Aquired some hi-fi kit
 

My sister recently moved in with her bloke so she gave me her old hi-fi on condition I didn't sell it.

I'm thinking of using it to replace my current "study" set-up which consists of an Amstrad EX333 "Executive Reciever" (stop laughing, it's older than me and sounds pretty good), Aiwa XC-700 CD player and Sony TC-WR770 HX Pro tape deck (sadly hardly used anymore for obvious reasons) and a pair of Wharfedale Laserline speakers.

The kit I've been give is a NAD 7020i reciever and a NAD 5420 CD player. I know the reciever is clearly going to be better than my current Amstrad but will the CD player be any better than the Aiwa one? I thought I'd ask in case anyone knew before I start taking my set-up apart only to end up disappointed.

Listen to it.Taking apart?,its only swapping a couple of leads

How do you know, have you looked at my install?

A lot will depend on the AGE of the two players.In the first ten years or so of CD players, technology came on in leaps and bounds, so that one year's player was noticeably better than the previous year's.

Now, it's NOT so noticeable, and down to a few tweaks here and there, and how much you pay.

I'd go with whichever is the younger player, but WOULD tend to listen to both, no matter how difficult.

Also take into account that the NAD player will probably be better matched to the NAD receiver............

And if you're using both, you can invite ladies to "play with my Nads":D:

Alcazar

Yes they should sound significantly better. NAD consistently won awards for their products thoughout the 80's & 90's.

The only downsides may be that (a) a quality source may show up deficiencies in your speakers and (b) you could be used to your current setup and simply like the sound it makes.

You say you have a current receiver,then plug the two audio outputs from the Nad cd player into two available audio inputs,plug in the cd player and have a listen.What else is there?

There's getting at it first of all, which is a pain in the arse due to it's location :p

Thanks for the replies. The kit is currently acclimatising to my house after spending the last 6 months in the garage. To be honest I'm not sure how old the NAD kit is, my AIWA player is about 12 years old.

NAD stuff is pretty good - the CD players tend to be very neutral and dont colour the sound like some cheaper ones do, so you get a better representation of the actual CD going to the amp. I used to have a NAD amp and CD player, going into JBL speakers and the sound was as good as anything else I had heard for around the same price.

I'm fairly sure the 5420 was around about 1998 ish ?, so will be a bit newer than the Aiwa.

IMHO, I don't recall Aiwa ever making any CD players that were that good; always got the impression they were "dabbling", to be honest (although they made some cracking tape decks a while back). I'd definitely expect the NAD to sound better, and the appearance will reasonably match the NAD reciever (which may or may not bother you).

However, as people have said, I'd definitely try and listen to both. As you're going to have to take the setup out of wherever it is inorder to change the receiver, that's the time to do it! ;)

For the price, I always thought the NAD stuff was decent - my hi-fi started with a 3020i (the same amp but without the tuner built in). Admittedly, it's gone through a "few" upgrades since then! :D