At present I have an Arcam Alpha 5 CD player working through an Alpha 9
amp and Mission Cyrus speakers.

I'd like to upgrade the CD player, but can't make up my mind on how
much to spend/ what CD unit to buy. I'd like to stick with Arcam.

Question - I know the CD player technology has moved on a fair pace
since I bought my Alpha 5, but I can't decide between these two players
- The now discontinued Diva CD82 and the new Diva CD73. I can get them
both for about the same price, and although the 82 is now discontinued,
I've been offered a brand new model with two year guarantee, but how
much better than the 73 is the older 82?

Anyone on here auditioned them both? I have read one review of 82 v 72
where the 82 came out well on top, but how much has the 73 improved?

Many thank's

--
Uncle Keith

On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 18:22:54 +0100, Uncle Keith
wrote:

At present I have an Arcam Alpha 5 CD player working through an Alpha 9
amp and Mission Cyrus speakers.

I'd like to upgrade the CD player, but can't make up my mind on how
much to spend/ what CD unit to buy. I'd like to stick with Arcam.

Question - I know the CD player technology has moved on a fair pace
since I bought my Alpha 5, but I can't decide between these two players
- The now discontinued Diva CD82 and the new Diva CD73. I can get them
both for about the same price, and although the 82 is now discontinued,
I've been offered a brand new model with two year guarantee, but how
much better than the 73 is the older 82?

Anyone on here auditioned them both? I have read one review of 82 v 72
where the 82 came out well on top, but how much has the 73 improved?

Many thank's

These days you buy CD players on features and looks - I'm pretty
certain you couldn't tell the difference between your Alpha 5 and
anything newer just by listening.

d
Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com

In article , Don Pearce
wrote:

Question - I know the CD player technology has moved on a fair pace
since I bought my Alpha 5, but I can't decide between these two players
- The now discontinued Diva CD82 and the new Diva CD73. I can get them
both for about the same price, and although the 82 is now discontinued,
I've been offered a brand new model with two year guarantee, but how
much better than the 73 is the older 82?

Anyone on here auditioned them both? I have read one review of 82 v 72
where the 82 came out well on top, but how much has the 73 improved?

Many thank's

These days you buy CD players on features and looks - I'm pretty
certain you couldn't tell the difference between your Alpha 5 and
anything newer just by listening.

d
Pearce Consulting

How do you work that one out?
I could certainly hear the difference between different models when I
bought my Alpha 5 - Or are you saying that the Alpha 5 was such a good
model then that nothing has improved on it?

--
Uncle Keith

On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 19:02:24 +0100, Uncle Keith
wrote:

In article , Don Pearce
wrote:

Question - I know the CD player technology has moved on a fair pace
since I bought my Alpha 5, but I can't decide between these two players
- The now discontinued Diva CD82 and the new Diva CD73. I can get them
both for about the same price, and although the 82 is now discontinued,
I've been offered a brand new model with two year guarantee, but how
much better than the 73 is the older 82?

Anyone on here auditioned them both? I have read one review of 82 v 72
where the 82 came out well on top, but how much has the 73 improved?

Many thank's

These days you buy CD players on features and looks - I'm pretty
certain you couldn't tell the difference between your Alpha 5 and
anything newer just by listening.

d
Pearce Consulting

How do you work that one out?
I could certainly hear the difference between different models when I
bought my Alpha 5 - Or are you saying that the Alpha 5 was such a good
model then that nothing has improved on it?

I will say I'm surprised that you could hear differences even then,
I'll leave it at that. But certainly with the Alpha 5 Arcam had
reached a sound quality that was essentially as good as it gets.

d
Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com

In article , Don Pearce
wrote:

On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 19:02:24 +0100, Uncle Keith
wrote:

In article , Don Pearce
wrote:

Question - I know the CD player technology has moved on a fair pace
since I bought my Alpha 5, but I can't decide between these two players
- The now discontinued Diva CD82 and the new Diva CD73. I can get them
both for about the same price, and although the 82 is now discontinued,
I've been offered a brand new model with two year guarantee, but how
much better than the 73 is the older 82?

Anyone on here auditioned them both? I have read one review of 82 v 72
where the 82 came out well on top, but how much has the 73 improved?

Many thank's

These days you buy CD players on features and looks - I'm pretty
certain you couldn't tell the difference between your Alpha 5 and
anything newer just by listening.

d
Pearce Consulting

How do you work that one out?
I could certainly hear the difference between different models when I
bought my Alpha 5 - Or are you saying that the Alpha 5 was such a good
model then that nothing has improved on it?

I will say I'm surprised that you could hear differences even then,
I'll leave it at that. But certainly with the Alpha 5 Arcam had
reached a sound quality that was essentially as good as it gets.

d
Pearce Consulting
I certainly could hear the difference. I actually purchased the Aura
Evolution CD player at first to match the Aura amp I had. After two
days I took it back and exchanged it for the Arcam - a much sweeter
sounding player. The Aura player just sounded too brash.

If I can't tell any difference between my old 5 and what I replace it
with I'll be very surprised.

--
Uncle Keith

Don Pearce wrote:

On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 19:02:24 +0100, Uncle Keith
wrote:




How do you work that one out?
I could certainly hear the difference between different models when I
bought my Alpha 5 - Or are you saying that the Alpha 5 was such a good
model then that nothing has improved on it?


I will say I'm surprised that you could hear differences even then,
I'll leave it at that. But certainly with the Alpha 5 Arcam had
reached a sound quality that was essentially as good as it gets.


IIRC the Alpha 5 used the geriatic Philips TDA1541 multibit DACs, and
the newer Arcams use Wolfson DACs. Surely DAC technology has advanced
heaps in the last 20 years or so?

In article , Tat Chan wrote:
IIRC the Alpha 5 used the geriatic Philips TDA1541 multibit DACs, and
the newer Arcams use Wolfson DACs. Surely DAC technology has advanced
heaps in the last 20 years or so?

Indeed. The spec sheets (not the whole story, I know) show that
inexpensive DAC chips [1] over the last few "generations" have been able
to get theoretical performance in 16-bit mode. In 24-bit mode they
get somewhere in the 18-20 bits range. And this at higher and higher
sample rates (192 ksample/s is now a common capability). I don't know
much about the TDA1541, though, for comparison.

Probably it's the anti-alias filtering which has improved more. However I
haven't looked in detail at the recent generations of integrated filters
in the better DAC chips to check this. Interpolation ("upsampling")
and digital filtering seem to be almost universal as a means to give
the filter more space in the frequency domain for pass-band to stop-band
transition.

Innovations like dynamic element matching have quickly made their
way into the mainstream and the typical high-end DAC of today
has a fast 5-bit or 6-bit DEM DAC at its core. See, for example,
http://www.ednasia.com/oct04/coverstory.html

[1] Less than 5 USD in moderate quantity.

--
John Phillips

In message , Tat Chan
writes
Don Pearce wrote:

On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 19:02:24 +0100, Uncle Keith
wrote:



How do you work that one out?
I could certainly hear the difference between different models when I
bought my Alpha 5 - Or are you saying that the Alpha 5 was such a good
model then that nothing has improved on it?
I will say I'm surprised that you could hear differences even then,
I'll leave it at that. But certainly with the Alpha 5 Arcam had
reached a sound quality that was essentially as good as it gets.


IIRC the Alpha 5 used the geriatic Philips TDA1541 multibit DACs, and
the newer Arcams use Wolfson DACs. Surely DAC technology has advanced
heaps in the last 20 years or so?

It certainly has, the latest DACs from Crystal Semiconductor and Analog
Devices are pretty much SOA.
--
Chris Morriss

"Uncle Keith" wrote in message
...
In article , Don Pearce
wrote:

Question - I know the CD player technology has moved on a fair pace
since I bought my Alpha 5, but I can't decide between these two players
- The now discontinued Diva CD82 and the new Diva CD73. I can get them
both for about the same price, and although the 82 is now discontinued,
I've been offered a brand new model with two year guarantee, but how
much better than the 73 is the older 82?

Anyone on here auditioned them both? I have read one review of 82 v 72
where the 82 came out well on top, but how much has the 73 improved?

Many thank's

These days you buy CD players on features and looks - I'm pretty
certain you couldn't tell the difference between your Alpha 5 and
anything newer just by listening.

d
Pearce Consulting

How do you work that one out?
I could certainly hear the difference between different models when I
bought my Alpha 5 - Or are you saying that the Alpha 5 was such a good
model then that nothing has improved on it?

I agree with you Keith as when I also bought my Arcam 5 CD player I too
auditioned several models and found that there was quite a difference
between them. I even auditioned the Delta 270, which used the same Philips
CDM-9 laser but it did actually sound just slightly more defined than the
Arcam 5. Which goes to prove that both the laser and the electronics make a
difference. Unfortunately I couldn't afford the extra £300 for the Delta 270
at the time.

I still have my trusty old Arcam 5 CD and it's still sounding very sweet
through a Delta 290 amp and Tannoy Mercury speakers. A vast improvement was
made to the sound last year by changing to QED Qunex 2 interconnects and QED
Silver Anniversary speaker cables. Wow, what a difference in ten years of
cable development making the system sound like a newly upgraded one.

The best way to know which one to buy is to go listen to both and judge for
yourself which is the better sound for you.


Stephen

Stephen wrote:

I still have my trusty old Arcam 5 CD and it's still sounding very
sweet through a Delta 290 amp and Tannoy Mercury speakers. A vast
improvement was made to the sound last year by changing to QED Qunex
2 interconnects and QED Silver Anniversary speaker cables. Wow, what
a difference in ten years of cable development making the system
sound like a newly upgraded one.

What cables were you using before?


--
Wally
www.artbywally.com
www.wally.myby.co.uk