Choosing Amongst CD Players'
Many Options
In the two decades or so that compact discs have been
around, they have become almost universal in serious audio systems. Yet, judging by the
number of players on dealers' shelves, they are still selling briskly as people upgrade or
add second or third machines. Here are a few hints for when you hit the stores looking for
a new CD player.
When the first players arrived on the market, the system
was touted as "perfect." Few audio enthusiasts accepted the claim at that time,
and few do today, but it is certainly true that the variations in performance from one
player to another are very small, and the question of whether or not there are any audible
differences at all is still hotly debated.
Nevertheless, the CD's popularity has resulted in a huge
number of models, all jostling for their distinctive places in the market. Because the
difference in the sound between one player and another is so small, there is little chance
that you will get burned on audio quality whatever you choose. But the range of features
and functions available is huge, and you should plan to spend considerable time sifting
through the options that are available and matching them with what you need.
The first players were single-disc models designed to be
part of a home audio system, and that category is still popular. But there are
alternatives that may well suit you better. For instance, portable CD players match the
performance of their full-sized cousins closely, and most have line-level outputs and AC
power supplies that allow them to be hooked up to a home system. Often this is attractive
if your hi-fi already takes up so much space that an additional component would be hard to
accommodate.
If you need elaborate programming, a CD changer might be
the best choice, as it allows extended hands-off playing. A magazine-type changer lets you
put together more-or-less permanent programs that can simply be popped into the changer
whenever you want to play it (or inserted into a trunk-mounted changer in your car, if
it's the same brand). More flexible, perhaps, is the carousel changer, but you are limited
to five discs, and they must be loaded and programmed anew each time you fire up the
system. Jukebox-style changers hold anywhere from a couple of dozen to hundreds of discs,
usually with elaborate programming options.
One of the most attractive things about CD players is that
they allow you to be selective about what you play and the order in which you play it. To
some extent, all CD players have provisions for such programming, but they vary widely in
details, so it's worth taking some time in the store playing with the controls to make
sure they will do what you want and are easy for you to use -- what may be intuitive to
one user is often unbearably awkward for another. A CD is small enough that it should only
take an instant to move the laser from one place to another, but there is a surprisingly
wide range of speed differences from machine to machine. Some take almost no time, others
can take up to ten seconds to jump from the first to last cuts. And some machines,
although fairly sprightly when jumping from track to track, take forever to get going.
This may not matter to you, or the delays may drive you crazy; either way you should know
what you're getting.
Although CD players are not usually as vulnerable to
physical disruption as their vinyl predecessors, some are more likely than others to skip
when faced with vibration (dancing, say). Many manufacturers have made specific efforts to
provide shock absorption, so if you expect this to be a problem, jump around a bit in the
store to see what happens. If your listening is more placid, however, it makes little
sense to pay for much in the way of stabilizing.
You can't really see what's going on with your discs, so
it's important that the front-panel display tells you what you want to know in a way that
you can read. Some are too dim or too small; others cram so much information into the
display that it's hard to figure out what's happening. A good compromise is a display that
conveys everything, but for ordinary listening shuts off all indicators except the track
and time.
With very few exceptions, today's systems require a CD
player to be connected to a normal high-level input on an amplifier or receiver. Some of
these contain their own digital-to-analog conversion circuitry, however, there are a
number of outboard converters on the market as well. To serve them, most players provide
digital outputs, either coaxial or optical or both, along with the conventional analog
outputs. These may not mean very much to you now, but the separation of players and
converters will no doubt continue, so it's wise to consider digital outputs if there's a
chance you will upgrade the rest of your system in the near future.
The compact disc system incorporates a sophisticated
error-correction code that enables a player to detect missing data and usually replace it
before we can hear that it's gone. Not all players are equally adept at using this
information; some are much more prone to skipping and other problems. Unfortunately, it's
often hard to know just how good or bad a player is until you have lived with it for a
while, but your dealer might be able to aim you in the right direction as long as you
express concern for this aspect of performance. If you own a disc that has caused problems
in the past, take it with you when you shop and restrict your choices to machines that
will play it without problems.
...Ian G. Masters
ian@mastersonaudio.com
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