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Interesting find

73.229.163.4

In Reply to: RE: PL200 posted by KAMIS on May 24, 2024 at 07:12:04

We often see Asylum folks looking to replace their broken down (or failing) high-end $1000 dollar and up CD players. The sub- $1000 SMSL CDP seems like a low risk bargain in terms of pricing and it might just sound pretty good. And you get a nice DAC should you decide to couple it to a streamer or music server.
If I were in the market for a CDP (I'm not) I would not consider another high-end and very expensive audiophile brand. I owned three Cary, Accuphase, and a Sony ES. The SMSL PL200 is worth a try especially with Amazon's generous return policy. And if it sounds great, buy two! One as a backup which is still cheaper than most high-end audiophile brands.

SMSL PL200 CDP - Amazon (Open in New Window)

Edits: 05/24/24 05/24/24

Follow Ups:

is MQA bad or not? Most here say yes /nt - Story 11:36:43 05/24/24 (3)
- Unnecessary as E-Stat says but..... - AbeCollins 15:18:15 05/24/24 (0)
  In the context of that CD Player / DAC MQA doesn't matter. It's not "in the way" if it's not decoding MQA. MQA is just a "feature" that can be ignored if it's not being used.
- Unnecessary with today's bandwidth - E-Stat 15:03:59 05/24/24 (0)
  Creating lossy 96/17 content from 96/24 with a similar bitrate to 44/16 for streaming purposes might have made sense a decade ago. Why throw away signal today?
- RE: is MQA bad or not? Most here say yes /nt - mlsstl 13:12:52 05/24/24 (0)
  I suspect the MQA has nothing to do with CD playback and is only used when the USB input to the DAC is used for streaming. And, since Tidal has dropped MQA, I'd guess that capability has become meaningless at this point in time -- MQA decoding wouldn't be used if the streaming service used doesn't offer it.

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