Any Other CD Player Music Fans Here?

[teaman]

 

Much easier to use spotify and only listen to stuff i like

 

Seriously?  OK.  To each his own...

 

Dave

 

 

My thoughts exactly.

[rummy]

CD and LP, I still buy a CD every once in a while, usually of some old stuff.  I used to have a 200 and 100 CD players to get to certain tunes to motivate me when I was tipsy back in the nineties, but

I gave them away and just play the whole CD now.

[willland]

I have done a few A-B comparisons of hard disc CD's and ripped CD's streamed through my Cambridge Audio 751BD universal player and most of the time the hard disc CD wins when compared to 320kbit/s MP3's , but not by a huge margin.  When ripped lossless(flac, wav) and streamed the gap closes.  Better recorded CD's with greater dynamic range will sound pretty good ripped even as MP3's.  Poorly recorded CD's with little dynamic range will sound horrible no matter how you play them.

 

Bill

[Mallette]

When ripped lossless(flac, wav) and streamed the gap closes.

 

Crikey.  Would anyone who cares about the sonics rip them any other way?  That's weird...

 

Dave

[Krispy Kirk]

 

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. 

 

 

I respectfully disagree.  Before I went all-in with CD in the mid-80s, I had a $150 Hitachi direct drive automatic turntable with a Grado cartridge.  I bought almost all my vinyl used and had no idea about how to "clean" it.  I was happy but not happy enough to prevent a wholesale conversion to CD.

 

Now it's 2012.  I had just bought a new house with an extra "living room" on the ground floor.  This became my first-ever dedicated "listening room".  In its honor, I vowed to get back into vinyl after a ~25 year layoff.  I bought a $500 turntable that was on sale for $400.  I bought a few records (new and vintage).  Was I blown away by vinyl's "superiority" to CD?  No.

 

Four years later I own a $1500 turntable with a $250 moving coil cartridge and a fancy two-chassis phono preamp.  I also own a proper vacuum-style record cleaning machine.  I now know how to make vinyl sound its best.  Does vinyl "blow away" CD every time?  Not quite but it's close enough that I'll consider it a draw in most cases.  If I own the same album on vinyl and on CD, most times the determining factor on which format I choose is "what am I doing while the music's playing?"  If it is going to be a background soundtrack to other more engrossing activities (reading, chores, cooking in another room, etc) I will put on the CD.  If my heart is set on a serious listening session I will spin vinyl.  Why?  Because CD is more convenient than vinyl.  You don't have to flip it at the halfway point; or monitor it for skips, a fouled stylus, or other mishap; and when the CD is done there is no needle scraping round and round in the run out groove going "fuh-FWAP fuh-FWAP fuh-FWAP" until you pick that tonearm up and stow it away.

 

Trust me, I know inconvenience!  I own a tube amp and I roll tubes and know how to bias, etc.  I still buy most of my vinyl used and the cleaning protocol I observe on that stuff before it ever comes near my turntable would impress any OCD anal-retentive.

 

But I get what you're saying about engineering.  There are no absolutes in this hobby.  Great gear is often brought down by a faulty room.  Poor source choices can reduce a multi-kilobuck system to a boombox.  And a $30 audiophile pressing can be bested by a 10 cent CD-R burned on my home computer.  I've seen it all.

[Mallette]

Worth adding that I had a few Forum members at my home in Flower Mound back about 2004 and we did an A/B, as blind as I could make it, comparison of a Rega Planet and the same CD ripped and played back with the Card Deluxe.  Card Deluxe was one of the finest PC DAC cards ever and was originally developed for laboratory use before audio freaks caught on. 

 

With K'horns as the speakers, the spread of preference from the 12 present was precisely 50/50, with no one having a significant preference. 

 

While I still have that Card Deluxe, my primary DAC today is the much less expensive Audioengine D1.  While I am sure many here might, I hear nothing from it that I can attribute to it except music.  A real bargain at 150.00 IMHO, and it's USB plug and play, no drivers.  That means I can use it anywhere. 

 

Digital has a HUGE advantage there.  Absolutely beats records, tapes, or whatever in being able to carry a DAC, couple of good self-powered speakers like my Audioengine 5+, and a laptop and I can have killer sound easy with a massive choice of music wherever I want. 

 

Love technology.  But love to use the random access feature of the record.  Just put the needle where you want it!

 

Dave

[Krispy Kirk]

(in case anyone's curious, the CD-R-whoops-the-180-gram-vinyl trick I like to play on unsuspecting guests who think I'm some  true-believer-kool-aid-drinker vinylista is Shelby Lynne's 2008 "Just A Little Lovin'" album, I own a particularly poor clear pressing on Lost Highway clear vinyl and the beat up CD-R I burned from a borrowed copy of that same album on CD absolutely SLAYS the vinyl.  It's sad and a little bit of a sobering eye-opener.  Moral of the story: format is not everything.  Best to keep all options open.)

[Mallette]

Trust me, I know inconvenience! I own a tube amp and I roll tubes and know how to bias, etc. I still buy most of my vinyl used and the cleaning protocol I observe on that stuff before it ever comes near my turntable would impress any OCD anal-retentive.

 

Not sure you are really disagreeing except here.  I almost NEVER clean a record.  Most is usually a Swiffer for a single revolution to make sure there's no particles.  Other than that, no reason for them to be or get dirty.  I certainly hear nothing.  The few that have, one way or the other, been contaminated get the Reg Williamson magical mystery goo treatment and then they are good as new for years.  The tube amp issues aren't relevant.  Lots of byteheads who consider digital a religion also swear by tubes. 

 

Dave

[Mallette]

clear vinyl

 

Problem in itself.  The black in a record is carbon.  Great for both lubricating the needle passage and reducing wear. 

 

Dave

[minermark]

Iv never heard a DAC i did not like.

Sound cards, well now, later in 2016, if they release it, some "New" chips coming out.

I only know of this through investing, i get tips and then look into them.

Iv had a few "Tips" and wondered why i was not ask for investment again, upon tracking this down i found Govt stepped in

for some reason and insured the "Chip" would NOT be made public.

 

Some strange things going on in the world of Tech.

[adam2434]

A little over 8 years I ripped some reference tracks to flac and A/B’d them to the same tracks played from the original CD via my transport.

 

I ran a 75 foot digital coax cable from my PC to my DAC and connected the CD transport via optical to the same DAC.  I cued up the same track and switched DAC inputs on the fly.  I could never tell a difference between the two, even trying intently with my wife (graciously) switching DAC inputs randomly. 

 

This convinced me to rip my whole CD collection to flac over the next few months.

 

I later ran the same experiment with a Squeezebox, and then later with a Sonos Connect, using their optical output to DAC and the CD transport coax to DAC.  Same result – I could not tell streamed flac from CD after numerous attempts.

 

YMMV, but with my gear and ears, streamed flac files and the original CD tracks using the same DAC sound identical.

 

I still have all of my CDs and sometimes will play one.  However, having the whole library at your fingertips with the Sonos interface is so convenient, and for me, is not a compromise to sound quality.

 

Funny side note is that my 20 year old daughter has commented that she likes the tactile experience of playing actual CDs.

Edited January 9, 2016 by adam2434

[Mallette]

Iv had a few "Tips" and wondered why i was not ask for investment again, upon tracking this down i found Govt stepped in for some reason and insured the "Chip" would NOT be made public.

 

Seriously?  The gov thinks HD sound is a national security threat?  Fascinating...

 

Vaguely related, I found that most motherboard DACs after the Intel 1701 chip set over a decade ago to be excellent and easily comparable to much pricier solutions.  There's times I think even my Audioengine DAC is overkill.  It's just an algorithm.  You almost have to go out of your way to build a bad DAC.  20 years ago an underground was saying how 3.00 op amps were sonically outstanding.  We audiophools really need the pain of having our wallets looted to "lift the veil" yet again, I fear, at least in the digital realm.  My opinion is that the only place where serious money is involved today is loudspeakers, which are still governed by PWKs admonitions as nobodies developed a smaller 32 Hz sound wave.  However, Class T amps and chip sets have really revolutionized the ability to get a clean, pure audio signal and quality sound, if somewhat volume and bandwidth restricted, loudspeakers are cheaper than ever before.  Parts Express has some incredibly good sounding dirt cheap speakers that really perform in near field use.

 

However, like the lack of an improvement on the 32Hz wavelength, it still takes some work to build a great turntable or have a wide, deep, and realistically loud sound field. 

 

But, life is GOOD and we have choices we once didn't have!

 

Dave

[minermark]

 

Iv had a few "Tips" and wondered why i was not ask for investment again, upon tracking this down i found Govt stepped in for some reason and insured the "Chip" would NOT be made public.

 

Seriously?  The gov thinks HD sound is a national security threat?  Fascinating...

 

Vaguely related, I found that most motherboard DACs after the Intel 1701 chip set over a decade ago to be excellent and easily comparable to much pricier solutions.  There's times I think even my Audioengine DAC is overkill.  It's just an algorithm.  You almost have to go out of your way to build a bad DAC.  20 years ago an underground was saying how 3.00 op amps were sonically outstanding.  We audiophools really need the pain of having our wallets looted to "lift the veil" yet again, I fear, at least in the digital realm.  My opinion is that the only place where serious money is involved today is loudspeakers, which are still governed by PWKs admonitions as nobodies developed a smaller 32 Hz sound wave.  However, Class T amps and chip sets have really revolutionized the ability to get a clean, pure audio signal and quality sound, if somewhat volume and bandwidth restricted, loudspeakers are cheaper than ever before.  Parts Express has some incredibly good sounding dirt cheap speakers that really perform in near field use.

 

However, like the lack of an improvement on the 32Hz wavelength, it still takes some work to build a great turntable or have a wide, deep, and realistically loud sound field. 

 

But, life is GOOD and we have choices we once didn't have!

 

Dave

 

Iv had this happen over the years, it's more to do with the Tech in the chip, not the function, like someone could modify a chip to preform another function.

Facinating i think.

[Ceptorman]

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

Me too. I just like to have the actual cd. I have a few from when they came out in 84. All the music I listen to is on cd.

[Schu]

Dvd-a, sacd, bluray audio... superior to say the least. Yet I still own a turntable.

[Wolfbane]

Dvd-a, sacd, bluray audio... superior to say the least. Yet I still own a turntable.

 

I also still own a turntable. But here in the land of 5 to 20% humidity playing an LP without static and pops just won't happen. So I'm down to 5 CDP's between 4 separate systems and two PC filled with wav files which sound much better than MP3's to my ears.

[willland]

Crikey.  Would anyone who cares about the sonics rip them any other way?  That's weird...   Dave

 

When I first starting ripping CD's a few years ago, my version of WMP was horrible and would not rip them properly as wav so MP3 or WMA was the only way without any problems.

 

I later discovered dBpoweramp and flac ever since.

 

Bill

[Mallette]

But here in the land of 5 to 20% humidity playing an LP without static and pops just won't happen.

 

Crikey, mate, an easy one.  Cyastat.  One spray, permanent anti-static.  PM DizRotus for where to get some. 

 

Dave

[Frzninvt]

While I do have my entire CD collection ripped at high resolution and networked throughout the house I still prefer the sound of the disc itself.  I use a DBX DX-5 CD player and a stellar Nakamichi OMS-7AII for CD playback and not through the optical outputs only analog.  Still do CD's in my vehicle as well.  New CD quality is terrible way over saturated and in need of some compression to scale it back some.  Older CD's benefit from some range expansion which is why the DBX DX5 is usually my go to CD player.

 

Did the whole vinyl thing for many years while it does indeed have its merits it was just too much effort to get everything dialed in.  Sold off everything including like 600 albums years ago.

[SWL]

Better recorded CD's with greater dynamic range will sound pretty good ripped even as MP3's.

Yep....I agree. I'm able to compare one to the other with a push of a button and there are a lot of times people can't tell the difference between the two. Lossless/WAV to 320 kbps that is.

Edited January 9, 2016 by SWL