Pro cd players

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cressy
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#1 Pro cd players

Post by cressy »

Bought a tascam (teac) cd450 pro cd player for the princely sum of 40 quid.
The reason being is that i seem to be getting an increasing number of enquiries about balanced preamps and not being in posession of a balanced source is a pain in the arse in terms of testing.
The img amp has a balanced input on 1/4 inch jacks that i havent used yet and this particular tascam has the optional balanced out and aes balanced digital output module.

Dunno what the internal dacs are, i'll have to have a look when it turns up, I think its a Sony mech, has a kss something laser in it

Anyone used a pro cd player at home before? Im tipping it will sound reasonable given that its built for broadcast purposes even if thats not entirely the point in buying it.
Im also intrigued by the aes balanced digital output, what benefits are there over an optical or coax connection other than being able to run 50 foot of cable between components?

Cheers ant
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cressy
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#2 Re: Pro cd players

Post by cressy »

Apparently it uses an 18 bit ak4319 dac, looking at the datasheet it looks to have + and - out per channel so presumably the balanced out is straight off the chip through an op amp output stage
Or something like that
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Mudshark
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#3 Re: Pro cd players

Post by Mudshark »

Old transports were good.....

New uns, all basically the same cheap n nasty, built to a price (4s-6p).
chris661
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#4 Re: Pro cd players

Post by chris661 »

cressy wrote: Sun Jan 22, 2017 7:31 pm
Im also intrigued by the aes balanced digital output, what benefits are there over an optical or coax connection other than being able to run 50 foot of cable between components?

Cheers ant
Not 100% sure if that Stageline amp is balanced or not, Ant - worth opening it up to double-check.

AES digital is nice because it runs over XLR, which is abundant at every gig ever. You can even send it down a very long analogue snake. Optical stuff is easily damaged, so it has no place in the world of flight cases, swivelly wheels and 5am teardowns. You also get 2x channels (left and right) down one cable, which is useful. These days, a lot of the top-end pro stuff is running on AES or Dante (runs over Cat5, and needs network switches everywhere), where we're shoving a lot of data down a small number of cables. I still use analogue XLR for most of my stuff, but some bits of my kit have options for AES I/O.

I don't think there'll be much in the way of audible differences between the different sorts of digital output, though I'm much more interested in the speaker side of things, so I would say that.

Chris
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DSJR
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#5 Re: Pro cd players

Post by DSJR »

I'm looking at the Sony CDP-D11 or D12 as they're slimline (1U high) with apparently durable slot-loading transports. I've heard the D11 from its RCA outputs and it's a pleasant if rather 'airless' sound, but it should make for a perfectly acceptable transport I think.
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