General Forum

Re: B&O CD and amps for audiophile?

Martin Gajta — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 18:15:34 GMT

Oh well I forgot to thank you and to say that I bought Beomaster 5500 and Turntable 5000 (I just love the way it looks together).Next thing is CD5500.

I'm happy with sound and look,so quest for CD5500 continuing and new stylus for

turntable...I will probably buy soundsmith's smmc4.

Re: B&O CD and amps for audiophile?

Peter — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 13:26:36 GMT

superdario:

Peter :

The CDX does indeed have a very pleasant sound - it is often described as sounding analogue. I agree - slightly warm and fuzzy in some ways but very easy to listen to. I use mine with my Beolab 5000 system and it performs very well!

i tought i was finished with my collection... i need a cdx for my beolab 5000... ;-) what about the cdx2? which dac is build in?

The CDX2 has the TDA1541 DAC and is much the same as the CD4500, The 5500 is better but much less useful with the Beolab 5000 system. The CDX2 is however less reliable than the CDX and I would go for the latter in preference.

Re: B&O CD and amps for audiophile?

ouverture — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 09:45:44 GMT

stick with the 5500 CD Player Martin, even better if you can pair it with the 5500 amp, and a Beolink 1000 remote control

being in Serbia it might be possible to get someone to modify your 5500 in the same way that Lukasz has done, you will then be getting a fine system for the money :-)

Try the MS150 speakers with the 5500 amp first, if you like the sound then buy them for 150 euros, if not there are plenty of other speakers that sound very good with the 55 watt Beomaster 5500 amplifier, I myself had some Beovox 3800 speakers sounding very nice with the 5500, and at the moment I am using some RL60.2 speakers, but I firmly believe the key with speakers is to try as many as possible, and all will be revealed !

Re: B&O CD and amps for audiophile?

Martin Gajta — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 12:02:32 GMT

I personally like look of CDX but it have low WAF (wife acceptance factor).Wife think it looks like our old Gorenje Koerting turntable-tape-radio-amplifier music center but she also think that 5500 looks like our old Kenwood (first slim amplifier with commands hidden behind aluminum doors)and that's good,so I think that 5500 will pass smoothly.I also like attyca and those black shelf with aluminum drawers lookalike doors (dunno code-name).I like the idea that I read here that with MCP5500 you can control windows based winamp or something like that.Also if you noticed how easy is to integrate beomaster with squeezebox and how Master Control Panel 5500 shows similarity with diNovo edge...

Martin Gajta

Jacob Jensen Rules

Re: B&O CD and amps for audiophile?

beaker — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 07:44:00 GMT

Thats just the way I would of described the CDX. Not quite as "clinical" as other cd players, giving a more analogue or natural sound to my ears. I also use mine with my Beolab 5000 set up with Beovox Penta's. I havent listened to many super expensive CD players except an old Naim CD1 (if i remember rightly) but have yet to find one that I prefer to the CDX.

Re: B&O CD and amps for audiophile?

kallasr — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 06:55:55 GMT

Just working on this system (in alu/grey/black), too.

For me a real B&O design classic.

Got a BM 5500, a BG CD5500, a Beocord 5500, MCP 5500 AND a hifi rack for the Beosytem (original B&O).
Got the floorstands for the RL speakers and now I am looking for some RL60.2s....

Ralf

PS: I also got a white Beosystem 5500 incl. the record player, but the BG CD5500 does not read CDs anymore, I suppose I will sell this one - but my wife will make the final (color) decision ;-). Based in Germany near Düsseldorf and pick-up only, though.

Re: B&O CD and amps for audiophile?

superdario — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 06:43:44 GMT

Beovoxs80:

I don't have opportunity to listen every b&o amplifier in my country (Serbia),but with help of members here I believe that I will make good decision AND decision is beomaster 5500 and beogram 5500.

a good decision. i like the style of the beosystem 5500... the sound would be also nice. ;-) what are the originaly made loudspeakers for the beosystem 5500, some rl's?

Re: B&O CD and amps for audiophile?

superdario — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 06:37:08 GMT

Peter :

The CDX does indeed have a very pleasant sound - it is often described as sounding analogue. I agree - slightly warm and fuzzy in some ways but very easy to listen to. I use mine with my Beolab 5000 system and it performs very well!

i tought i was finished with my collection... i need a cdx for my beolab 5000... ;-) what about the cdx2? which dac is build in?

Re: B&O CD and amps for audiophile?

wirralsimon — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 06:10:44 GMT

I have a CD50 that needs to go back for another attempt at repairing it!

When it was working I did some A:B comparisons with my Philips CD650 which is a TD1541A-based player and I much preferred the CD650.

The main problem with the CD50 is that it wasn't all that reliable when new and surviving examples are now around 25 years old and prone to problems.

Simon

Re: B&O CD and amps for audiophile?

Cleviebaby — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 02:13:32 GMT

Agree wholeheartedly about the quality of the CDX. Wonderful player. My first CD player was a Phillips CD104, the source unit for the CDX, which I used with a Quad 34/FM4/405/ESL63 set up and it's still the best CD sound I have heard (although my memory is going now)

Cleve

Re: B&O CD and amps for audiophile?

Peter — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:50:03 GMT

The CDX does indeed have a very pleasant sound - it is often described as sounding analogue. I agree - slightly warm and fuzzy in some ways but very easy to listen to. I use mine with my Beolab 5000 system and it performs very well!

Re: B&O CD and amps for audiophile?

beaker — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:11:56 GMT

I have owned CDX, CD50 and each of the 5500 range of CD players and in my humble opinion the CDX sounds much nicer than any of the others. Its the one bit of B&O equipment that I will not change. The lack of remote control did annoy me at first so I got a CD50 with the optional remote kit and thought that would banish the CDX but after a bit of a listen it just didn't sound as nice.

It is all horses for courses though and what sounds good to me might be awful to someone else.

Also the stacking CD players only really look good when used with the rest of the stereo where as the CDX looks retro cool all by its self.

Re: B&O CD and amps for audiophile?

Martin Gajta — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 06:59:44 GMT

5500 definitely..

http://www.lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/REFERENCES/Bangandolufsen/Bang%20&%20Olufsen%20CD5500%20CD%20player.html

Re: B&O CD and amps for audiophile?

Peter — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:08:20 GMT

It is an interesting deck - the prototype was even cleverer! I do have one though it has stopped working again! Tim did have a look at it a while ago but it misbehaved very rapidly! We think it is probably based on an Aiwa - Tim did find the machine he thinks it is based on but this is so obscure he has never found one in the flesh! It showed that B&O were covering their options by developing both a Philips based machine (the CDX) which used the 14 bit 4x oversampling route and the Japanese 16 bit 2x oversampling.

I actually bought a CD50 new when I had my 5000 system but sent it back because it was so noisy! I used a Philips CD player for a year or so before I replaced the system with a Beocenter 9500. My present CD50 is slightly quieter (well obviously a lot quieter at present! ) but a lot noisier than the CD5500.

Re: B&O CD and amps for audiophile?

j0hnbarker — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 14:46:42 GMT

Peter :

j0hnbarker:

Do you look at the provenance of all the ingredients that a restaurant uses, or do you go somewhere where the food tastes good?

I'd say listen to the CD players and see what your ears tell you. I actually think the CD50 is much-maligned when it comes to talking about the supposed quality of the DAC. To me it sounded great. The CDX sounds great too, but if you look at the specs it shouldn't!

Actually the DAC in the CD50 is a professional quality one. Slightly odd in the way it works as it switches rapidly between the two channels. However the reliability of these sets is getting suspect and in my opinion it is the least good sounding CD player in the series. Agree also about the CDX - though the Philips CD100 on which it is based was always known as a stupendous sounding deck.

Sorry Peter - I should have said that the internal architecture is often maligned, using the one DAC for both channels etc. I know the Burr Brown unit is well regarded, but I suspect in audiophile circles the way it is utilised would probably be frowned upon. Anyway, I really rate the CD50 and would want one if I were to get a 5000 or 5500 system again. The upside down CD loading is pretty cool too!