BeoSound 9000 or BeoGram CD 5500?

I will shortly be moving house, and reconfiguring my hifi system. I currently use a BeoSound 9000 as my CD player, with a direct digital feed into my BeoLab 5s. However, years ago I had a BeoGram CD 5500 (which, if I'm correct, is the only other B&O CD player with a digital output) and recall it being an outstanding machine. Has anybody compared these two models for sound quality? Would I do better to acquire a BeoGram CD 5500 and use it as my CD player instead?

The CD5500 is a great sounding player in analogue mode, but I doubt you'd hear any real difference if you use the digital outputs. You would also lose remote control: with a standalone CD5500, all you can do is step the track forward from the front panel.

Tournedos is right - you need an audio master for remote control of a stand-alone Beogram CD - unless you want to start dabbling in MCL2AV or Beolink converter type 1611 with a video master.

NB: the Beogram CD 4500 also had a digital output.

And the Beocentre 2 was an audio master with a digital output.

My CD4500 has a dig-out too...

....and you can control it from the front panel ;-)

MM

Interesting! So there are four models to choose from. Which would sound the best using the digital output or would there be little or no difference? Alternatively, would I get better sound using the analogue output from one of them?

In my view you would get the fewest processing steps (and therefore most likely the best sound quality) by using the SPDIF (aka digital out) rather than the analog output.

To hear the difference between say a BGCD7000's digital out vs a BGCD4500's digital out you would have to compare the level of jitter from each player. To put it simply, jitter is an irregularity in the timing of samples in the digital audio data stream.

I have never read any comparison of one B&O CD player vs another with regard to their jitter level. I am not sure I would hear the difference, and I have BL5s too, connected digitally to my Beocentre 2.

But of course in the end you should choose the sound balance you prefer. If you prefer the sound via the BL5's Powerlink inputs rather than the digital inputs, then use the analog ones.

politician:

I will shortly be moving house, and reconfiguring my hifi system. I currently use a BeoSound 9000 as my CD player, with a direct digital feed into my BeoLab 5s.

If your 9000 works why not keep it ?

Yes, it works perfectly and looks stunning — so I'll almost certainly do as you suggest. I was just checking whether I could get better sound with a different player.

I think they only way would to determine this, would be to feed the digital output of both to a bit checker and then compare to a reference file. That would let you know whether the different CD transports are reading all the 1s and 0s. If there was a deviation from the reference, the next question to answer is can you tell the difference between them in a statistically different way on listening and which do you prefer. You can read more on the web about this and also read about Bit Transparency Check on Weiss Engineering page. The general consensus seems to be that different transports output the same 1s and 0s but if they do deviate then the difference is probably not noticeable to the human ear/human auditory cortex. I certainly wouldn't spend silly money on a £15,000 CEC TL0 transport as some audiophiles. I think in this case, it may come down to which unit you like the look of more and which is easier/more pleasant to interact with which only you can answer.

My Beogram cd 6500 has a digital coax output as well, so looks like there might be quite a few B&O models with this facility. As others have said unlikely you'd hear any difference with digital outputs, but the beosound 9000 is beautiful - I've always fancied one! 

If you actually use a CD player, then the BS9000 is unbeatable IMHO. I sold mine, but only because I never used it.

politician:

I will shortly be moving house, and reconfiguring my hifi system. I currently use a BeoSound 9000 as my CD player, with a direct digital feed into my BeoLab 5s. However, years ago I had a BeoGram CD 5500 (which, if I'm correct, is the only other B&O CD player with a digital output) and recall it being an outstanding machine. Has anybody compared these two models for sound quality? Would I do better to acquire a BeoGram CD 5500 and use it as my CD player instead?

I have both. Bs9000 and bgcd5500 should perform the same over digital. The 9000 is larger :). But flat against a wall. The other one is easy to stuff away in a cabinet. You pick.