dml@lanl.ARPA (06/21/85)
I have been looking at CD players to purchase and like the Yamaha CD-2. Can anyone give me more detailed info on it than the basic salesman hype? Questions I have: 1) Are there 1 or 2 DAC's? 2) How does it stack up to other players in respect to tracking questionable disks? 3) Is the electronics solid - i.e. will it burn out a day after the warranty runs out? 4) Overall feature work as expected - I have played with one in the store but did not try everything 5) Sound quality - (I know they all sound about the same) Pre-thanks for the replies! em address: dml@lanl.arpa
shauns@vice.UUCP (Shaun Simpkins) (06/28/85)
> I have been looking at CD players to purchase and like the Yamaha CD-2. > Can anyone give me more detailed info on it than the basic salesman hype? there is only 1 DAC. The machine is a 2x oversampling digitally filtered type. Disc tracking, like almost any other player of its generation, is excellent. I don't know of any electronics oopsies in the unit- in fact, I've never know of any electronics oopsies in Yamaha products. If anything, they build their stuf solid. Its feature set is excellent. As for sound quality, it's very good and amongst the best, particularly at its price. However, the CD-2 and the CD-x1 have been replaced by the CD-3 and CDx2, respsectively. The CD-3 improves on some aspects of the CD-2, throws away other niceties (like direct access programming - the new machine is serial access only) and alters the filtering constants a bit. This machine has been out in England and Europe for about 3-4 months. I just got back from a European trip where some time was spent auditioning these units and reading reviews. English hifi houses are really neat. They often have upwards of 10 players from 6 or more manufacturers available for audition. In one store I heard the Nakamichi, new Sony units, the new Yamahas, Marantzes, and Philips players all on the same system. I wasn't able to hear too much difference, if any, between the units. However, the concensus of European dealers and reviewers is that the CD-3 does not sound as good as the CD-2, being `harsher'. In that price range the new Sony units are being drooled over. If you can find one, the Sony CDP-302 is the player of choice at $500. Other preferred players are the Philips 304 (not available here), the Marantz 74 and 84, the ADS/Braun CD-3 (which uses the new Sony chip set), the Revox, the Nakamichis, and, interestingly enough, the Sony D-5 Walk-CD. By the way, CDs in Britain average $10.00 apiece excluding VAT. I paid $11.00 for a Nimbus CD that costs $18.00 at Tower Records over here, and $10.00 for standard Decca and Philips releases that cost $16.00 here. The american buying public is getting screwed royally. The wandering squash, -- Shaun Simpkins uucp: {ucbvax,decvax,chico,pur-ee,cbosg,ihnss}!teklabs!tekcad!vice!shauns CSnet: shauns@tek ARPAnet:shauns.tek@rand-relay
johnston@uiucdcsb.Uiuc.ARPA (07/03/85)
I suspect that the reason you could buy CDs so much cheaper "over there"
is because the American dollar is very strong now and the British pound
very weak, i.e., you get more for your buck outside the USA.
- Gary Johnston
Department of Computer Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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