Vipers
Prominent Member
I thought I'd post my findings after spending some time yesterday at TLC comparing several Blu Ray players for playing back cd's as since getting my LX91 I've started listening to my cd collection again and I was curious to see how they compared to a dedicated cd player like the Arcam CD37.
I originally wanted to try the 91 through the Arcam 600 with both HDMI and analogue as on friday evening I spent a good hour comparing the 2 on my setup just to see if I still preffered analogue as I know some people have tried both and stayed with HDMI, well for me analogue defiantely gives a more natural sound with the vocals being far clearer, the bass carries more weight and the whole soundstage just seems tighter, but with the 600's amazinly low jitter figures I thought 91 through the 600 via HDMI might work better.
So first of all I was using Massive Attacks Teardrop for the demo as it has a deep bass track throughout with crystal clear vocals and a lot of fine detail in the background that can get lost. The first thing I noticed was what a massive step up in quality there was using the 600 and PMC's compared to my 81 and Monitor Audio speakers so in theory it should make the differences more revealing, and if I'm honest I still prefered the 91 via analogue compared to HDMI thru the 600 but there really wasn't much in it, nowhere near the difference I get on my setup at home, it really was quite tough to hear the differences so I guess the differences I'm hearing at home could be down to jitter.
So I stayed with analogue to compare the other players, so using the 91 as a banchmark which I have to say sounded excellent I moved onto the 3800 which if I'm honest I expected the 91 to sound better as so much has been made of the analogue section but to my suprise the 3800 seemed to be pulling out more detail, there is a low level bass that merged into one sound on the 91 but on the 3800 you could hear each individual note, I went back to the 91 again to check but the 3800 was definately pulling out more detail, had more control and the base track definately sounded tighter.
Then I tried the Oppo, now I'm sorry to all the Oppo fans out there but the Oppo just didn't do it for me, the difference was quite startling, it just sounded very flat and lifeless, the vocals in Teardrop carry alot of emotion but on the Oppo that was totally lost and it all sounded a bit empty and flat. The thumping baseline also lost its weight and control and just sounded hollow. Now to be fair to the Oppo its not in the same price range as the 3800 and 91 so I guess its unfair to put it in that league but I thought it was worth comparing as it was there but as I said the differences were quite startling.
Now saving the best for last, I tried the same track in the Arcam CD37 which is a £1100 dedicated cd player, Wow, what a transformation, the song just came alive with the vocals crystal clear, you could hear every instrument and the base had a real thump and tightness to it, I ended up with this big grin on my face and the hairs really did stand up on the back of my neck, it differnces was just astounding.
So as good as the 91 and 3800 are at cd playback they really can't compete with a dedicated player like the CD37, but that was to be expected really, my big suprise was how good the 3800 was as a cd player, the 91 and 3800 were very close but the 3800 just gave a slightly fuller, more detailed and controlled sound.
But what became clear to me was that if you want to get the best form your cd collection a dedicated player is the way to go, oh yeah and a Arcam AVR600 and some PMC speakers, bugger
I originally wanted to try the 91 through the Arcam 600 with both HDMI and analogue as on friday evening I spent a good hour comparing the 2 on my setup just to see if I still preffered analogue as I know some people have tried both and stayed with HDMI, well for me analogue defiantely gives a more natural sound with the vocals being far clearer, the bass carries more weight and the whole soundstage just seems tighter, but with the 600's amazinly low jitter figures I thought 91 through the 600 via HDMI might work better.
So first of all I was using Massive Attacks Teardrop for the demo as it has a deep bass track throughout with crystal clear vocals and a lot of fine detail in the background that can get lost. The first thing I noticed was what a massive step up in quality there was using the 600 and PMC's compared to my 81 and Monitor Audio speakers so in theory it should make the differences more revealing, and if I'm honest I still prefered the 91 via analogue compared to HDMI thru the 600 but there really wasn't much in it, nowhere near the difference I get on my setup at home, it really was quite tough to hear the differences so I guess the differences I'm hearing at home could be down to jitter.
So I stayed with analogue to compare the other players, so using the 91 as a banchmark which I have to say sounded excellent I moved onto the 3800 which if I'm honest I expected the 91 to sound better as so much has been made of the analogue section but to my suprise the 3800 seemed to be pulling out more detail, there is a low level bass that merged into one sound on the 91 but on the 3800 you could hear each individual note, I went back to the 91 again to check but the 3800 was definately pulling out more detail, had more control and the base track definately sounded tighter.
Then I tried the Oppo, now I'm sorry to all the Oppo fans out there but the Oppo just didn't do it for me, the difference was quite startling, it just sounded very flat and lifeless, the vocals in Teardrop carry alot of emotion but on the Oppo that was totally lost and it all sounded a bit empty and flat. The thumping baseline also lost its weight and control and just sounded hollow. Now to be fair to the Oppo its not in the same price range as the 3800 and 91 so I guess its unfair to put it in that league but I thought it was worth comparing as it was there but as I said the differences were quite startling.
Now saving the best for last, I tried the same track in the Arcam CD37 which is a £1100 dedicated cd player, Wow, what a transformation, the song just came alive with the vocals crystal clear, you could hear every instrument and the base had a real thump and tightness to it, I ended up with this big grin on my face and the hairs really did stand up on the back of my neck, it differnces was just astounding.
So as good as the 91 and 3800 are at cd playback they really can't compete with a dedicated player like the CD37, but that was to be expected really, my big suprise was how good the 3800 was as a cd player, the 91 and 3800 were very close but the 3800 just gave a slightly fuller, more detailed and controlled sound.
But what became clear to me was that if you want to get the best form your cd collection a dedicated player is the way to go, oh yeah and a Arcam AVR600 and some PMC speakers, bugger
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