OK, this is good.

I have set up the Marantz *tweaked* CDP (£500 new**, apparently) on my
recently-acquired Argos POS stack (where the CD player cost nobbut 70 quid,
IIRC) thusly:

http://www.apah69.dsl.pipex.com/show/cdpcompare.JPG

The output levels have been matched nicely (the Marantz has built-in
attenuation) and I can flick to and fro between them *instantaneously* while
they play, with the amplifier's zapper.

Here it comes.......

With a stark, clear, intimate female vocal/acoustic backing (Regina Lund
'Unique') CD on my *crystal clear* and very revealing Pinkies (Firewood
Horns with Fostex FE103E fullrange drivers) I ABSOLUTELY CAN NOT SPLIT
THEM!!

To me they sound about as *identical* as you could get!! Treble, bass,
background detail (of which there is plenty), 'recording noise' &c. - the
whole works!

Now, I fully appreciate this is unscientific and pretty meaningless as it
stands and that I need to run the same comparison with a few more
discs/other people before it becomes at all meaningful - the usual
invitation to anyone who wants to check it for themselves applies....

.....but as luck would have it, the piano tuner's due here sometime between 1
and 2 o' clock. If he'll play ball (he will if he wants to come again!) I'll
run it all past him and will post his responses (sound quality generally and
the two CDPs) here a little later on.

My curiosity about the Argos stuff was brought on by the amp I grabbed a
week or two back to use on the computer. It worked superbly amplifying
computer sound but proved to be useless for recording to the HDD, due to the
absence of a proper Tape Loop - Line Out only and ferocious hum if I looped
the computer back in to one of the other imputs! (Solved this with a dinky
little Pioneer SA-510 amp with two Tape Loops!! :-)

My contention is that it's pretty hard to get really crappy-sounding audio
gear these days (once you get away from plastic boomboxes) and I was
curious - credit to me, I think, for forking out hard cash to find out for
myself when others are content to condemn gear out of hand completely
*unheard*...!!

(From even as far away as the Other Side Of The World it seems!! ;-)


** Well aware that any chance of flogging it to anyone here is well and
truly stoked now!! ;-)