fishball79

Oak, Heheh. Alot more choices at $1k budget. The secret in finding great value for money is in determining how much profit the dealers gets for various $1k cd players!

*SHOCKED* You mean 1388.com still around!? Man those prices are steep... I WOULD be surprised if Neotech OCC beats them or comes close.

Audience Au24 is a tough one to beat. Noticeably soundstage and imaging than my diy silver cables!

*dons flat earth cap* Source first! Sibilance is definitely due source. I managed to remove some extreme sibilance effects with ceramic cones underneath my cd player but this is with speakers so the effect could be less with a headphones setup. Nonetheless, a cd player generates vibrations so that might still work. Im REALLY starting to think the source is subtlely more important than most thought. *Learning new half baked theories everyday*

*drags all you dreamers to earth* His budget $500 ar. Opera is in $1k region right?

adhoc, Can't blame you, LHS Elec is one MESSY shop! You have to have a good eye to spot some goodies he has.

For PC people, download this software from www.mirc.co.uk When you run the software, a window will pop up, fill in your details, select GALAXYNET and click on Connect. When your in, type /j sgheadphones and voila, our chatroom will appear. For Mac peeps, (By the way this works in OsX as well *HINT HINT*) Grab software from www.ircle.com Refer to here for instructions http://www.ircle.com/reference/ I do know the commands are similar to access the server/server irc.singnet.com.sg and /j sgheadphones to join chat room.

iconic, I think the 333ES is a decent BUDGET player, thats about it More expensive players mostly will improve on details, focus but more importantly more detailed, tight and lower bass high bass 60-80 or so. Midbass 50-59hz low bass 20-49hz

Yes improved copyright protection, even harder for us music copying lovers As much as they like you to think, it is also one of their schemes to resume getting the fat royalty they used to have when CD was still their trademark. Now that it is no longer, they market cd burning players and sacds like crazy. Pfft.

Julery, LHS Electronics #02-46 in Sim Lim Tower sells the such hollow braided cable sleeves. They are used to prevent scratched on the cable itself, etc. Lotsa colours but not these u shown in the picture. Less than $5/m i believe. Has a moderate range of colours each of different sizes.

Wortel, Check out Philips cd player CD951 in ebay. I msged you about it but no replies from you, not sure if u seen it. Its got a good transport and adequate dac. Well built chassis and being a decent philips should last long. No remote tho.

Guys, Have heard and compared Iconic's setup with mine. We found minute differences between our cd players, his is a SCD-333ES, mine a 12yr old Teac. This despite a range of cables and 2 headphone amps, a ASL and a Corda one (forgot model no) I attribute this to the fact that the cd players we both have are pretty 'budget' quality. I'm beginning to believe in Source First theory. As for the bass problem i think he feels he lacks the chest thumping midbass that is often resonated and far louder with speakers in a room than cans. Basically he wants overblown bass that his headphones cannot give. Only way i think he can improve the situation is to improve the source, get power filtering and soem decent power cords. Or, a pair of speakers

I'm reccomending 6000OSE LE for vocals, used Rotel 991 or 971 for rock. Both do acoustics and classical stuff pretty well. Make sure you leave abit of money for a decent pair of interconnects if you intend to hook it up to an existing stereo or a headphone amp. If you intend to use headphones directly with the cd players, i reccomend a headphone amp later on as most of the new cd players have very poor quality headphone outputs.

Rameish, Damn Grados marketing... once again I over estimated a company. Bass not as tight is common on long run of cables that has less than ideal insulation. Oh well, back to square 1.

matbon0013, Hmm.. sounds bad *twist fingers and toes*

matbon013, Mystery Cable #01 uses cheapo plastic connectors, not canare Newer versions will use metal jacket ones but at additional costs.

Apologies for OT-ing. I will bring this discussion with Naimed & Gryphon elsewhere.

I heard the PM65, 57 and some other marantz amps. IMHO i think they should be avoided unless they are given free. I've heard similarly priced ($2-300) amps that are more musical, transperant and more often than not, controls the same speakers better, hinting they are more powerful. Brands like Cyrus, Rotel, Pioneer comes to my mind.

AND the interesting thing is the Linn LP12, their very old but still made/supported vinyl playback turntable sounds better than the CD12! A fully loaded LP12 will only run you about half that of the CD12 along with a good phono stage...

I have yet to come across any commercially available high end wires/cables that is thin and pliable enough for use as headphone cords... I have one suggestion tho If grados claim is true, that you can use connect up to 3 of their extension cables to a pair of cans and there will be no signal loss watsoever, buy one and use it for cans!

It's a good price but I'll have to pass. That will break my tiny lil still hungry porcelain piggy bank... I'll have to pass.

I am! Are you mass ordering or selling off a used unit?

Well, can't wait for summer so i can see more skin... i mean bikinis! Blues, Glad you liked them.

matbon0013, Oh yes please! Do post your findings either here or pm to me! i want to know what you think! Jarthel, Is that a hint on the kind of pricing you like? Heheh Ablaze, Not the cheapest source there is. Try www.hoemgrownaudio.com or www.puresilversound.com

Hold your horses guys, i'll let u guys know after 'field' testing the cables...