Wolfbane Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 I've owned and listened to music played on CD Players for 30 years now both solid state and tubed. With the rise of DACs PC based music as well. Just wondering if I am alone in preferring my CD sourced music today? Wb 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tube fanatic Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Well, I'm with you! I embraced CDs as soon as they came out, got rid of all of my vinyl, and still buy CDs of artists I enjoy. Somehow, handling a physical medium is more appealing to me than having a computer as part of the audio system. Guess we are in a definite minority, but as long as CDs are being made, I'll continue to buy them! Maynard 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teaman Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 I love my CD music Wolfbane. I listen daily and love my Emotiva players. I much prefer the sound to any computer audio regardless of what it is or who provides it. Thankfully I have over 1100 discs and many of them I have no problem listening all the way through so any inconvenience of having to change a disc is of little issue with me. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willland Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 I've owned and listened to music played on CD Players for 30 years now both solid state and tubed. With the rise of DACs PC based music as well. Just wondering if I am alone in preferring my CD sourced music today? Wb Nothing odd about that at all. A very well recorded redbook CD played on a quality player can and does in most cases sound better than most(non Hi res) computer based recordings. Bill 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
babadono Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 You betcha. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BusaDude Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 CD all the way... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No.4 Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Yes! My wife just got me an emotiva erc-3 for Christmas. It sounds excellent through my set and diy la scalas. Amazon dropped a few new discs in my mailbox today too. The people who think I'm nuts for buying cds could care less about sound quality. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 I find every CD sounds better when ripped and played back through a first class DAC. There are a number of technical reasons for this, but they won't convince anybody. Personally, I am glad this is the case for me as it means all I really have to have is a 15.00 CD drive to get great sound. That said, I still have a nice OPPO I bought before they got too proud that plays nicely when someone brings something over. Dave 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richieb Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Nothin' but CD here. Great quality player/transport makes for a tuneful rig. I have been looking at adding some way to stream music from the interweb but have yet to find an acceptable solution I can comprehend. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krispy Kirk Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 I was an early adopter of compact disc circa 1985. What I mean by that is that I was the first person I knew who had a CD player. Fast forward 30 years. I am now one of a tiny handful of people I know personally who still buy/collect/care about CDs. Every system I build must have CD capability as must every car I own or operate. I was and still am impressed by the sound quality of red book compact discs. No other format combines such a high level of sound quality, portability, affordability, and convenience into one package. MP3 is easier to carry around in your pocket but lacks a realistic sonic presentation. By the time you've cranked your rips up to the barely tolerable bitrate of 320kbps, your files are so big you've kind of defeated the whole point of MP3s. Vinyl, to my ears, preserves more of the soul of the music but does so only at great expense and zero convenience. It takes piles of money, much skill, and a lot of patience to wring the best possible sound out of a record collection. No real point in even trying unless you've been blessed with all three. Let's forget about various closed reel tape formats (cassette, 8-track, DAT) since they are, for the most part, designed to be disposable commodities (or industry tools) and were not intended for collectors or audiophiles. That leaves hi-res, a format in which I have only recently begun to dabble. Hi-res seems to combine the soul of vinyl with the convenience of MP3. I've paid serious money for 192/24 FLAC files and when I listen to them they take me to the pinnacle of digital technology. The highest praise I can give them is that they sound like impossibly clean vinyl. But 99% of the "hi-res" files on my computer and PMP are just 44.1/16 rips from my 5000+ disc CD collection. Which just leads me right back to the compact disc. When I got my FiiO X1 I called it "the best damn portable CD player I've ever owned!" Yeah, I guess you could say CD is the format for me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teaman Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 (edited) I find every CD sounds better when ripped and played back through a first class DAC. There are a number of technical reasons for this, but they won't convince anybody. Personally, I am glad this is the case for me as it means all I really have to have is a 15.00 CD drive to get great sound. That said, I still have a nice OPPO I bought before they got too proud that plays nicely when someone brings something over. Dave I am sure the sound has a lot to do with the DAC in your player. The ERC-3 sounds fantastic. In your case I would attribute the sound to the OPPO as well, although the Oppo I heard sounded rather harsh. I much prefer the internal DAC in the ERC-3. Edited January 8, 2016 by teaman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Preferred??? No HOWEVER, my CD collection of hindreds of discs sound wonderful... superb really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 I was an early adopter of compact disc circa 1985. As was I. Over the next decade I found myself listening less and less and couldn't figure out why. Around 1995 I dug out a turntable and found out why. However, that didn't explain the reason. Through direct experimentation I found that digital recordings I made myself were MUCH superior to the vast majority of CDs. I don't get into the "superiority" arguments as I find them all ridiculous. It's all about the engineering. I enjoy records because the majority that I have aren't available in a digital format. As to "expense," it isn't a bit more expensive than CD or other digital players. 300.00 will get you excellent sound in either a new low end TT with cart pre-installed or used gear. As to "inconvenient," I just don't get that. There's nothing "convenient" about an audiophiles system. Heck, the most advanced ones are completely incomprehensible unless you're the one who put it together. Anyway, as I maintain, I will listen to ANY medium from cylinder to hard drive that has quality engineered audio on it. Hard to imagine somehow being stuck with only a single medium and missing the past over a 100 years of great recordings made before the digital era. Dave 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-D Rider Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 I`m in for c-d , and records I like to have and hold my music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nitrofan Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Bought a 200 cd changer and hate it. Have to go through a whole disc just to find a couple of songs i like. Much easier to use spotify and only listen to stuff i like Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juniper Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 This is such an interesting topic, I always wonder where the gavel will fall when I buy a new cd player. So much of it is about "yor ars and yor perception and your system and how "you like to hear" and your space. I am lucky, I get to hear great systems, with great recordings and flip players at need.. I have 30 yr old cd player that sounds better than some oppo's ,and, against some expensive Dennons ... We all have different listening ideals, for me I want to hear what others haven't heard.... I like to hear the mistakes in recordings and then I want to hear great recordings blossom into something unusual, that makes your hair stand up and moves you..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike stehr Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 (edited) I've owned and listened to music played on CD Players for 30 years now both solid state and tubed. With the rise of DACs PC based music as well. Just wondering if I am alone in preferring my CD sourced music today? Wb Nope. I had a Rega Planet that I had for the longest time, even replaced the transport when the laser light went bad. Then it got ripped off in a burglary... Daddy Dee, the great gentlemen that he was, offered up his Marantz/Heart tubed output CD player. I love this player...it may as well be vintage by now, but it sounds better than the Rega Planet. Edited January 9, 2016 by mike stehr 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebes Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 When I positively have to, cause I got a lotta good stuff on cd's, I go with my Ah '99 tubed cd player. Pretty good quality but it can't overcome the shortcomings of digital versus analogue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 Much easier to use spotify and only listen to stuff i like Seriously? OK. To each his own... Dave 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teaman Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 Bought a 200 cd changer and hate it. Have to go through a whole disc just to find a couple of songs i like. Much easier to use spotify and only listen to stuff i like Why not just go to a single player so you can easily scroll to what you want to hear? I had a Technics 6 pack CD player and it drove me nuts for the same reason you suggest, let alone a 200 disc player... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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