Will you be ditching your CD player in 2014?

[sthomas048]

No chance. Cant afford to use internet music/streaming whatever. Plus I have too many CDs, it would take forever to convert them into flac or ogg etc;

 

[Pistol Pete1]

It maybe a bit 'old skool' but I'll be keeping my Marantz CD63 KI player till it breaks.

I still use cds in the house, but I do rip them to a memory stick for car use

 

[DocG]

My oppo 105 is for keeps.. sounds brillant as transport for my AUDIO LAD M-DAC. Also excellent blueray player. Not to talk of networking. Am still for dics players.

Hi Native_bon,

Did you ever compare the 105 thru M-DAC to the Oppo's own Sabre DAC? The latter is said to be excellent too!

EDIT: they seem to share the same DAC chip! Of course there is a lot more to a DAC that the chip it uses. But you trade in the (theoretically superior) I2S connection for a SPDIF... I'd be genuinely interested in your view!

 

[pete321]

I got rid of a dedicated CD player quite a few years ago, although there's always the Oppo 105 if needed.

The flexibility and quality of sound from J.River on my PC and a USB DAC far out weigh the marginally better sound I might get from a quality dedicated CD player. I very rarely want to listen to a complete album, creating playlists on-the-fly from my sofa using JRemote on my iPad to browse my entire collection of music was definately the way to go for me.

Now with the added benefit of my PS3 SACD rips all playable via J.River to my DSD capable DAC, plus all my CD, DVD-A and hi-res PCM downloads get up-converted to 5.6mhz DSD - a music disc spinner is a thing of the past in my house.

 

[magnus78]

while people here are discussing whether to ditch their Cd player. i'm considering getting another CD player for new year :rofl:

 

[Native_bon]

My oppo 105 is for keeps.. sounds brillant as transport for my AUDIO LAD M-DAC. Also excellent blueray player. Not to talk of networking. Am still for dics players.

Hi Native_bon,

Did you ever compare the 105 thru M-DAC to the Oppo's own Sabre DAC? The latter is said to be excellent too!

EDIT: they seem to share the same DAC chip! Of course there is a lot more to a DAC that the chip it uses. But you trade in the (theoretically superior) I2S connection for a SPDIF... I'd be genuinely interested in your view!

If u mean through the phono outs of the 105 yes i prefer the M-DAC much open sound to the 105

 

[stevebrock]

while people here are discussing whether to ditch their Cd player. i'm considering getting another CD player for new year :rofl:

me too maybe another Apollo R

 

[Big Chris]

God no!

All my listening bar the very occasional use of The Wife's iPod - usually for convenience on holidays - is done with CDs. I got 4 CDs for Christmas and will continue to buy CDs for as long as I can. The idea of downloads is just plain wrong to me.

 

[toyota man]

God no!

All my listening bar the very occasional use of The Wife's iPod - usually for convenience on holidays - is done with CDs. I got 4 CDs for Christmas and will continue to buy CDs for as long as I can. The idea of downloads is just plain wrong to me.

+1 I do miss the artwork from vinyl but I love trawling through my CD collection to find some thing I havent listened to for a while the ipod is for the car or when out and about

 

[matthewpiano]

Hi Johnno2

Its really straight forward, you'll be pleased to hear. Spotify is integrated into the system so you basically just connect the MCR510 or 610 to your router either wirelessly or using ethernet, select 'Spotify' on the Marantz (by pressing the 'Online Music' button twice on the remote), enter your Spotify Premium account details and away you go. If you connect your phone to your wireless network as well you can download the Marantz control app and it is a really nice, intuitive way of using Spotify complete with artwork. Sounds really good.

Your Wharfedales will be fine. They are still good speakers and should pair well with the Marantz. At current sale prices of around £250 I think the '510 is a real bargain, but I also wanted CD, DAB and FM. If you don't want these features the '510 is a bit of a no-brainer IMO.

Important points:

You don't need to involve your PC at all.

It won't work with a free Spotify account (same as with any such device)

You mention connecting to your DSL filter. This won't work. You need to connect to your internet router either wirelessly or via ethernet. The wireless connection is working really well for me (I have a BT Homehub 4 on Infinity).

Hope this is helpful.

Thanks

I have BT , but still only on 6Mps copper connection using an old voyager 220v router, there is an ethernet port on the back, will this be fine

spotify premium works fine on the pc but I have issues with the USB to DAC, so listening to spotify via the PC speakers ATM (rubbish)

I do not listen to radio much, rather choose my own music !

Hi. Should work fine - no reason why it won't. Obviously you won't be able to use Airplay if you router isn't wireless (or possibly if it is an older wireless one) but unless you store all your music on Apple devices I don't see this as a problem really. The Airplay certainly isn't used for Spotify.

The other thing you'll find is that the overall sound quality will be a good step up from your current Denon DM37DAB.

 

[plastic penguin]

Well I have just ditched my seperate CD player, if that counts.

I think 2014 will be the year that I finish ripping a lot of my CDs and they will then go into storage in favour of streaming and vinyl. I also plan to listen to more radio - FM, DAB and internet. I've already decided that, for me, 2014 is the year that I really take a breather from the whole process of worrying about and fiddling with the hi-fi. With that in mind the seperate amp, CD player and SBT are on their way out, replaced by the Marantz system which drives the Zensor 3s very capably and (in the white and black version I've gone for) looks really nice.

Matthew, have you ditched the idea of actives?

 

[chebby]

Matthew, have you ditched the idea of actives?

...

As you know I was interested in the Quad 9AS, but I love the Zensor 3s and don't want to part with them. Overall, I think the Marantz route suits me better.

 

[busb]

Nope. I did sort of this year. I say sort of because my newish BDP does CD very well so one less box. I actually played a CD the other day - I use iTunes on a Mac Mini for most of my music listening. My ATV2 is largely redundant now I no longer subscribe to iTunes Match. My Vodafone plan includes Spotify Premium for when I want to explore.

Funny, after a year I've managed to get a 500GB USB HDD to work with my 751BD - at the rear port. I'm busy archiving all my CDs in WAV with album art. So I'm in the process of ditching CD playback.

The reason I'm including album art is that although WAVs can't be tagged, when I eventually go the NAS streaming route I'll be sorted - good media servers like MinimServer will serve up album covers with WAV.

EDIT: The 715BD doesn't *&^%$# do gapless playback. To hell with it, for the time being it beats changing CDs.

I really don't understand why so many manufacturers have been so slow to implement gapless - to me, it seems like a fundamental requirement. Interesting you have gone the wav route but you know of the limitations regarding tagging. I use iTunes - it reads wav files but not flacs which is a severe limitation. I'm in the process of finding software that will play back flacs on my Mac Mini without messing with playlist creation before playing the damn things!

 

[matthewpiano]

Well I have just ditched my seperate CD player, if that counts.

I think 2014 will be the year that I finish ripping a lot of my CDs and they will then go into storage in favour of streaming and vinyl. I also plan to listen to more radio - FM, DAB and internet. I've already decided that, for me, 2014 is the year that I really take a breather from the whole process of worrying about and fiddling with the hi-fi. With that in mind the seperate amp, CD player and SBT are on their way out, replaced by the Marantz system which drives the Zensor 3s very capably and (in the white and black version I've gone for) looks really nice.

Matthew, have you ditched the idea of actives?

Yes. I can't bear to part with the Zensor 3s. They beat every other speaker I've owned and I just don't want to lose what they give me. It has taken me so long to find a pair of speakers that works so completely for me, so it would be foolish to move away from them now. I always loved the other Dalis I had but they were just missing that last bit of scale, which the Zensor 3s have in abundance.

However, I still wanted to reduce the box count and I've always been attracted to all-in-ones. Until now there hasn't been one with the right combination of sound, price, features, and looks but the M-CR610 gives me everything I need. I've thought about it long and hard and I already feel it was the right decision. Yesterday I played my CD of Steeleye Span's new 'Wintersmith' album, and my LP of Linda Thompson's latest followed by 'XXX' by Asia on Spotify, and a spot of Classic FM - all really enjoyable and in excellent sound. This morning we were able to enjoy Planet Rock as the background to breakfast before we set off for work. I've still got spare inputs to connect the TV up when I get round to it as well - either digital or analogue. I'm controlling it mostly with the Android Marantz controller app, which works really well, and the whole thing feels more like a portal for enjoying and discovering music on a vast range of formats.

 

[chebby]

I really don't understand why so many manufacturers have been so slow to implement gapless...

Because live albums, classical albums, drama, documentary etc. only represent a minority of content. 99 percent of people are expected to only listen to individual 'tracks' or 'songs'.

Maybe they didn't think it worth the effort.

 

[MajorFubar]

I use iTunes - it reads wav files but not flacs which is a severe limitation. I'm in the process of finding software that will play back flacs on my Mac Mini without messing with playlist creation before playing the damn things!

If iTunes playback is important to you, why don't you just convert all your FLACs to Apple Lossless?

 

[MeanandGreen]

My Sony player is now 14 years old. It's got the Sony 'fixed pick up mechanism', it's got CD Text, it's built like a tank, it's sounds fantastic, it's utterly reliable... I won't be ditching it anytime soon.

I have my iPod connected to my amp through an Arcam dock for the convenience of long playlists, but when I want maximum enjoyment from the sound I use my Sony CDP.

I still buy music on CD then rip it to iTunes for the iPod.

 

[pete321]

I have my iPod connected to my amp through an Arcam dock for the convenience of long playlists, but when I want maximum enjoyment from the sound I use my Sony CDP.

Probably an unfair comparison expecting an iPod to live up to the superior DAC in a good CD player. Lossless music files played bit perfect through a good DAC can sound as good or better than a CD player, plus a lot more flexibility.

 

[Callum J]

As a recent returnee to the world of present day Hifi, i have been following this thread with great interest. I hadn't thought about, or realised how big a thing streaming is now. But, after getting into Spotify a while ago, i can now see the exciting possibilities that new technology presents for various ways to access and enjoy music. I, for one, won't be chucking away my CDs, or even my old cassette collection anytime soon though Maybe i'm old school, but there is still a certain satisfaction in searching through a physical music collection you have built up through the years....there's memories and all that!

But i intend to invest in the Marantz MCR610 soon, once the excesses of the festive season are over, as it seems an incredibly versatile box of tricks with good sound quality built in. I see some of the forum members here have been living with the MCR610 for a while now and will have a feel for the sound of this machine. My query is...what speakers would suit my needs to go with the Marantz? My living room is small (4m x 4m) pretty full of stuff, and so the speakers would need to go up on the wall....at the moment my old Mission 760s are mounted on two small wooden platforms as that is the only space available. My budget would be about £200....maybe a bit more if it's really worth it? I also see retailers like Richers doing good deals on the Marantz plus various speaker options. Also, i wonder what would be a good realistic speaker cable choice, without spending silly money?

 

[matthewpiano]

Callum, I'd suggest the Dali Zensor 1s - the 3s will be a bit large for wall mounting in that room I think. Alternatively, the Q Acoustics 2020i. Both great speakers which will work beautifully with the Marantz.

Speaker cable? I'm using Chord Company Carnival Silverscreen and it works a treat.

 

[Callum J]

Thanks for that Mattewpiano.

 

[manicm]

I really don't understand why so many manufacturers have been so slow to implement gapless - to me, it seems like a fundamental requirement. Interesting you have gone the wav route but you know of the limitations regarding tagging. I use iTunes - it reads wav files but not flacs which is a severe limitation. I'm in the process of finding software that will play back flacs on my Mac Mini without messing with playlist creation before playing the damn things!

If you're using iTunes then rip in Apple Lossless, and if it doesn't sound right to you, then rip in AIFF - it's uncompressed like WAV but fully supports album art and tagging - but may not be as fully supported like FLAC/ALAC/WAV.

 

[manicm]

Because live albums, classical albums, drama, documentary etc. only represent a minority of content. 99 percent of people are expected to only listen to individual 'tracks' or 'songs'.

Maybe they didn't think it worth the effort.

No Chebby, not only your taste in music/radio is important to be played gaplessly ok? You ought to know many pop albums have songs that segue into one another - some Beatles since Sgt Peppers, ALL the core 7 Moody Blues albums, Pink Floyd etc etc etc.

Gapless is not some elitist concept - even modern rock has gapless albums like Arcade Fire's The Suburbs.

Gapless is extremely important for all music lovers, and not having it is a damn drag. And why did Marantz pop it into the 610 if they thought 99% of buyers would not bother? I'm sure many buyers gave them an earful.

 

[the record spot]

I had the same argument with some Oppo owners over the same thing. If Apple can do it after all, what's stopping the rest? This isn't just Marantz, but most of the others.

 

[HDNumpty]

I bought a Stream Magic 6 in January but kept the CDP and a separate blu-ray player for posterity and to see of I would use it at all. I found I didn't, much prefering the SM6 for playing music generally so swopped both units for a Denon 1161ud which does a fine job of playing CDs when you want it to and is a superb DVD/Blu-ray player.

I've even watched entire films via YouTube and found it to be acceptable.

My previous CA 540c is now up for sale along with an Onkyo NDS-1 iPod dock if anyone's interested?