Some common sense to make CD player perform better

                  Some common sense to make CD player perform better

Although the current "vinyl revival" trend is unabated, I believe that many enthusiasts are still using CD players at home, and many friends are thinking about buying a new CD player. Another reality that cannot be ignored is: Many people The family boughtand collected a lot of CDs. Therefore, how to make the CD player perform better throughoptimization methods should be a topic of concern to many friends.

Before discussing how to improve the performance of the CD player, the first thing to remind you is that you must take good care of your CD records. Although CD records are not as easy to scratch as vinyl records, CD records in good condition willsounbetter.If your CD is slightly worn, at least it will make the playback sound poor, and at least it will cause your CD player to skip tracks or not play at all. So handle CDs with care, and put them back in the CD case after each play.

before buying

If you're looking to upgrade or replace your CD player, we recommend buying the highest priced CD player you can afford. After all, if you can’t read as much record information as possible in the audio source stage, then it’s impossible to play back the music details that haven’t been read in the subsequent power amplifier and speaker links. Therefore, we recommend spending as much as possible on the audio source. money.

If you want to buy a new CD player, consider buying one with a digital input, which allows the CD player to be connected to other digital sources, such as computers, set-top boxes, DAB radios, etc., and due to the high-quality decoding of the CD player Circuits will make the performance of these digital audio sources even better. For a CD player with excellent performance, it must be equipped with the best possible decoder.

Speaker stand is important

First, make sure your CD player is on a proper shelf to reduce unwanted resonances. Ideally, it should be placed on a sound stand if possible. A good sound stand should be made of solid materials, maintain a level state, and have excellent shock resistance.

While CD players are not as susceptible to vibrations as vinyl players are, things like footsteps, and even sounds from your speakers (especially at high volumes) can make reading data more difficult from a CD player, affecting sound performance .

Don't believe me? A simple experiment is to place a CD player on a half-inflated bicycle tire and you can hear the change in sound performance. Don't inflate the tire, make it as soft as possible but still hold the CD player.

About the connection of the CD player

Almost every CD player comes with a pair of analog cables, but these included cables are fairly rudimentary. Even for a cheap CD player, using some expensive cables can significantly improve the playback effect. WHAT HIFI recommends that the price of the CD player signal cable should not be lower than 30 pounds. Of course, if your audio system is more high-end, it is recommended that you equip it with more expensive cables.

Most CD players have a standard phono jack for analog output, but some have an optional balanced output. Generally speaking, using balanced output has better sound quality, but it also depends on the situation, and its sound performance depends on the design level of the balanced circuit of the sound source and power amplifier equipment.

We recommend listening and trying more when buying. In most cases, except for high-end products, the single-ended output scheme will sound better, and the balanced output will usually sound just louder.

Another very important configuration of the CD player is to have an optical fiber or coaxial digital output, through which an external decoder can be easily connected, so that better sound can be obtained without replacing the CD player. There are many good external DACs on the market, Chord (Chord) Mojo is a good choice, and the foreign price is only 400 pounds.

About usability

The simplest controls for a CD player include buttons to open and close the CD compartment, buttons to start and stop playback, and buttons to skip forward and backward in a track. It would be even better if a CD player had a headphone jack that could control the volume, so that you can adjust the volume more conveniently when listening to music late at night.

CD players usually come with a remote control, which makes it easier for you to operate. In addition to the above-mentioned control functions, the remote control can also achieve many functions that physical buttons do not have, such as directly jumping to a song, editing playlists, and so on. If the amplifier you are using is of the same brand, there is a good chance that one remote will control both the amplifier and the CD player at the same time.

About the display

Generally speaking, the front panel of the CD player will be equipped with a small display screen to display the name of the music being played, playing time, etc., and some CD players can display the name of the musician and more detailed music information. As a little trick to remind you, you can turn off the display to make the sound of the CD player perform better, because there is some electronic interference when displaying the above information.

Although most CD players do not provide the function of turning off the digital output, but if your CD player (such as the Marantz CD6006 UK version) has this function, you can try to turn off the digital output and listen to the sound change. Although the impact on the sound may not be as obvious as turning off the display screen, it does improve the clarity and dynamics of the sound. Of course, this also requires the overall performance of your audio system to be relatively good, otherwise this improvement can be felt by you. less than.

About parameter adjustment and upsampling (upsampling)

More and more CD players allow users to change digital filter parameters, and Audiolab likes to add this function to its CD players and decoders.

Manufacturers usually set the best filter parameters after testing as default values, but in fact, for different audio equipment combinations, other parameter settings may sound better. We suggest that you take some time to try different filter parameters. The sound effect brought by the filter parameters, so as to get the best value you think.

We are less optimistic about the upsampling function of some CD players, because if used incorrectly, the playback sound may be smoother and more refined, but the impact and gravity of the music are weakened.

About the Bucket Theory

Almost any CD player will work with any amplifier, at least that's what electronics textbooks say. The analog output signal of most CD players is about 2V, which is the value required by the linear input of the power amplifier. But if your amp is older than the CD player, you may have some problems and need to make simple adjustments to use it together.

The last thing to be reminded is that the sound of a sound system depends on the weakest one in the equipment matching. If the other equipment in the system is uneven or improperly matched, then any improvement you make on the sound source will be useless. Make the sound quality better.