No real hifi is complete without a cd player

[drummerman]

I'm working on the 'FM tuner' one ... (I love and use mine often)

This one is more about the format than a dedicated cd player. As long as you have the facility to play and/or burn your cd's ... fine but why would anyone with any sense decline themselves the opportunity to buy decent resolution music from the vast choice out there at often low prices?

Cloud music is great but its not the only choice.

If you dont have a cd player facility, I won't take you seriously.

 

[bigfish786]

I wouldn't be without one now.

I have used arcam DVDs players for dual duties in the past, but found a dedicated CD player performed much better ( Rega Apollo) .

The Moon Equinox I have now is fantastic, a step up from the Rega.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

Yep CD player is all I use at the moment until I get a record player then I will be using both . I have always liked CDs and still think the quality of sound on a little disc is amazing I still have a big collection of CDs and some I have owned 26-27 years and they still work as they did when I first brought them . Over the years I think I have owned 20-25 CD players so yes to me a CD player is very important part of my Hifi

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

My CD player is packed away in the attic, and highly unlikely to ever come back down. I don't need it. and I don't want it taking up space.

 

[matthewpiano]

I could never be without a CD player. I've got over 3,000 discs and CD remains my main format in an approximate listening-time split of 75%-25% with vinyl. It is a great format, capable of excellent sound.

 

[Edbo2]

I was pleased to see the back of those vinyl dusty, sractchy and statically charged platters. The CD introduced in the 1980s was a saviour. My teenage parties where a stack of 45s placed on Dansette record player are good memories. I cannot believe that vinyl is being introduced again other than to rejuvenate a flagging audio industry. We have seen R-Dat, minidisc but CD has remained the principal choice.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

Who ever comes up with a replacement for CDs good luck as its going to be a hard one to beat

 

[drummerman]

Who ever comes up with a replacement for CDs good luck as its going to be a hard one to beat

I find the cases hurt more than the discs. Also easier to throw in a straight line.

 

[Al ears]

Obviously this is all about how you like your media delivered. Personally I embrace all forms as there are some recordings I cannot find on vinyl. However, I do have them on cassette! Shock, horror.

This is one reason I have always kept a turntable in my system and also have an Oppo 105, which plays any silver disc (and gold ones) that I own as well as being a very good streamer. I also use a Sony Professional Walkman, rarely, as well.

This way I have the best of all formats.... and know better than to talk about the apparent benefits of either.

Whatever sounds good to you is the way to go. We are not here to score brownie points trying to convince Joe Bloggs that one is miles better than the other, because they aren't.

Relying on a one-format system can be, ultimately, denial.

 

[Al ears]

Who ever comes up with a replacement for CDs good luck as its going to be a hard one to beat

I find the cases hurt more than the discs. Also easier to throw in a straight line.

Obviously you were not discus champion at school. ;-)

 

[Electro]

Cd is my main source and will be for quite some time I suspect , but I have to say that I am also extremely impressed with spotify premium .

I use my old ipad taking a direct digital out using a Cambridge Audio id100 to a Monarchy Audio DIP ( digital interface processor ) that re clocks the signal buffers and boosts the strength of the digital signal and sends it to my Electrcompaniet ECD 1 dac where the digital signal is upsampled to 24/ 192 and converted to analogue at this bit rate and frequency.

I use my iphone as a remote control for the ipad or any other device with spotify in the house.

The sound quality is absolutely superb and very close to Cd and an order of magnitude better that my now sold turntable.*yes3*

 

[Blacksabbath25]

Well I own vinyl but no TT at the moment but a TT is on the cards I have had cassette tapes when I first left school I have had mini disc which I liked , cd I like I tried streaming I did not like and I use iTunes to download a album if I can not wait to buy it on cd and sacd which I think there not much in it between cd &sacd . That all of them I think apart from 8 track & reel to reel they the only ones I have not tried

 

[hybridauth_Google_110640687644703463682]

Your post is contradicting.. you write that it's about the format but you finish by saying you won't take a person seriously if they don'tt have a cd player facility.

I don't have a dedicated CD player, but I use the format. I still buy CD's (mostly used) and I rip them to FLAC and listen through my DAC. I find this way to be cheapest (I usually buy used CD's at 2$), and prefer it over cloud music or buying downloadable music.

 

[knaithrover]

I was a music obsessed teenager in the 70's therefore I have a lot of vinyl and cassettes. I got Into cd's a bit late in the early 90's and have a squillion cd's. I then got into downloading in the 2000's and have several thousand albums/songs on a NAS and ipod classic. In recent years I've gotten into streaming initially through Spotify and then Tidal. During each phase I concentrated on one format and therefore one source. Now I'm a little more financially well off I can afford every source through nice kit so I have a TT, several cdp's a cassette deck and stream Tidal to all my hifis/Sonos. What I'm saying is that I have invested decades into my music collection and need (and can afford) all necessary sources. If I was 25 it would probably be very different.

 

[Vladimir]

I don't know what's the deal with CDs but when I play one after listening to streaming flacs and 320AAC from PC, I get a shock how better it sounds in the sense of drama and dynamics. Must be louder or something, but I like it.

 

[hybridauth_Google_110640687644703463682]

though I could do without the laptop attachment to the hi-fi (streamer required) and I'm still using my CDP - So yes, I think CDPs will always have a place for many people.

Something I found pretty convenient to replace a laptop- I used a Raspberry Pi connected to my USB DAC with RuneAudio image on it. If you aren't familiar with it, it's a linux distribution stripped down to only the essentials of playing audio. It hosts a webserver so you could either stream music to it (it also has built-in spotify support), or you could connect a USB hard drive to it with all your music. You can choose songs with any device in your home network, smarthphone being very convenient.

 

[Gray]

My Marantz CD6000KI Sig (in champagne gold no less) sounds and looks the same as it did the day I bought it, 14 years ago.

I've since FLACced the best part of 1000 CDs and have tried these through different DACs into the same (Cyrus 8) amp and (PMC twenty 21) speakers.

I find that the old CDP is in no way inferior to 16 bit FLAC files via £400-£600 DACs.

(I told Hi-fi World mag of my experience and they made it letter of the month April 2016 and bunged me KEF Q100s for my trouble)

There's no doubting the convenience of Foobar 2000 playing any file from the HDD, though I could do without the laptop attachment to the hi-fi (streamer required) and I'm still using my CDP - So yes, I think CDPs will always have a place for many people.

EDIT: No idea how that Imogee appeared above - if I even knew how to use them, I wouldn't!

 

[Gray]

though I could do without the laptop attachment to the hi-fi (streamer required) and I'm still using my CDP - So yes, I think CDPs will always have a place for many people.

Something I found pretty convenient to replace a laptop- I used a Raspberry Pi connected to my USB DAC with RuneAudio image on it. If you aren't familiar with it, it's a linux distribution stripped down to only the essentials of playing audio. It hosts a webserver so you could either stream music to it (it also has built-in spotify support), or you could connect a USB hard drive to it with all your music. You can choose songs with any device in your home network, smarthphone being very convenient.

I like the sound of that Itsek (and have always especially liked the price of the Raspberry Pi) I will look into your suggestion, though I must admit to fancying a Cambridge CXN (if not its somewhat spiteful price)

 

[tino]

Given that every physical format is ultimately capable of being stored and played back digitally at the same or better resolution, I don't see the point of having a player to play the physical medium in real time. So I have neither a turntable nor CD player. I do still buy CDs because they are a great quality and cost effective delivery medium for music you want to keep.

 

[keeper of the quays]

I have a zillion cds..well nearly.i love them! Mostly! My quad cdp2 makes them sound very nice, even the ones I don't much care for sound good..if you have top quality kit with very good cd player and awesome speakers you may find cd better than any other format!

 

[Al ears]

I don't know what's the deal with CDs but when I play one after listening to streaming flacs and 320AAC from PC, I get a shock how better it sounds in the sense of drama and dynamics. Must be louder or something, but I like it.

You, sir are a wind-up merchant. Unless you are serious this time Vlad. ;-)

 

[MajorFubar]

I've had my love for CDs re-kindled since I bought the Mission Cyrus PCM II CD player in February. It sounds so completely different to the same CDs ripped and played from a computer through my external HRT II+ DAC. No ABX needed, and really no mystery as to why they sound different either. It's all about the difference in sound between a classic TD1541A mated to an analogue section built on two 10"x8" and 6"x8" circuit boards packet with 'traditional' electronics, versus everything-on-a-chip supported by a few made-by-the-million surface-mount components shoved in a ***-packet sized box.

 

[ID.]

Was going to say I'm completely happy without a "real" system, but then actually read the first post and saw that you included the facility to burn CDs. I'd happily rely on downloads if all of the music I wanted was available at CD quality or higher, but at this stage it's still hard to beat the price, range, and availability of CDs as a format, even if it just means that I burn the CDs and use a computer or DAP (digital audio player. What they are apparently now calling the class of product that used to be lumped together as MP3 players) for playback.

 

[keeper of the quays]

I've had my love for CDs re-kindled since I bought the Mission Cyrus PCM II CD player in February. It sounds so completely different to the same CDs ripped and played from a computer through my external HRT II+ DAC. No ABX needed, and really no mystery as to why they sound different either. It's all about the difference in sound between a classic TD1541A mated to an analogue section built on two 10"x8" and 6"x8" circuit boards packet with 'traditional' electronics, versus everything-on-a-chip supported by a few made-by-the-million surface-mount components shoved in a ***-packet sized box.

good machine you got...like my pcm7000 full of electronics! Mine hums slightly but other than that it's brilliant..the old machines still very good..cheap too! Sometimes I wonder why people buy new cd players within certain budget as these old machines cost peanuts by comparison and are better..baffles me?

 

[Vladimir]

I don't know what's the deal with CDs but when I play one after listening to streaming flacs and 320AAC from PC, I get a shock how better it sounds in the sense of drama and dynamics. Must be louder or something, but I like it.

You, sir are a wind-up merchant. Unless you are serious this time Vlad. ;-)

I am serious (you haven't noticed the same yourself?). I think the reason why this happens is the analogue section capabilities of DACs / sound cards / audio interfaces compared to well made CDPs (good solid 2Vrms, SNRof 115dB, <10ps jitter).

Everyone is so obsessed over the damn DA chip. My logic tells me transport mechanism, filtering and analogue output are the makes and breaks of CDPs. Maybe DA chips were a factor in 1987, but certanly not in 2016.