The (good) old CD player

I still have 2 CD players, actually one is SACD/CD player and the other is a Denon universal player that has been rejigged specifically for RBCD only. Love the convenience.

I considered selling my Esoteric CD player last year. It is used less than 10% of the time I listen to music. It sounds good but I find the Lumin sounds better with ripped CDs and high res files. Additionally, it is so convenient to have my entire digital music collection available via a mobile device.

One more thing, the nice integration with Tidal expands my library to all genres and millions of songs.

Not speaking as a dealer, but "a user" cdp's are great and cd's sound great, BUT, BUT, BUT streaming Tidal via the Aurender has changed my overall listening experience. Sonically a great CDP probably sounds better in comparison but that's such a can of worms having to do with specific recordings. For older rock streaming Tidal sounds amazing. For recordings in general, if a cd has a great recording on it, it will probably sound better than the same track streamed.

The thing is that streaming Tidal gets to the "magic level" and allows for an emotional connection with the music, which is my #1 priority. Once I reach that point and can "enjoy the music" then even though a cdp, TT or R2R "sounds sonically better", I don't care. I love having millions of tracks at my fingertips and musical extravaganza that I experience when searching for old "lost" to me favorites and finding them, which then leads to finding other similar music has as I originally said changed my overall listening experience. Cd's, vinyl or R2R can't compete with this overall listening experience for me.

Saying all that I would never not have a cdp, vinyl or R2R, but I also would never not have streaming and actually streaming Tidal via the Aurender would be my choice if I had to "pick one" to go to a desert island with. Besides the sand would get into the grooves on the vinyl and ruin the heads on the R2R's

Initially when I tried a music server (Mac Mini) I was not impressed. After replacing my DAC (Eastern Electric Mini Max Plus) with a Lampizator and working on tweaks to integrate the server into the system (Isolation, cables, Regen, power supply ETC) I now find the sonics superior to my CDP (transport).
A little while back I had some friends over. They brought some of their favorite CD's. I had most of them already in my external hard drive. So after some setup and syncing of the playback we were able to switch back and forth on the fly. On every disc everyone agreed that the music server was superior. Plus the convenience factor with a server makes it my Go To source.
I will keep the CDP as a backup but this Ehh Experienced audiophile has made the switch.

Bob - the Aurender N10 and Lumin U1 are game changing devices in my systems. I could never go back to a PC/Mac - ever. I too have found so much more music on Tidal than I would have the old fashioned way.

But my question was more about thinking about the digital complexities and how those may or may not affect sound.

Have we overcome the hurdles of jitter and noise associated with all the pieces involved in the modern streaming system? I think we've definitely come a long way with the Aurender's, Lumin's and others of the world.



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jadedavid said:

Initially when I tried a music server (Mac Mini) I was not impressed. After replacing my DAC (Eastern Electric Mini Max Plus) with a Lampizator and working on tweaks to integrate the server into the system (Isolation, cables, Regen, power supply ETC) I now find the sonics superior to my CDP (transport).
A little while back I had some friends over. They brought some of their favorite CD's. I had most of them already in my external hard drive. So after some setup and syncing of the playback we were able to switch back and forth on the fly. On every disc everyone agreed that the music server was superior. Plus the convenience factor with a server makes it my Go To source.
I will keep the CDP as a backup but this Ehh Experienced audiophile has made the switch.

Click to expand...

Well said!


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I still like my players and use them, but my Lumin is something else if my music is residing in Tidal. I guess one can say it all depends on the source and if you are ripping the quality of the dac doing the playing. PS: In my mid 60's, I just hate screwing around with a darn computer.

Mike said:

Bob - the Aurender N10 and Lumin U1 are game changing devices in my systems. I could never go back to a PC/Mac - ever. I too have found so much more music on Tidal than I would have the old fashioned way.

But my question was more about thinking about the digital complexities and how those may or may not affect sound.

Have we overcome the hurdles of jitter and noise associated with all the pieces involved in the modern streaming system? I think we've definitely come a long way with the Aurender's, Lumin's and others of the world.

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Click to expand...

Mike- I think the "time has come"....although I think it's a personal decision as to whether it has or not as all of this is subjective anyway

The other thing to note is that we aren't seeing SOTA CD players coming out at anywhere near the volume of SOTA DAC's.


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My whole thing is that I can never have to even leave my chair, pick up the Ipad (pre is always on and amps come out of standby with a button push on remote) and with one finger hit play and the sound is incredible, with "millions of tracks to choose from" etc - it's "trumped" other sources for me with that combination, no matter how good other sources sound.

I have a vintage balanced Denon DSD-S10 (4x PCM1702 colinear DACs in opposition) that I am tempted to hook up to the main system just to see how it compares....It functions as a DAC also.

Other players which I would like to go back to:

Marantz CD7 Double Crown CD Player TDA1541A S2 DACs

Studer A730 TDA1541 DACs.

Well said Bob.

I absolutely love the sound and convenience of my modified Sonos and Lumin S1. And yes, I absolutely do miss my Lampizator. Tidal and Deezer sound amazing. Plus I love the recommendations that both can provide leading to many new and wonderful musical discoveries. I have a couple of cd players and even used them as dacs until I graduated to better solutions and higher resolution files.

With the quality I am hearing now and the convenience of millions of songs, I am floored. It would be tough to go back and I don't want to. Sometimes I do miss popping in a cd and hitting play. Even with the server/dac I still try and play entire "cds".

Rhapsody said:

My whole thing is that I can never have to even leave my chair, pick up the Ipad and with one finger hit play and the sound is incredible, with "millions of tracks to choose from" etc - it's "trumped" other sources for me with that combination, no matter how good other sources sound.

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joeinid said:

Well said Bob.

I absolutely love the sound and convenience of my modified Sonos and Lumin S1. And yes, I absolutely do miss my Lampizator. Tidal and Deezer sound amazing. Plus I love the recommendations that both can provide leading to many new and wonderful musical discoveries. I have a couple of cd players and even used them as dacs until I graduated to better solutions and higher resolution files.

With the quality I am hearing now and the convenience of millions of songs, I am floored. It would be tough to go back and I don't want to. Sometimes I do miss popping in a cd and hitting play. Even with the server/dac I still try and play entire "cds".

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Hi Joe, I'm REALLY BAD, I never play an entire cd or two sides of an LP....I do listen to a tape all the way through. I love bouncing around on Tidal from Classical, to old rock, to Broadway Musicals (Hamilton!!!) to Jazz etc. Very rich experience for me personally.

I enjoy both. I like using my Music Server for high res downloads. I convert all of my flac files to DSD and also have quite a few DSD downloads. I do not do any kind of streaming. I like owning my music.

However, since getting a decent SACD/CD player (Marantaz SA8005) I am really enjoying spinning disks again. Yes, I have ripped most of my Redbook CDs, and I purchased the spinner mainly for SACDs. I have found that I really enjoy spinning my old Redbooks, much more than I did playing the rips. I recently went as far as purchasing a Wyred 4 Sound Remedy (and some Wireworld audio coax cables) which makes the Redbooks just that much better.

Therefore, as it is now I believe I have three sources that I enjoy; playing albums from my music server through a W4S Recovery and my DAC (all in DSD), SA-CD disks straight from the Marantz to my pre-amplifier, and Redbook CDs through a W4S Remedy and my DAC... All sound fantastic and I enjoy playing many of my old CDs once again!!!

I use my SACD/CD player for SACDs I cannot rip, and to preview a new CD to determine if it is worth ripping. I mainly use CDs for the car, at least until I get a new car that can play USB drives.

I work in computer networking, and that is one reason why I love my S1. There is one cable back to the home hub, and a USB drive attached to the Lumin. That is about as simple as it gets.

The level of quality available these days in a relatively easy way (Lumin in my case) I could never go back to a CD player. The availability of music is just too great.

However, even as simple as the Lumin is, it couldn't be a option for my Dad for example. He is non-computer savvy at all. The frustration level would be too great. So a CD player is always going to be in his system.

IMO, CD players sound better playing CD's/red book than Streamers/servers .....

I want it all and I want it now! LoL

Rhapsody said:

Hi Joe, I'm REALLY BAD, I never play an entire cd or two sides of an LP....I do listen to a tape all the way through. I love bouncing around on Tidal from Classical, to old rock, to Broadway Musicals (Hamilton!!!) to Jazz etc. Very rich experience for me personally.

Click to expand...

No fair, if you are using your Aurender with a dongle to a "Logos" variant! LoL