On 2006-01-28, housetrained wrote:
Rubbish in, rubbish out. No matter how good the speakers are they can only
reproduce what they get. Rubbish in, rubbish out. Front end is ALWAYS the
most important.

I agree provided "front end" includes not only the CD player but the
musicians, their instruments, the recording venue, the microphones,
etc., up to and including the CD production and mastering as well.

The role of a CD player in that chain is rather miniscule in my
experience. I was listening to new CD players two years ago while buying
new kit. This showed up some rather small and nearly insignificant
differnces with the same "test CDs" - much smaller than the differences
in loudspeakers.

From memory the "front end is always the most important" marketing slogan
seemed to originate from a time when a certain turntable manufacturer
was trying to establish its position. That's what they would claim,
wouldn't they?

However for a CD-playing system the most important things determining
the sound quality, from my own experience, a

- The CD (the disc) and how it was produced

- The room/loudspeaker combination

After that the differences are rather small in practice.

--
John Phillips