Is the PS3 a better sounding CD player than a dedicated one??

[Jase Fox]

A friend of mine is the proud owner of a PS3 he tells me that CDs sound better through the PS3 than his Arcam CD73 CD player, i must say i found this hard to believe as he has the same CD player as me & its an absolute awesome sound is the Arcam, does anybody have any views on this??

[MOONPHASE]

i think the ps3 kicks ass at the music and even my mp3 files sound good and that says a lot because mp3 is like the lowest sound for music but the ones on aac or whatever that one is called they sound amazing. i may even get rid of my cd player just because of that

[CYMBOL]

I believe the PS3 "upconverts/upsamples" CD music. You can change the settings on the PS3 to do this via the Type 1/2/3 settings in the sound area. Type 3 makes CDs sound great. Much louder and fuller.

Try it out.

[bhampton]

I can give you a definitive maybe on this question.

I don't have a super fancy pants CD player to compare against but I do know that the PS3 can "enhance" playback of CD's like mention-ed above.

-Brian

[Clark Kent]

Not in my system but I have a Music Hall MMF-25.2 CD player feeding a Benchmark Dac1. The noise floor of the PS3 just can't compete with that.

[dannyjl]

I think some cd's sound better but I did an A/B comparison the other night with my Oppo 970 listening to John Mayer's SACD's. I noticed that the PS3, set at Type 3, exagerates the bass way too much. They sounded more resonable on the Oppo. In most cases the PS3 sounds great for cd's though.

[btf1980]

It depends on where you're coming from. Is it better than a $20 tru-tech player at Target? Yes. But for people with dedicated CDP's, then no. I have a Rotel 1072 and a McIntosh MCD201, so in my case, using the PS3 for CD playback would be a regression.

Even with some hearing loss from advancing age I can tell quite a noticeable difference between CD's played through the PS3 verses playing CD/SACD's on my dedicated CD player. My stand alone CD/SACD player cost around $1500 when I bought it five years ago, but many mid/budget line CD players might not differentiate themselves from the PS3 CD/SACD playback - and no, I don't believe more money spent always means better sound. Consider also that some CD/SACD's just sound better than others. Example: 'Bags Groove' CD (Prestige 7109) mastered on the older JVC XRCD system sounds better than many SACD's I've heard, and better than almost every CD I've heard. Some CD's from outfits like Telarc and Mapleshade just sound consistently better across the board. Sometimes even regular CD's are known for their superior sound dynamics, Cat Steven's CD recording of 'Tea for the Tillerman' (A&M 3145468842) being one such example.

Note - IMO 7.1 is swell for movie audio, but I'll keep my 2-channel setup for serious music listening.