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From: prk@charm.UUCP (Paul Kolodner)
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: CD players
Message-ID: <605@charm.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 11-Mar-85 16:46:23 EST
Article-I.D.: charm.605
Posted: Mon Mar 11 16:46:23 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 12-Mar-85 09:14:46 EST
Organization: Physics Research @ AT&T Bell Labs Murray Hill NJ
Lines: 46


	There was a recent posting asking questions about the Carver CD
player which raised other, more general questions concerning CD sampling
rate and bit resolution.  There has been a great deal of discussion
lately concerning these technical aspects.  Without getting too involved,
I'd like to add a few comments:

	1. 14 bits vs 16 bits and oversampling:  14-bit digitization
is 4X noisier than 16-bit, but I think that both noise levels are 
inaudible.  However, the oversampling rate DOES affect how the
analog electronics deal with the aliases in the input power spectrum.
Given constant funds and no other criteria, I'd go for fancier
oversampling at the expense of extra bits.

	2. Amplifier power:  The dynamic range of CD's is overwhelming.
At my house, I found that my 100W/channel Sumo - 9 power amp could drive
my Mordant-Short Festival 3 speakers to deafening levels in my moderate-
sized living room without any trace of distortion.  I would bet that
100W/channel is a reasonable minimum for safety.  Remember that some
amplifiers produce speaker-damaging high harmonics when they clip, so
that adequate amplifier power can be quite important.

	3. Specific players:  I went to Lyric Hi-Fi in NY to find
out about CD players.  Lyric is an incredible store.  Their salespeople
are a little less neanderthal than in other places, but their strong suit
is the care they put into the acoustic design of the place.  The rooms
are built out of brick for isolation, have irregular shapes and absorbing
materials to avoid resonances, have floating floors to isolater the
speakers from everything elase, and the equipment is mounted on shelves attached to brick alls for isolation.  Additionally, the doors are of the same
construction as those in the meat lockers in butcher shops:  heavy and
well sealed.  Also, no one is allowed in the room when you are there.
The guy I talked to assured me of two things: 1. with my pathetic
stereo system (<$2500), I wouldn't be able to hear the difference
between a good CD player and a cheap one like the Yamaha CD-X2; and
2. The Meridian ($650 typically) was the absolute best.  As a demon-
stration of his sincerity, he let me into the secret room with the 
$20,000 system inside to compare.  The difference between the Meridian
and the $1200 Revox was enormous and obvious.  The Meridian produced
a spatial definiton and openness that was astounding.  The Revox
didn't.  I don't consider myself the type of person to whom these
things are easily apparent or, for that matter, very important.
If it's loud, noise-free, and has no distortion, I like it.  But,
even to me, there was a large difference.  Gleeful at the salesperson's
first assurance of the inferiority of both my humble self and my
lowly stereo system, I ran downtown and bought a Yamaha CD-X2
and am quite happy.  If you're better than I am, by the Meridian.