"Serge Auckland" wrote


This pretty much agrees with what I'e found. Some few months ago, I bought
a £ 7.00 portable CD player from Argos, as I wanted a portable CD player
for a long flight. I couldn't believe that anything at £ 7.00 could be any
good, but I was quite prepared to throw it away after the flight if it
matched my expectations. I still have it!


:-)



On headphones, (AKG K270s), I can't hear any difference with my Meridian
player. On using line output, through my main 'speakers I try to persuade
myself there's a difference, but I'm buggered if I can choose between
them. The player is, as you would expect, a nasty bit of plastic, with as
much quality as a polished turd, but nevertheless, where it matters, i.e.
sound quality, bad it isn't.

It illustrates what I've believed for some time that once the basic audio
parameters of low noise, low distortion and wide flat frequency response
are met, there's really very little else that matters.


The only question with cheap stuff (other than sound quality) is that of
durability - good sound is only possible if the gadget continues to work!!

OK, here's the follow up:

After an *age* tuning the piano (when I have to be completely silent - he
can't tune by gadget alone) I got him to listen to the two CDPs.

I synched them to within 1 note apart and gave him the zapper. Half the time
(5 minutes or so) the discrepancy was 'invisible' and I had no idea when he
was changing unless I say the display (CD or Tape/Aux inputs). After a while
he said 'Well, there's not a lot of difference there.' I said 'How much
difference then?' he said 'Well, none at all actually!!) I reinforced the
point and got him to state clearly he could hear *no* difference at all!

The system, I might add is *crystal clear* - much tape hiss from certain CDs
for example and bags of distant, background detail, breathing &c.

But the best bit was the speakers. He was really taken with them. He asked
how many speakers (drivers) were in them (the Pinkies) and seemed to have
trouble with the fact there was only the one driver. When I told him I built
them he was quietly quite amazed I think (actually, I *know*) he and asked
if anybody who could do woodwork could build them. I said yes. He said he
had a friend who built pipe organs....

....I said he might just be able to cope!! :-)

I hadn't intended to play anything on the (now yellow) Jerichos but he was
genuinely interested so I switched the 300B amp on (like from stone cold)
and chucked on a Ry Cooder ('Jazz') record. He was into it now and really
quite impressed, so I pushed my luck and put a piano (Debussy Preludes)
record on. Straightaway he said it was a 'good piano sound' - just as I was
about to ask him!! That was with the Shure M75 ED2 - I swapped it for my
Ortofon MC 200 and *boing* he was away!!

The bugger is that as soon as he had gone there was a *seriously* dynamic
and impressive bit of music came up which would have been a much better
'demo piece'!!

Anyhoo, his opinion alone is good enough to confirm that the CDPs are, as I
thought, virtually identical and the fact that he has taken a note of my
Speaker Page website address for his friend tells me the speakers are up to
snuff.*

Asitappens, I know they are now - the Pinkies have browned in summat lovely
(I mean *way better* than commercial boxes) and the 'crunchiness' has gone
from the Jerichos. The slight 'boxiness' on *some* R3 announcements is, I am
sure, coming from the studio and not the speakers and the music is perfectly
fine.

The tuner was eager to please? Good customer relations? Hardly, this guy is
*busy* - one word out of place and he'd walk!! (Nice bloke but a bit
*prissy* if you know what I mean!! ;-)

('One here' knows he won't/doesn't have to travel too far for work!! ;-)


*I can die happy now!! ;-)