Tascam CD Player

[sonnymax]

Does anyone have any experience with Tascam CD players? I've read some good things about the CD-200, especially its upgraded TEAC CD-5020A transport. Stereophile said, "For people who want a dead-quiet, industrial-quality, reliable disc-spinner CD transport for not much money at all, the CD-200 is a bargain."

The other player I'm considering is the popular Onkyo C-7030.

Thoughts?

[mjzee]

I've owned the Tascam CD-RW900mkII for almost a year now. While I bought it for its CDR capability, I also use it as my main CD player. On the whole, I'm quite pleased. The sound quality is wonderful. However, I would not call it quiet, but in a weird way. When a CD starts playing, you hear a kind of mechanical "ca-chunk-a-chunk", very audible, coming from the machine for about 30 seconds. Best I can guess, it's preloading some additional music to ensure seamless music play, but again, that's just a guess on my part. If you think that might bother you (it bothers me sometimes), you might want to audition it in person before you buy (and the CD-200 you're considering might not have this issue).

[sonnymax]

Thanks for the speedy reply. That "ca-chunk-a-chunk" sounds very annoying indeed. Has it always made that sound, and does it "ca-chunk" every time you play a CD? I'll do a search to see if this is a common problem. Most likely I'll be buying from Amazon, so no worries about returns.

[mjzee]

Not all the time, but it could be I only notice it on discs that begin with soft music.

[sonnymax]

I found out that these units do have different transports. Your comes with a Teac CD-W5600S, while the CD200 carries a Teac CD-5020A. Both are supposedly designed specifically for audio purposes versus conventional computer drives. I searched for reported problems with your transport but came up empty handed.

Anybody else out there want to offer their own "ca-chunk-a-chunk" theory?

[Scott Dolan]

I've owned the Tascam CD-RW900mkII for almost a year now. While I bought it for its CDR capability, I also use it as my main CD player. On the whole, I'm quite pleased. The sound quality is wonderful. However, I would not call it quiet, but in a weird way. When a CD starts playing, you hear a kind of mechanical "ca-chunk-a-chunk", very audible, coming from the machine for about 30 seconds. Best I can guess, it's preloading some additional music to ensure seamless music play, but again, that's just a guess on my part.

Hmmm...

It shouldn't be preloading anything. At least, I've never heard of a shelf/rack mount CD player that uses that type of buffering. You mainly only found that in portable and automobile units for skip protection.

My only thought is that it's accessing the index? I'm not sure if any consumer level CD player ever came with that capability, but Tascams are for professional use, so it's possible it came with that capability. ?

Either way, it doesn't sound like anything to worry about, IMO. If it were going to fail, it wouldn't take it a year to do so.

[sonnymax]

I'm glad you chimed in, Scott. After much searching, I discovered that the Tascam might actually employ a 16-bit DAC. In contrast, most cd players proudly advertise their DACs, touting the superior sound of a particular Burr Brown, Cirrus Logic or Wolfson chip, all of which are 24-bit/192 kHz. Any thoughts on this discrepancy? Why would Tascam use a 16-bit chip and omit this fact from their advertising?

Edited April 17, 2015 by sonnymax

[Scott Dolan]

Not entirely sure, but Tascam makes incredibly high quality products. In the end, I'd trust their 16 bit DAC over most 24 bit DACs. If it's good enough to pass muster with their high quality control, I don't think you'll be disappointed with it.

CDs are only 16 bit, also. So I'm not sure why a 24 bit DAC is even necessary. You can't extract a bit depth that doesn't exist.

Unless it's used for 24 bit digital file playback from a CD-R. But, if you're only listening to commercial releases it shouldn't make a difference.

Excellent question, though.

Edited April 17, 2015 by Scott Dolan

[.:.impossible]

Upsampling?

[jcam_44]

They upsample so you can hear what isn't there!

[.:.impossible]

That's how it works in the graphics world, and with great result.

[Scott Dolan]

But how does it work?

Can they truly recreate something that isn't there?

Honest question, BTW.

I know people that claim Apple TV, for example, upsamples everything at 48kHz and that it sounds like ass. I personally think that horseshit, but don't truly understand how it works. All I know is that when I run my tunes through ATV they sound just fine. Others claim it's "unlistenable".

[.:.impossible]

In graphics, no. They cannot truly recreate something that is not there, but they can do an incredible job of interpolating from existing data.

Yeah, mine was a serious question as well. I don't know the answer.

[Scott Dolan]

It's interesting because when HDTVs first hit the market, it was common wisdom that you needed an upsamplng DVD player. I never really compared a regular DVD player vs an upsampling DVD player.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

It's interesting because when HDTVs first hit the market, it was common wisdom that you needed an upsamplng DVD player. I never really compared a regular DVD player vs an upsampling DVD player.

In DVD/HDTV, the word you're looking for is upscaling, not upsampling. A good explanation of this can be found here: http://hometheater.about.com/od/hometheatervideobasics/qt/dvdvidupscale.htm

[Scott Dolan]

THAT'S it! Thanks for the clarification, Kevin.

[jazzbo]

Do you have a Blu-ray player Scott? Most of those can and do upscale DVD to higher definition. After seeing DVD on these I am spoiled. Of course Blu-ray is better (I LOVE IT) but DVD upscaled is a nice improvement.

Edited April 18, 2015 by jazzbo

[Scott Dolan]

I have two Blu-ray players, and I concur. Though, I've been working on switching my movie library over to Blu-ray for years now. We don't own a lot of movies (maybe 30?), so each time we want to watch one of our movies, we usually go ahead and get the Blu-ray of it.

[jazzbo]

Yes, Blu-ray is awesome, and for audio purposes as well. A few audio Blu-rays I have are the best sounding audio things I have.

[Scott Dolan]

Well, to be honest, I think it may be the mastering. Especially when it's an album that was originally released on CD, or ealier media.

The reason I say that is because I have The Endless River from Pink Floyd in a box set. It's contains both a CD and a Blu-ray disc of the album. Now, the Blu-ray is excellent for the rear channels, but playing it in two channel stereo I hear no difference between it and CD. Both sound really extraordinary.

Ditto all of that for Wish You Were Here.

I've thought about getting other Blu-ray audio releases to test my theory further, but I'm not really sure what to go with. I Thought about getting Beck's Sea Change, but the mastering on the CD is so exquisite that I'm afraid I may run into the same situation. I need to find something that didn't have the greatest mastering on its previous release.

What Blu-ray audio do you own?

Edited April 18, 2015 by Scott Dolan

[jazzbo]

Well, I don't want to argue audio with you, I don't agree with you on key points and think a lot of your statements don't jibe with my learning about audio and personal experience.

Mastering matters, format matters, everything matters.

I'm not a Floyd person and don't have any of those. Neither am I a Beck fan.

I have Pure Audio releases from Miles, Pops and Ella, Coltrane, I have music by Porcupine Tree, Steve Wilson, Pretenders, King Crimson, Yes, et al on Blu-ray. I have an excellent Blu-ray player (Denon DVD-A1UDC1) and some of these have cds and Blu-rays in essentially the same matering and the hi-resolution versions sound superior to me. Considerably.

That's my experience.

[Scott Dolan]

And we'll leave it at that.

[sonnymax]

Hey Lon, any opinions on the Tascam or Onkyo CD players I mentioned?

[Scott Dolan]

BTW, personally I would go with the Onkyo. But only because unless I'm putting it in a professional rack, I really don't like rack mount components. But that's just a personal quirk of mine.

I'd bet money both players sound incredibly similar to one another, and you be happier than a pig in shit with either one.

Edited April 19, 2015 by Scott Dolan

[AllenLowe]

I hear a lot of things that aren't there. And most of what I see isn't there.

until I take my meds.

Edited April 19, 2015 by AllenLowe