Dedicated CD Or Losless digital + Squeezebox

[legoyoda]

HI all,

Does anyone have any first hand experiance on the benifits of dedicated CD over a Media server running Apple losless and a Squeesebox. Both would be running to the same AMP (Thinking NAD C326BEE as everyone raves about it). andthe CD player would be a NAD C545Bee if I whent that route.

Auditioning is tricky as the only local Hi-Fi shop closed a year ago so just wondering if the CD player would be worth the outlay over the media streaming option in terms of audio performance.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

legoyoda:
HI all,

Does anyone have any first hand experiance on the benifits of dedicated CD over a Media server running Apple losless and a Squeesebox. Both would be running to the same AMP (Thinking NAD C326BEE as everyone raves about it). andthe CD player would be a NAD C545Bee if I whent that route.

Auditioning is tricky as the only local Hi-Fi shop closed a year ago so just wondering if the CD player would be worth the outlay over the media streaming option in terms of audio performance.

If you went lossless to squeezebox and then to a DAC (Beresford or DacMagic), I would bet that it would sound better than the Nad cd player.

 

[matthewpiano]

Buy a decent entry level CD player (CA 340C or NAD C515BEE) to use as a transport and an off-board DAC like the Beresford, V-DAC or DacMagic. The DAC can then serve your CD player AND your laptop/computer and you'll get the best of both worlds. No need for the Squeezebox either.

 

[Anonymous]

I recently bought a Dacmagic and Squeezebox. I'll answer your question in 2 stages.

1) I use FLAC files not Apple Lossless but theory is they are the same.
When playing tracks from my laptop (my equivalent of a media server), connected to DAC with a USB cable I cannot detect any difference in sound quality compared with playing the same track on my CD player.

2) When streaming the same track through the Squeezebox there is a very slight drop in the overall sound quality. But it is very small difference and not enough for me to worry about.

The computer / Squeezebox setup is much more flexible than a standalone CD player - and I would definitely recomend it.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

heystak:I recently bought a Dacmagic and Squeezebox. I'll answer your question in 2 stages.

1) I use FLAC files not Apple Lossless but theory is they are the same.
When playing tracks from my laptop (my equivalent of a media server), connected to DAC with a USB cable I cannot detect any difference in sound quality compared with playing the same track on my CD player.

2) When streaming the same track through the Squeezebox there is a very slight drop in the overall sound quality. But it is very small difference and not enough for me to worry about.

The computer / Squeezebox setup is much more flexible than a standalone CD player - and I would definitely recomend it.

Just to add to Heystak's post, his cd player's rrp a couple of years ago was £900.

 

[legoyoda]

Wow, some seriously fast replies there. Thanks people!

OK well it looks like the Squeezebox with a DAC is a good option especially as the slight drop in quality was to a 900GBP player! I'll start loking at DAC's

 

[Gerrardasnails]

legoyoda:
Wow, some seriously fast replies there. Thanks people!

OK well it looks like the Squeezebox with a DAC is a good option especially as the slight drop in quality was to a 900GBP player! I'll start loking at DAC's

And here is the 5 star review it received......

http://whathifi.com/Review/Arcam-DiVA-CD192/