Question on Lasers on Used CD Player & Rotel CD Player [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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EdwardGein
05-06-2006, 03:35 PM
After talking to a thoroughly obnoxious salesperson on the phone at a high end place called Shelley's Stereo in LA who said their store policy is they allow no returns whatsoever unless the equipment is broken, I called another place up called Sound Factor which has a 7 day return policy & I actually had a very good report with the salesperson. Anyway, he said it was never a good idea to buy a CD player used because he claimed the laser wears down (& people usually get rid of it around that time). Is that true in general? I realise that is true from DVD players based on experience with ones I bought new! but have never had that problem with CD players. Also is anyone familiar with Rotel RCD-1072 CD player. He totally endorsed this & thought I'd hear a noticeable improvement over my Pioneer CD player. That retails for $699 but he said he'd offer me a deal. He also said, that the only CD player I'd hear an improvement in sound over this model would be twice the price. I'm looking at this as if I have nothing to lose with a 7 day return policy. I'm also going to hear some other players there just
so I have an idea of sonic differences in price ranges, albeit they're on different systems.

westcott
05-07-2006, 03:43 AM
After talking to a thoroughly obnoxious salesperson on the phone at a high end place called Shelley's Stereo in LA who said their store policy is they allow no returns whatsoever unless the equipment is broken, I called another place up called Sound Factor which has a 7 day return policy & I actually had a very good report with the salesperson. Anyway, he said it was never a good idea to buy a CD player used because he claimed the laser wears down (& people usually get rid of it around that time). Is that true in general? I realise that is true from DVD players based on experience with ones I bought new! but have never had that problem with CD players. Also is anyone familiar with Rotel RCD-1072 CD player. He totally endorsed this & thought I'd hear a noticeable improvement over my Pioneer CD player. That retails for $699 but he said he'd offer me a deal. He also said, that the only CD player I'd hear an improvement in sound over this model would be twice the price. I'm looking at this as if I have nothing to lose with a 7 day return policy. I'm also going to hear some other players there just
so I have an idea of sonic differences in price ranges, albeit they're on different systems.

I would suggest saving your hard earned money and buy an inexpensive CD player if you are going to hook it up digitally. Why? Because most CD players do nothing but pass information to the receiver, or transport it. It is a very simple operation and no signal processing is necessary by the CD player when hooked up digitally.

Now if you are a two channel stereo nut who prefers analog, then spend away. You will get what you pay for and DACs become very important inside the transport.

I have been looking at a cheap Sony 400 disc player for convenience. I would hook it up digitally and do not care if its DAC's are worth a damn or not. I rely on my Denon receiver to do all the heavy lifting and thats where one should put their money, IMO.

shokhead
05-07-2006, 05:14 AM
Sonystyle has a 400 changer for 100 bucks or something like that in the clearence part i think.

EdwardGein
05-07-2006, 08:43 AM
I'm not trying to be rude believe it or not, but where exactly on this post does it say I'm going to connect digitally. People read/hear what they want to read/hear even if its not written/spoken. For the millionth time I never said I will always connect a CD player digitally instead of by analog, but that I would use the best connection, whether its digital or analog to produce the best sound for me. Based on personal experience to date, I have not noticed any improvement in sound when I connect by analog instead of by digital, in fact so far the digital has either been as good or even superior, but that doesn't mean I won't try to connect a new CD player by annalog connections to hear if it sounds superior to analog.

N. Abstentia
05-07-2006, 09:52 AM
So since you like the digital connection that simply means that your receiver has the better DAC. There's certainly nothing wrong with comparing the receiver DAC vs. the player DAC (digital vs. analog) but the problem is...aren't you seeing a trend here? You like the sound of the DAC in the receiver which is one of the latest on the market. You think all these old antiqutated CD players you're buying are going to have better DAC's than your new receiver?

But if you're going to keep spending money on players, I suggest a Marantz DV-6400 or 6500 universal player. Using it's analog CD connection, it sounds a bit better than the DAC's in my Outlaw 990 pre/pro and that's saying something.

EdwardGein
05-07-2006, 11:05 AM
The Rotel CD-1072 is actually a current model. In regards to the "older CD players" my Pioneer has 2 features which I don't think are in current or most current players- a stable platter transport (plays cds upside down) & something called a Legato Link which I think contribute to its lively sound which is what I prefer. In regards to universal players, the one common theme I see repeatedly, is people saying they will never sound as good as a CD player for Cds & based on that, I'm reluctant to get one, especially as I don't play DVD-A's or SACDs. I'm totally willing to admit that this is subjective as I'm basing my opinion on the rock & blues Cd's I own, 90% were originally recorded in the 60/70's. People have said that on better systems, you'll hear more recording faults & I don't want to hear recording faults!

Woochifer
05-07-2006, 11:11 AM
You want a generous return policy? Shop at a chain store. They're ones that typically offer that benefit

Independent stores typically don't keep a lot of inventory on hand because whatever they order, they have to pay for. If they allow returns, then they have to carry the costs on that unit until they can sell it used. Chain stores have the volume necessary to offer those return policies, but whatever gets returned cannot be sold as new, so it's a calculated risk on their part and it costs money.

Rather than asking a store whether they'll let you take a brand new component home and then depreciate the value of the item by returning it used, maybe you should rethink what you're trying to do. Why not do your due diligence BEFORE you buy something? If you're just looking to try a whole bunch of components out, why now ask a store if they'll let you borrow one of their demo units? The independent stores in my area encourage their customers to borrow demo units and try them at home before buying. Rather than enticing customers with generous return policies (which costs stores money), they prefer that customer educate themselves and do their comparisons before buying.

As far as the laser goes, I'm not sure if they "wear down" per se, but they can and will stop working at some point. But, on a CD player, there are any number of other components that can wear out with age, particular the moving parts with the transport.

Smokey
05-07-2006, 11:27 AM
As far as the laser goes, I'm not sure if they "wear down" per se, but they can and will stop working at some point.

I agree with you.

Lasers are not like needles where they wear out. It can either scan 0s and 1s off the disc, or it can’t (as you said) due to electrical failure. There is no ”in between” state :)

EdwardGein
05-07-2006, 12:08 PM
Good idea about asking to "borrow" the demo model but the A hole who I spoke to could have suggested that. I had bought & returned an item from that store 2 years earlier, so I'm convinced he didn't know what he's talking about. Honestly, that has been my first experience with an independent store that wouldn't allow returns. When it comes to stereo/home theater items, I really think its hard to predict how something will integrate with your present system without trying it out. The only good thing to come out of this was I called the other high end place & I seemed to have an instant report with the salesman, the exact opposite of the A hole I talked to at Shelley's & made an appointment with him on Tuesday.

musicman1999
05-07-2006, 02:47 PM
Ed
I believe the problem that comes up with lasers is the focus lens,but the lens and laser are all part of the same unit so you need to replace the unit and i think they run 2 to 3 hundred dollars.

bill

paul_pci
05-07-2006, 09:52 PM
Two things: Be clear on their return policy. Sound factor may just "return" you with store credit. Second, we've all heard you guys speak of getting demo units from these stores, but I went to Sound Factor once, asking to demo a two channel Rotel amplifier and they flat out turned me down (and yes they know who I am from Adam) and secondly, they said the unit wouldn't be broken in or something and sound different defeating the point. I've yet to come across a dealer willing to lend me a demo unit.

westcott
05-08-2006, 05:35 AM
I'm not trying to be rude believe it or not, but where exactly on this post does it say I'm going to connect digitally. People read/hear what they want to read/hear even if its not written/spoken.

Dear Ed,

I reread your post just to make sure I did not miss something but I do not see where you said anything about how you were going to hook it up. You must be thinking of another post you made somewhere else.

I referenced digital and analog connections because I did not know how you were going to hook it up and expressed a recommendation on digital to potentially save you a LOT of money. Nothing else.

I am not a fan of salesstaff that try to sell people expensive equipment when it may not provide any sonic improvement whatsoever. But, like I said, if money is not an issue, a quality transport using analog connections may be your preference.

As others have suggested, lasers are far more reliable than the moving parts in a transport but you could buy 10 digital cd players for the price of a quality analog player with no assurance it will sound any better or last any longer. Computers have used cd players\burners for over a decade now, copying and reading billions of bytes of digital data every day with perfect accuracy and some of them do not cost more than $10 each!!!

Just to nip another possible arguement in the bud before it is brought up, jitter is a timing issue and can be resolved by using a timing device that slaves the cd player through a dedicated DAC. This is a solution more common to sound studios but I have seen it done for those chassing audio nirvana.