The CD IS DEAD !!!

Kubs

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... right, now that I have your attention could I seek some advice:

Roksan Kandy MKIII Amp
Marantz CD63-KI Sig
Quad 12L Speakers
Van dun hull connectors
QED Speaker cable

The plan is to:

1) Set up a NAS (Synology DS211J) containing all my music to my router
2) Set up a Sonos Connect to pull my music stored on the NAS
3) Connect Sonos to a DAC (Audiolab M-DAC)
4) DAC connected to Roksan

I have a couple of questions:

a) Is this the future of hi-fi?
b) Will the component parts work?

Your advice and opinions would be greatly appreciated!!

Cheers,
Kub
 

Overdose

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Answer to a) Yes

Answer to b) Yes

Digital streaming of one sort or another, effectively renders all other formats as legacy. It's more efficient in space, cost and is far better for accessibility. All things being equal the quality is consistently good and not subject to the shortcomings of a physical format, ie dirt ingress and scratches etc.

Now my advice (others will follow and may well differ)

Rip to a lossless format for storage on the NAS, FLAC is the most widely used. From here, you can then convert to other formats.

When ripping the music, take time to carefully arrange the files, as you want to be able to search for them easily and ensure that all the metadata is present and correct. If the track metadata is wrong, media players can make a right dogs dinner of your library arrangement.

Choose you software carefully and this will lessen the headache later, 'DB Poweramp' is reported to be good, I use 'XLD', if you have a Linux machine, there are plenty of ripper options, but one outstanding product is 'Puddletag', a superb tagging application. iTunes is just OK, it can't bulk edit the metadata if the library is messed up.
 

Kubs

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Hi eggontoast - I'm new to music streaming could you please elaborate on the high resolution aspect? Could you recommend a substitute?

Cheers,
 

Kubs

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Hi Overdose, Thanks for the advice - much appreciated. I used to be so on the ball on all things hi-fi .... I lost interest / track in hi-fi for various reasons so now I'm trying to get back into again except there is an enirely new digital storage streaming ripping world out there.
 

Overdose

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Given that digitaly streaming CD rips, in theory provides equal or better quality than CD and that high res files are not conclusively better than standard CD quality, I'd not be too concerned about a lack of support for high res on the Sonos.

I'd say that if the differences are evident, you would need a particularly resolving system and a quiet listening environment to notice and if you're trying that hard to notice any minutae in the music, you're not enjoying it, but listening for fault.
 
A

Anonymous

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a) no. Keeping with today's theme, the future of hi-fi is that music never leaves the recording studio. Future players will require a sealed box with an Internet connection, and you need a SIM-like card to access your licensed music.

b) yes, for as long as the publisher's wet dream above is not yet realized.
 

Rob998

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Overdose said:
Given that digitaly streaming CD rips, in theory provides equal or better quality than CD and that high res files are not conclusively better than standard CD quality, I'd not be too concerned about a lack of support for high res on the Sonos.

Sorry, can you explain the part I have highlighted? How can a rip be better quality than its source material? Equal quality I can accept, but I'm sceptical that a copy can surpass the quality of the original....
 

SteveR750

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Sadly, MP3 will probably kill off CDA as the medium of choice for the masses, consigning to an audiophile niche product. For me its a convenient way of storing a music archive.

The alternative is to download from the net, but CDA quality and higher needs a pretty fast b/band conection to make it an ongoing viable option. MP3
 

SteveR750

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rob998 said:
Overdose said:
Given that digitaly streaming CD rips, in theory provides equal or better quality than CD and that high res files are not conclusively better than standard CD quality, I'd not be too concerned about a lack of support for high res on the Sonos.

Sorry, can you explain the part I have highlighted? How can a rip be better quality than its source material? Equal quality I can accept, but I'm sceptical that a copy can surpass the quality of the original....

Because the transport mechanism has to stream data off the disc ad error correct in real time. A streamer is playing from the original bit perfect file, so in theory a streamer can present bit perfect data, whereas a CD transport is unlikely to.
 
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the record spot

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I think, for the medium term, the future of hifi is to have a cloud based streaming service (Spotify, etc.) but the means to access locally stored discs. Whether those discs are the physical media, or a disc ripped to a storage device (NAS or wired HDD as I use), I think people will for some time still want to have ownership. In time though, it'll be streaming all the way.
 

Rob998

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[quote SteveR750]Because the transport mechanism has to stream data off the disc ad error correct in real time. A streamer is playing from the original bit perfect file, so in theory a streamer can present bit perfect data, whereas a CD transport is unlikely to.[/quote]

But if the CD has been ripped using a transport mechanism (either a hifi CD player or a CD drive in a computer) then won't the error correction artefacts be transferred to the rip, thus embedding said artefacts for time immemorial (or untill the hard drive dies)?
 

6th.replicant

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Always amused by the 'CD is dead' theme :grin:

IMHO, the CD will die when:

a) Broadband connections are 100% reliable, 24/7

b) Cloud-based servers are 100% reliable, 24/7 - and hack-proof

c) Wireless routers/hubs are 100% reliable, 24/7. (Sorry, but it's not convenient for all of us to use an ethernet cable when the main phone socket and router/hub-thingy are located downstairs and the living-room/hi-fi/streamer and/or NAS are located upstairs.)

d) Someone designs a hard-drive disk that will never 'wear out' or inexplicably 'crash' or 'die'

e) Record companies make their new releases and back catalogues available for download at 16bit/44.1kHz, or higher, and at a price that matches or is cheaper than a regular CD or SACD. (Which also brings us back to a) and b) - it's very annoying when your album download 'crashes' before completion.)

f) The average, ie non-geek, music-loving hi-fi owner (MLHFO) with a moderately extensive CD collection, say 600 albums, can be bothered to transfer their collection onto an HDD

g) The average MLHFO can be bothered to begin to comprehend the myriad forms of computer-based music - eg Mac or W*****s OS, external DACs, streamers with built-in DACs, NAS, cloud-based systems, Sonos, Squeezebox, Amarra et al, a gamut of new cables/connectors, etc, etc, etc

In short, don't hold your breath :roll:
 

Rob998

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John Duncan said:
There's an app for that...

http://www.accuraterip.com/

But how do they sample the Key Discs? Using a CD drive & an assumption that every drive of a certain model is constructed absolutely to the same precise specification as every other drive of the same model with components made to the exact same specification as every other component in each & every other drive (ie with absolutely no mass manufacturing tolerances whatsoever....)?

Actually, I'm now even sceptical that a rip of equal quality can be made, never mind one of superior quality......
 

moon

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But how do they sample the Key Discs? Using a CD drive & an assumption that every drive of a certain model is constructed absolutely to the same precise specification as every other drive of the same model with components made to the exact same specification as every other component in each & every other drive (ie with absolutely no mass manufacturing tolerances whatsoever....)?

Actually, I'm now even sceptical that a rip of equal quality can be made, never mind one of superior quality......

[/quote]

hi Rob, just wondering how you are enjoying the 6004 and if you use the USB input and is it any good? Sorry to the OP for off piste .
 

John Duncan

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Basically (as I understand it): firstly, it has several goes at reading your disc until it's pretty sure it has read it right, and then it compares checksums from your files to checksums from other people's files, and tells you how many people have the same result, so giving you a 'confidence level'. If 5,000 people have the same file as you, you can be pretty certain you have a good rip.
 

moon

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John Duncan said:
Andrew Everard said:
Surely the error inherent in this thread is the suggestion that the two are mutually exclusive. Surely you can both rip/stream music and play CDs...?

Oh yes - I stream, Mrs JD plays discs :-D

Indeed, and that is exactly what I do. The CD liveth.
 

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