Once upon a time on usenet Bob Latham wrote:
In article ,
Huge wrote:
On 2017-11-12, Woody wrote:

At least with a good quality CD it does sound a bit like the real
thing - but how many people go to live concerts (I'm thinking
classical in any form,

[FX] Waves ...

Okay, in for a penny...

In my experience of building and buying hi-fi (50years+) I have never
ever felt that I needed anything other than the two (or more) items
of kit and a good listen. The idea of needing a live reference is
utter Bunkum, you don't. I've been to many classical concerts and a
few rock ones but it doesn't help in the slightest. For a start off
your acoustic memory is way too poor. *If* two pieces of kit sound
different it is never a problem to work out which you prefer then
hope you can afford it. :-)

In the early 1980s swmbo and I didn't like the sound of CD players,
that is not to say that they had anything wrong, I don't know if they
did or not but we didn't like them. It wasn't until Meridian came
along with their 207 that for us CD became pleasurable. We pushed the
boat out and got the 207. A couple of years later the 208 was quite a
bit better still and we somehow found the folding to upgrade. We
tried green pens/rings and weights but never heard any difference and
so did not purchase.

We were more than happy with the 208 for decades until we decided to
start ripping our discs and streaming. At that point I learnt through
ripping thousands of CDs that discs have very, very few problems that
a £10 PC cd rom drive can't cope with. In my mind this confirms I was
right to not be talked into buying the green pens etc and an
expensive transport is not required.

IMHO, the dac, analogue electronics and the power supply are where any
audible differences are to be found.

Bob.

I remember when Perreaux* made their first CD player - they said about the
same as you just did and actually used a PC CDROM transport but of course in
their own box with their own PS, DAC and analogue stage.

* I live in NZ and, as an ex-live soundmixer who used to use their gear at
gigs and lover of fidelity Perreaux is almost a reference for me.
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy
little classification in the DSM*."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)