LP12 vs CDS2
Posted by: Alex S. on 26 July 2001
The LP12 is Lidless, Baseboardless, Lingoed, new motored, serviced, ittoked, DV20Xed, sitting on cones on Base on Sound org 5 tier rack (with Lingo in bottom shelf).
My CDS2 is partnered by CDSPS not XPS.
Other equipment is: 82/super, 2 250s, N805s on Granite stands on Mana Soundbases, Grahams mains Hydra, all Naim Burndys Snaics etc apart from Chord Cobra2 CD interconnect and Cabletalk 4.1 speaker cable. I've got acoustic foam splattered all over the walls and Base racks.
I don't have too many vinyl/CD duplicates but I did dig out Mahler's No2 (Klemperer/Philarmonia), Deep Purple's Machine Head and Beloved's Conscience.
This sounds like damning with faint praise but at last my LP12 has found a worthwhile partner if not a perfect match. This just goes to show how damn good even a medium spec analogue source is. The CDS2 makes an excellent fist of a musical, analogue sound - well spaced instruments, the best bottom end I've heard on CD replay; its a quiet player - no digital hash here, but the top end lacks a little of the sparkle of the best analogue I've heard (not mine). It is a big improvement over my CDX - less fatiguing, more involving, much more smile on face making - and it makes the CDX top and bottom end seem a little uncouth.
The opening cellos on Mahler's second had all the oomph you'd want with both sources although better spacing with the LP12 - I suspect this is a problem with EMI's rather poor CD transfer than with the CDS2.
My CDX used to make a right mess of John Lord's organ (titter) on Lazy but both sources on test here really made sense of this track with all the PRaT you could ask.
My Beloved Conscience was very clear.
quote:
...and this from someone (me) who recently emailed the BBC because they spelt "excellence" wrong on Watchdog Healthcheck...
No doubt you deliberately but wrongly wrote "wrong" instead of "wrongly" so that I could I make a joke about it. 
--Jeremy
Best;
Mark
(wiping away egg in order to improve visibility & breathing...)
(an imperfect
forum environment is
better than none)
quote:
All me grammar is now slidy most in the wetty gripper
I never did quite get grabble the unstanwinley way of think-a-mole but I wouldn't worrybold too much when so many peeps put the postrafofle's in the pluraloopsup's [e.g. CD's LP's NBL's]. 
--Jeremy