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CD player recommendations?


Gintaras

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Dump the CD player.

 

Get Hi_Res streaming. You can play it as loud as you want. There will be no skipping because there are no mechanical or acoustical interference. Plus you get rid of.........

1. Another component in the signal chain along with its associated distortion, noise and phase error contributions.

2. Another pair of interconnecting cables and any effects they may have on signal transfer.

3. Four additional breaks in the signal connection.

4. Little to almost no error correction required ....because....

5. You don't have a laser (or several laser) reading an already error prone disc

6. No digital jitter to speak of - the data is playing directly from the amplifier/DAC/player which are now all one.

 

Plus you'll have access to thousands of recordings, many of them "Master" authenticated, that you would otherwise have to spend 1000's of times more money on for hardcopy.

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With disc players (CD/DVD/Blu-ray, etc.), the newer the better, in most cases.  The main difference is in the more modern DACs in the newer players, plus there may be upgrades to the mechanisms in it.  When I replaced my 2005 Yamaha DVD-S500 with a 2018 Panasonic DMP-UB900 a couple of years ago, CDs sounded much better, and the HDMI sockets made connecting it a bit quicker and simpler.  The new one also has features that were unheard of in 2005.

 

Finally, a used player may be cheaper,  but I’ve found that electronics can show their age, even without much use.  The years since new can be more important than the number of hours it was played.

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10 hours ago, artto said:

Dump the CD player.

 

Get Hi_Res streaming. You can play it as loud as you want. There will be no skipping because there are no mechanical or acoustical interference. Plus you get rid of.........

1. Another component in the signal chain along with its associated distortion, noise and phase error contributions.

2. Another pair of interconnecting cables and any effects they may have on signal transfer.

3. Four additional breaks in the signal connection.

4. Little to almost no error correction required ....because....

5. You don't have a laser (or several laser) reading an already error prone disc

6. No digital jitter to speak of - the data is playing directly from the amplifier/DAC/player which are now all one.

 

Plus you'll have access to thousands of recordings, many of them "Master" authenticated, that you would otherwise have to spend 1000's of times more money on for hardcopy.

If you have a collection of rare,  unique CDs that aren't on streaming platforms, it is worth buying a cd player.

I recently researched for a DAC/streaming device and finally invested in something that suits my needs. I posted an extensive review of it here:

 

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Probably not helpful to the OP but take some time to you rip your CD's to FLAC then stream them. IMO, a good streaming device with a good dac beats a cd player every time. My player sits on the shelf for looks only or to play a cd I haven't ripped yet.

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5 hours ago, Skelt said:

I've been using a playstation 3 for a streamer/bluray/cd player. 

 Gaming platforms normally have a very rugged player made for continuous use.

 

My PS4 fan produces the noise of a blender / vacuumcleaner. Comes not near my audio gear... 

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8 hours ago, ILI said:

If you have a collection of rare,  unique CDs that aren't on streaming platforms, it is worth buying a cd player.

I recently researched for a DAC/streaming device and finally invested in something that suits my needs. I posted an extensive review of it here:

 

Absolutely, there will be some recordings on CD that are not/will not ever be available streaming. Same goes for LP, or 78 or whatever. That will always be the case. And that's the only reason I still maintain a couple of turntables and tape decks. As far as CD goes, if you want to cover all the bases just get an Oppo that plays all digital media type disc as several have pointed out and forget about it.

 

There is not a CD player on the planet that can equal Hi-Res streaming. Not even a $100K dCS Vivaldi. It's obsolete. The Disc have errors. The player doesn't read everything perfectly creating more errors. Timing error between devices. More errors = more error correction = at least some sound quality deterioration. More cables (yuck). Etc, etc, etc.

 

Less is More

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4 hours ago, wetowne said:

Probably not helpful to the OP but take some time to you rip your CD's to FLAC then stream them. IMO, a good streaming device with a good dac beats a cd player every time. My player sits on the shelf for looks only or to play a cd I haven't ripped yet.

 

I was wondering when someone would bring this up 😉

 

I agree. I did the same about 6 or 7 years ago. However, this is not the same as digital streaming Hi-Res from an online source such as Tidal.

 

Just for the record, when using a laptop PC as the source - after having ripped the CD to the PC using J River (or some other "bit perfect" application) I send the digital signal from the PC to a direct digital amplifier via HDMI, not USB. In my view HDMI is now superior. 

 

The other thing to consider when doing this is you are not getting a "bit perfect" copy of the "original recording" as most people seem to assume. What you are really getting is a bit perfect copy of the not so perfect CD. You've copied all of the errors (defects) on the disc. Furthermore, just playing the disc - to copy it - creates additional errors of its own. The laser(s) do not read everything perfectly either. It's the nature of the beast. That's why we have error correction, otherwise it wouldn't work at all.

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I ripped my whole collection of cd's to flac files and store the files on a micro-sd card. That card sits in a slot in my wireless router which acts a NAS device. I stream over WI-Fi from the router to three different systems in my house either using Chromecast Audio or a HifiBerry Digi+ Pro into whatever dac I choose. I use a tablet or phone to control everything. No PC involved except for the initial ripping. It all works great and sounds great and was a very cost effective solution. My cd's are now in a box in the basement and my cd players are decorative.

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On 5/10/2020 at 6:57 AM, wetowne said:

Probably not helpful to the OP but take some time to you rip your CD's to FLAC then stream them. IMO, a good streaming device with a good dac beats a cd player every time. My player sits on the shelf for looks only or to play a cd I haven't ripped yet.

So did I 6 or 7 years ago.

Do realize that when you rip a CD to FLAC (or WAV or whatever) you're also copying all the errors that are present on that CD, as well as all the errors created during the "reading" of the disc by the laser(s). So what you have is a copy of all the defects & errors. Not quite the same thing as streaming what is essentially a digital master file copy from a source like Tidal.

 

Other than that I wouldn't spend a lot money on a new player. Just get a used Oppo that plays everything.

There's a reason Oppo got out of the CD/DVD manufacturing business.

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