dvd/ cd player out in my garage system. It sounds ok. I have tried it straight into my dac and it is much better. I still prefer a stand alone CD player over a transport. I enjoy the different sound that I get. Otherwise I feel like I might as well just stream Qobuz.
 
I use a Primare universal player (BD32) as my main disc spinner, via its analogue outputs. It sounds excellent to me, better than anything else I've tried. It's also better than rips served up by a Melcro N1A.
 
hifinutt said:
i often find the dvd players or bluray have a whirr which is absent with most decent cd players . cant stand that whirr
Click to expand...
Me too, but not the case with my previous Cambridge 540 DVD or current 1st generation Cambridge CXU Bluray.
What I dislike about playing a CD in a DVD or Bluray player is the time the player takes to decide what format I've just loaded.

As for playing CDs through a DAC with my Cambridge CXU, a few days ago I used it to feed the dCS Rossini DAC ... not bad at all. I know from past experience that the dCS drive (as found on the Rossini Player I once borrowed) is better but the CXU was a rather decent stop gap while the NAS was unavailable - and that was with an analogue interconnect for the digital link :)
 
My CD spinner is a 20 (?) year old Sony DVD/CD/CDR/ whatever/ which I run through a Cambridge Audio DAC/pre. I have also used a £50 LG BluRay and the only difference is the Sony mech is quieter.
 
simon g said:
Something to be aware of. Many DVD/Blue Ray players output 48kHz as opposed to 44.1kHz. Not a problem for most DACs, but it does show that the signal has been processed by the player. Thus comparing a CD player digital out to BluRay digital out may not be quite comparing apples with apples.
Click to expand...

This.

Apart from there are some exceptions.
 
JezmondTutu said:
This.

Apart from there are some exceptions.
Click to expand...
Interestingly, when I first turn the BRP on, my DAC shows TOSLINK 48K on the screen, but as soon as I start playing the disc, it changes to 44.1k , so think I'm bypassing any internal processing.
The Panasonic is also silent , whirrs a bit when reading the TOC, but quiet thereafter.
 
I've not tried a Blu-Ray player as a hi-fi transport yet but I am experimenting with one of the Sony universal DVD players at the moment as I wanted something that could play SACD's after my only compatible CD player packed in. My impressions with that is that's it's pretty good as a transport - I've not done any critical listening back-to-back with the Audiolab transport that's normally in that system but I'm not convinced there would be much difference.

What I have noticed is that when I play an SACD the DAC that's currently in the system doesn't recognise what it's receiving so I'm playing SACD's via the Sony's analogue outputs. The DAC that's temporarily in the system is an ancient DACmagic 2 though, and I've not tried it with the DAC that's normally in that system (a Simaudio Moon) so don't know if it'll work. I've also got other more modern DACs I can try.

The Sony is a little bit slower than a CD player in recognising a new disc when it's loaded, but not to the extent that it's an issue or an annoyance.
 
Just tried the Simaudio DAC and it also doesn't pick up a digital output when an SACD is being played. Maybe the Sony player doesn't output to digital with SACD's?
 
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