CDs through Bluray player or CD player?

[New Guy]

My CD player is on it's last legs, and my friend with RF-52s plays his CDs directly from a Sony Bluray player. I'm planning on just a 2 way system for music so I don't need a Bluray at the moment, but he's pushing me to get it just for the sake of flexibility. Is a Bluray player going to read CDs as well as an elite CD player would?? And what key specs should I be looking for on a Bluray or CD player? Sorry for the noob question.

[laager]

Is a Bluray player going to read CDs as well as an elite CD player would?

It'll come close. However, the load times using a Blu-Ray player could end up driving you nuts. My Panasonic BD series sounds identical to my Cambridge Audio 640C CD player. However, I could almost have loaded and ejected nearly a dozen CDs in the 640C before the Panasonic is ready to play a single CD.

If you're someone that switches CDs often then a BD player as transport will drive you up the wall.

[New Guy]

Thanks laager. I hadn't even thought of any non-playback specific consequences.

[Youthman]

The PS3 has worked well for me. Loads extremely fast, serves as a music and video server as well as games and internet capabilities which is especially nice for firmware updates.

[Guest davidness]

I highly recommend the Oppo BluRay player. Very fast load times, and great features all around. Look for the reviews. Available direct or from Amazon.com.

http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-83/

[sunburnwilly]

+1 for the Oppo , terrific disc player and cd's load and play as fast as any cd player I have owned .

[Chris A]

...and internet capabilities which is especially nice for firmware updates...

This capability of the PS3 is usually not in the other Blu-Ray devices - wireless 802.11"x". When playing CDs, the "chapter" names (song titles) on the disk are automatically downloaded to the PS3, whereupon you can see the title of the song that is playing, its length, and the elapsed time bar. In addition, the moving PS3 screen saver is nice to look at. I have an Oppo 980H that I basically don't use anymore because of this. You can even use the PS3 as a "music server" up to the disk-space limitations of the PS3 (currently, about 160 MB). You can easily rip CDs to the PS3 after you insert the disk.

The CD load times of my Oppo 980H and the PS3 are pretty close - not enough for me to notice much difference. The issue is loading damaged disks (see next paragraph).

One disadvantage of Blu-Ray players is that they use blue-light LEDs, and if you have a damaged CD or DVD, the Blu-Ray player may protest and skip over damaged sections, while red-light CD players may be able to read through the damaged area. My solution: I use a disk resurfacing machine for my damaged disks - this fixes 90% of problem disks.

A "feature" of the PS3 is the Bluetooth (i.e., non-IR) remote control. I can easily control the PS3 from more than 40 feet away with the PS3 remote control (separately ordered, but reasonably inexpensive), while the range of universal IR remotes are usually about 20-30 feet. And universal remotes usually do not emulate Bluetooth remotes. Also, you may not have an issue with using your remote from being as far away as I do (i.e., my listening room is 40 feet long).

"...six of one, half a dozen of the other..."

Chris

[Thaddeus Smith]

(i.e., my listening room is 40 feet long).

when can i come down from mckinney and experience this?

[Chris A]

Pick a calendar date (...except 9 and16 December).

Chris