Will you be ditching your CD player in 2014?

[Blackdawn]

I'm still buying CD's so will probably keep the player unless it breaks. Maybe tapes and minidisc will come back in this year!

 

[MeanandGreen]

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.

This is true, however to be able to store my entire music collection in a lossless format would require more storage than I currently have. Also factor in a separate DAC it costs £££'s. It's a cost I don't justify right now when I can just put on a CD.

 

[JoelSim]

Nope. As I use its DAC for streaming. And play the odd CD.

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

Mine is boxed and in the attic, but it's not worth selling for the pittance I'd get for it.

 

[Paul.]

My CD player came out of storage and went to a charity shop

 

[NHL]

I say yes, my wife says NO!

 

[adamwillan]

I actually have done the opposite, I became fed up last year of relying on my computer at all times to listen to music, so I bought a CD player in the sales. I will definitely enjoy using CDs again rather than ripping them and throwing them in my car, but I am slightly disappointed that I have not noticed a difference in sound quality thus far compared to my computer.

That is not to say it doesn't sound impressive, and I have only sound tested a few songs (mainly techno and house songs), but in my head I thought I was going to enjoy a big improvement in sound quality.

I ended up buying the Marantz cd6005 plus the atlas element integra rca cable based on this websites reviews, and is paired with my rotel ra-12 amp and Q acoustics 2050i speakers.

I was expecting the DAC in the cd player to be much better than my current setup, but as I was using digital out from my laptop to the amps built in DAC, I can only assume that the rotel dac is of good quality and the cd player is working to the max capability of my system.

For the £260 it cost though can't go wrong and will test with some more instrumental and ranged music before making a final conclusion.

 

[The_Lhc]

I became fed up last year of relying on my computer at all times to listen to music

There's absolutely no reason to have to use a computer though.

For the £260 it cost though can't go wrong and will test with some more instrumental and ranged music before making a final conclusion.

£280 would have got you a Sonos Connect...

 

[Covenanter]

No! I'm not interested in streaming and I don't see as a classical music fan what advantage I would get from ripping CDs. I guess if you like "pop" music and want to listen to a selection of tunes from various artists that getting up and down to load CDs would be a real pain. If you are listening to a symphony than you are seated for 30 minute plus so there isn't a problem. If and when I have to move into some sort of care facility and I can't have the CDs that will be the time to start ripping.

Chris

 

[cheeseboy]

No! I'm not interested in streaming and I don't see as a classical music fan what advantage I would get from ripping CDs. I guess if you like "pop" music and want to listen to a selection of tunes from various artists that getting up and down to load CDs would be a real pain. If you are listening to a symphony than you are seated for 30 minute plus so there isn't a problem. If and when I have to move into some sort of care facility and I can't have the CDs that will be the time to start ripping.

Chris

care to sound a little more condescending for those that don't listen to classical? :rofl:

Either way the advantages are exactly the same, no matter what type of music you listen to.

 

[matt49]

No! I'm not interested in streaming and I don't see as a classical music fan what advantage I would get from ripping CDs. I guess if you like "pop" music and want to listen to a selection of tunes from various artists that getting up and down to load CDs would be a real pain. If you are listening to a symphony than you are seated for 30 minute plus so there isn't a problem. If and when I have to move into some sort of care facility and I can't have the CDs that will be the time to start ripping.

Chris

Chris, I think by then your ripping days may be behind you.

I can give you two advantages of ripping your classical CDs. The metadata allows quick automated searching, which can be useful if you have a very large collection. Say you want to find a performance by a particular artist: takes a second to type the name into the search box, and there you have all that artist's work.

Also, ripping CDs saves living space. I think my living room looks a lot nicer without a whole wall of CD storage. Of course YMMV.

:cheers:

Matt

 

[slice]

No! I'm not interested in streaming and I don't see as a classical music fan what advantage I would get from ripping CDs. I guess if you like "pop" music and want to listen to a selection of tunes from various artists that getting up and down to load CDs would be a real pain. If you are listening to a symphony than you are seated for 30 minute plus so there isn't a problem. If and when I have to move into some sort of care facility and I can't have the CDs that will be the time to start ripping.

Chris

Chris, I think by then your ripping days may be behind you.

I can give you two advantages of ripping your classical CDs. The metadata allows quick automated searching, which can be useful if you have a very large collection. Say you want to find a performance by a particular artist: takes a second to type the name into the search box, and there you have all that artist's work.

Also, ripping CDs saves living space. I think my living room looks a lot nicer without a whole wall of CD storage. Of course YMMV.

:cheers:

Matt

Well I'm anpther classical fan and I'm with Chris. I don't need metadata searches, I just stack the cds in alphabetical composer order (obvious really). Seeing the cds on the shelf and browsing them makes me think about what I might like to play. Would ripping the cds improve the sound quality-wouldn't have thought so. Would it waste time and the money involved in buying the new system- yes, as far as I can see.

Rant over.

 

[adamwillan]

I can definitely see the benefit of the Sonos if you want a total house situation, but for me would be no different than using my laptop as I just have the music in one room. The point was that I wanted the physical CDs rather than everything being on a computer/drive. I can bluetooth from my mp3 player to my amp if I am being really lazy...

 

[The_Lhc]

I can definitely see the benefit of the Sonos if you want a total house situation, but for me would be no different than using my laptop as I just have the music in one room. The point was that I wanted the physical CDs rather than everything being on a computer/drive.

The law requires you to keep the CDs...

 

[Rainbeaux]

I shall not be ditching my CD player mainly because it is also an SACD player and I have noticed that I can buy SACDs online at sometimes much less than the equivalent Hi-Rez downloads available on line. Compare, for example the prices of the RCA Living Stereo SACDs at Amazon to the same downloads at HDtracs.

 

[chebby]

I can definitely see the benefit of the Sonos if you want a total house situation, but for me would be no different than using my laptop as I just have the music in one room. The point was that I wanted the physical CDs rather than everything being on a computer/drive.

The law requires you to keep the CDs...

So does common sense.

 

[The_Lhc]

No! I'm not interested in streaming and I don't see as a classical music fan what advantage I would get from ripping CDs. I guess if you like "pop" music and want to listen to a selection of tunes from various artists that getting up and down to load CDs would be a real pain. If you are listening to a symphony than you are seated for 30 minute plus so there isn't a problem. If and when I have to move into some sort of care facility and I can't have the CDs that will be the time to start ripping.

Chris

Chris, I think by then your ripping days may be behind you.

I can give you two advantages of ripping your classical CDs. The metadata allows quick automated searching, which can be useful if you have a very large collection. Say you want to find a performance by a particular artist: takes a second to type the name into the search box, and there you have all that artist's work.

Also, ripping CDs saves living space. I think my living room looks a lot nicer without a whole wall of CD storage. Of course YMMV.

:cheers:

Matt

Well I'm anpther classical fan and I'm with Chris. I don't need metadata searches, I just stack the cds in alphabetical composer order (obvious really). Seeing the cds on the shelf and browsing them makes me think about what I might like to play. Would ripping the cds improve the sound quality-wouldn't have thought so. Would it waste time and the money involved in buying the new system- yes, as far as I can see.

Rant over.

I don't really understand why you feel you need to rant about anything, nobody's forcing you to do this, if you don't want to, don't, no need to get angry.

 

[adamwillan]

I actually have done the opposite, I became fed up last year of relying on my computer at all times to listen to music, so I bought a CD player in the sales. I will definitely enjoy using CDs again rather than ripping them and throwing them in my car, but I am slightly disappointed that I have not noticed a difference in sound quality thus far compared to my computer.

That is not to say it doesn't sound impressive, and I have only sound tested a few songs (mainly techno and house songs), but in my head I thought I was going to enjoy a big improvement in sound quality.

I ended up buying the Marantz cd6005 plus the atlas element integra rca cable based on this websites reviews, and is paired with my rotel ra-12 amp and Q acoustics 2050i speakers.

I was expecting the DAC in the cd player to be much better than my current setup, but as I was using digital out from my laptop to the amps built in DAC, I can only assume that the rotel dac is of good quality and the cd player is working to the max capability of my system.

For the £260 it cost though can't go wrong and will test with some more instrumental and ranged music before making a final conclusion.

Anyway the point was supposed to be was I being naive to expect an upgrade in sound quality upon purchasing the cd player in compared to my previous setup?

 

[matt49]

Well I'm anpther classical fan and I'm with Chris. I don't need metadata searches, I just stack the cds in alphabetical composer order (obvious really). Seeing the cds on the shelf and browsing them makes me think about what I might like to play. Would ripping the cds improve the sound quality-wouldn't have thought so. Would it waste time and the money involved in buying the new system- yes, as far as I can see.

Rant over.

Yes, filing by composer is the obvious way, but if you look back at my post you'll see I wasn't talking about composers; I was talking about performers (or what iTunes and other digital players call 'artists'). The same would apply to conductors. Or types of music (string quartet, opera etc). Sometimes I have a day when I feel like listening to a few string quartets: searching by metadata allows me to browse all the string quartets in my collection, in a way that the physical disks don't. Whichever way you cut it, this will always be the case. No matter how you choose to organize your physical CDs, searching ripped files by metadata will offer ways of accessing your music that a physical organization of disks can't cater for.

You may say you don't need to search by performers or genres or whatever. But how would you know unless you've tried it?

And then there's the question of compilation disks. What if you have a CD containing e.g. Grieg and Schumann piano concertos. (I give that example only because it's a vary common pairing on CD.) You file your disks by composer name: do you file this disk under 'Grieg' or 'Schumann'? Either way, one of the piano concertos will be in the wrong place in your library; you'll inevitably have introduced a random element into your library which you can't control. Ripping solves the problem: you can separate the ripped CD into two folders each under the respective composer's name. In other words, if you want to browse your classical collection by composer name, ripping provides the only way to do it.

 

[Covenanter]

No! I'm not interested in streaming and I don't see as a classical music fan what advantage I would get from ripping CDs. I guess if you like "pop" music and want to listen to a selection of tunes from various artists that getting up and down to load CDs would be a real pain. If you are listening to a symphony than you are seated for 30 minute plus so there isn't a problem. If and when I have to move into some sort of care facility and I can't have the CDs that will be the time to start ripping.

Chris

care to sound a little more condescending for those that don't listen to classical? :rofl:

Either way the advantages are exactly the same, no matter what type of music you listen to.

I can't imagine why you think anything I wrote is condescending! If you think there are avantages to me perhaps you could tell me what they are?

Chris

 

[hammill]

No! I'm not interested in streaming and I don't see as a classical music fan what advantage I would get from ripping CDs. I guess if you like "pop" music and want to listen to a selection of tunes from various artists that getting up and down to load CDs would be a real pain. If you are listening to a symphony than you are seated for 30 minute plus so there isn't a problem. If and when I have to move into some sort of care facility and I can't have the CDs that will be the time to start ripping.

Chris

care to sound a little more condescending for those that don't listen to classical? :rofl:

Either way the advantages are exactly the same, no matter what type of music you listen to.

I can't imagine why you think anything I wrote is condescending! If you think there are avantages to me perhaps you could tell me what they are?

Chris

I think that the word "pop" is used as a way by many fans of classical music to be condescending to those who like any other musical styles. I do not suggest that was your intention, but perhaps that was the perception.

 

[Covenanter]

Well I'm anpther classical fan and I'm with Chris. I don't need metadata searches, I just stack the cds in alphabetical composer order (obvious really). Seeing the cds on the shelf and browsing them makes me think about what I might like to play. Would ripping the cds improve the sound quality-wouldn't have thought so. Would it waste time and the money involved in buying the new system- yes, as far as I can see.

Rant over.

Yes, filing by composer is the obvious way, but if you look back at my post you'll see I wasn't talking about composers; I was talking about performers (or what iTunes and other digital players call 'artists'). The same would apply to conductors. Or types of music (string quartet, opera etc). Sometimes I have a day when I feel like listening to a few string quartets: searching by metadata allows me to browse all the string quartets in my collection, in a way that the physical disks don't. Whichever way you cut it, this will always be the case. No matter how you choose to organize your physical CDs, searching ripped files by metadata will offer ways of accessing your music that a physical organization of disks can't cater for.

You may say you don't need to search by performers or genres or whatever. But how would you know unless you've tried it?

And then there's the question of compilation disks. What if you have a CD containing e.g. Grieg and Schumann piano concertos. (I give that example only because it's a vary common pairing on CD.) You file your disks by composer name: do you file this disk under 'Grieg' or 'Schumann'? Either way, one of the piano concertos will be in the wrong place in your library; you'll inevitably have introduced a random element into your library which you can't control. Ripping solves the problem: you can separate the ripped CD into two folders each under the respective composer's name. In other words, if you want to browse your classical collection by composer name, ripping provides the only way to do it.

Matt

I can honestly say that I don't ever want to listen by artist or even type of music. I tend to think for example "Brahms Piano Concerto 1" and find a version I haven't listened to recently or one I want to particularly listen to. I know that some people do want to do as you you do and I can see the advantage to you. I have a friend who has thousands of opera recordings and he will spend a day listening to versions of a particular aria. He has a computer database but keeps everything on physical media including hundreds of 78s.

The Greig/Schumann point you make is a good one but I simply remember where they are! I guess that might be a problem if I had more CDs or when my memory starts to fail but I'm ok for now.

Chris

 

[matt49]

Matt

I can honestly say that I don't ever want to listen by artist or even type of music. I tend to think for example "Brahms Piano Concerto 1" and find a version I haven't listened to recently or one I want to particularly listen to. I know that some people do want to do as you you do and I can see the advantage to you. I have a friend who has thousands of opera recordings and he will spend a day listening to versions of a particular aria. He has a computer database but keeps everything on physical media including hundreds of 78s.

The Greig/Schumann point you make is a good one but I simply remember where they are! I guess that might be a problem if I had more CDs or when my memory starts to fail but I'm ok for now.

Chris

Yes, Chris, and I certainly didn't mean to suggest that these were compelling arguments for ripping a whole CD collection. If these had been the only advantages for me, then I'd probably have stuck with physical CDs (and maybe made a database, like your chum). For me the 'game changer' was the advent of Sonos, and the ability to play music right through the house, without wandering around looking for CDs.

Matt

 

[MajorFubar]

The game-changer for me was not having to ar$e-about storing three, then four, then finally five long shelves of CDs on my lounge wall, which looked an eyesore and gathered dust. Plus all the CDs needed to be kept in order. Then if I went out and bought some more CDs, I needed to slot them into the existing sorting system, which was a PITA, sometimes involving re-shuffling all the shelves. I even avoided buying new CDs by artists and bands that would need to be filed under A. (Well I didn't, but you get the idea.)

It's not been a full year yet since I completed ripping all my CDs, but already the burden of having to maintain a physical collection seems a scary memory from a distant past that I don't miss. I have about 20 of my 'best' CDs in a rack that I might want to play on the CDP should the desire take me, but I've happily sent the rest packing to the loft, probably to never be seen again until I either move or die, whichever is sooner.