Innuos Zenith vs CDP

Hi-Fi Corner
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I’m going through another phase of debating the SQ merits of my Zenith MK3 vs a CD player.

I’ve this week purchased a Denon DCD 1600NE (from a fellow forumite) with a view to it being part of my or my brother’s set up.

He’s having a fairly major house renovation which means I’m looking after most of his system for the next few months.

Some of it arrived yesterday and includes a Primare DD35 transport and a Hegel Mohican CD player. Both of which I’ve previously heard myself but now I’ve got a golden opportunity to compare these pieces of kit alongside the Zenith.

My favourite, so far, is the Primare DD35 transport into the Nova. I use the word “favourite” because it’s not “night and day” different to the Innous, which is often excellent sounding particularly with ripped content.

What I’m surprised by is how good the CD in its spinning in a machine form sounds.

My brother is going to have two set ups so one of the CD machines (Denon or Hegel or Primare) will come to me.
It seems strange that I feel like I need to run a CDP and the Zenith to maximise CD playback. Some discs sound er, “better” in the Hegel or Primare, whilst some I prefer from the Zenith.

First world dilemmas but one I hadn’t anticipated.

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Interesting, I have a cd transport that I feed into my tt 2. I rarely use it because my zenith wipes the floor with it. In fairness it should given that there is a phoenix in the path too but it’s not even close

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Which CD transport is it, may I ask?

PhoenixNET or the reclocker?

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I kept my CDX2/XPS2 for 7 months and compared to my Zenith 3 for the first month before giving up. There really was no contest. Did it again for a month once we hit 2.0.5. The Innuos won on every genre at every volume.

Minded a friends 282/300 for a week whilst she was away. Sold the CDX2 and XPS2.

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I wonder if my Nova/250 combo is not fully liberating/revealing the wonders of the Zenith.

2.0 certainly upped the SQ of the Innuos but it’s not a yawning gap with all material against the Hegel or Primare or even the Denon in SACD mode.

I’m very happy with the Zenith but I keep being drawn to CD players and how they deliver CD format, at least in my current set up.

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