A true audiophile never stops upgrading. The extend of
the changes depends on the sound that we are after and how deep our pocket is.
Everything in my system has changed over the past decade. I will share the
changes in each different post, from source to accessories. I will start with the source and work my way through everything.
Like most
audiophiles, I started with a typical “starter set-up”, i.e. a source, an integrated
amplifier and a pair of speakers. But when I can afford it and its availability, I changed one gear at a time. I have only one source which is the cd player. I had a
Thorens TD160 turntable for a short while. But the thought of fiddling with the
alignment, azimuth and whatnot, got the better of me. I don’t want to spend so
much time on these things. So, a cd player suits me.
The first memorable cd
player I had, was the Philips 850Mk2 cd player. It was smooth sounding player with good
details, much better than the Marantz CD63SE which was the rage at that time. What
more, it plays a lot of cds well. It does not impart a clinical sound but it
does not gloss over a poor recording either. After a year or so, I changed it to the Classé .5 cd
player. I chose this cd player because it has balanced output. The gains were
much higher than the usual RCA output. Sound wise it was as good as the Philips
850Mk2, with a touch more digital sounding than the Philips.
After a few years
with the Classé, I upgraded to Meridian 508.24 cd player. I had lusted
over the Meridian cd player ever since I heard it over at a friend’s setup. The
Meridian had more details than the Classé and the gain was higher, even though
I had used the balanced output on both cd players. Like the Philips 850Mk2
player, it is not a clinical sounding cd player. The soundstage and depth were
an improvement from the Classé which means it is wider and deeper.
Now my current cd player is the BMC 1.1 cd player. This cd player has the biggest Play button I
had ever seen! This button also acts as a forward or backward in choosing the
track that you want to listen to. The BMC sound livelier than the Meridian with
loads more details. Then again, the Meridian was already approaching 10 years
old. On the cd by Alice Lau (The Music Lab MBVOC-1008), you can easily hear her
breathing before belting out the next word in the song. Soundstage wise, it is more
stable though depth remains the same when compared to the Meridian. Another cd
that showcase good soundstage is are Happy Meeting You by Lee Shou (Perfect
Music), a tribute to Teresa Teng. The instruments appear extremely solid. This
is also heard when listening Legendary James Wong cd from the same publisher. In
fact, the soundstage is so solid and 3 dimensional, it is errie! Well, the BMC
uses a belt to turn the cd. Not a common thing in a cd player.
