Reccommendations / ideas for digital audio source

silvershadelynx81

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Jul 12, 2025
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Hi everyone,

I own a set of DIY electrostatic loudspeakers which I really enjoy listening to. I have an old Quad 606MKII power amp and a MiniDSP for < 200 Hz dipole line array woofer. I can switch between full range (esl only) mode and hybrid mode. Most of the times I prefer hybrid mode.

As music soure I use both vinyl and cd (physical media), as Iike the physical aspect of it, even though it takes a lot of space. Long ago I had a simple, donated, small Denon cd player which broke down. I replaced it with a second hand Marantz CD 5001 player which still functions well. But it has a built-in tray timeout: after about 20 secs it closes the tray automatically, and I find this a frustrating unwanted feature.

As my main setup is a Quad, I bought a Quad 66 cd player, which served me for about 7 years, but it was very old and had display problems as wel as other problems so I sold it.

That's why I recently bought a secondhand Marantz SA7001KI Super Audio CD player as I wanted to be able to try SACD as well. Unfortunately after two weeks the device started to behave stange: "no disc" messages while there is a newly bought cd in it, and one time it didn't react to any button, both on the player and remote. The seller doesn't take any responibility. It still takes cd's, but it refuses some, especially with gold colour.

Although I still prefer the instant use from physical media, and the absence of complex propietary software and updates, (I don't have a smarphone or tablet and I dislike touch screens), I'm a bit done when it comes to the reliability of second hand (SA) CD players.

The reason for buying second hand is that (hopefully) it is more environmentally friendly. At the same time my experiences haven't been always positive.

I'm wondering if there is a good alternative: I don't like the idea of online streaming. I'm interested in offline steaming. But I don't like complex, multiple devices, networked options.

Is there something like a streamer with built in storage and a user friendly contol on the device itself? Another option would be to rip all my cd's to a lossless format and store them on my laptop and stream them, if possible? In the latter case, I would prefer an open source app which is Linux compatible.

Any ideas or suggestions?
 
A lot of folks have moved away from a dedicated CD player ripping and storing their media on hard drives in a computer or separate network attached storage (NAS).

If you are not interested in streaming then you would like the JRiver software suite for ripping, storing, and playing your CD’s. Another option is the ROON software suite which I think has a better user interface and also works with several audiophile streaming services.

In addition to a computer you will need a digital to analog converter (DAC). DAC’s range in price form $100 to $100,000 and have diehard fanatics of brands and models at every price point.

If you don’t want to go the computer and software route which is a rathole in and of itself, there are a number of devices that have built in CD drives, hard drive storage, and software to provide a total solution in a box.

Here are a few you can research. Most have a built in DAC. I don’t have any personal experience with any of these:
Innous Zen mini
Cocktail X45
Aurender ACS10/100
Naim Unity Core/Atom

I’m sure there are others out there, and hopefully someone more knowledgeable about these will chime in with some personal recommendations.

Happy hunting.
 
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