Fair enough, but I am sure you realize why such reactions are common, particularly in light of the nature of this community.
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CD Player failed.
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restorer-john
Grand Contributor
I wrote a reply along the same lines but left it as a draft. Maybe I should have posted it.
Totally agree @Wombat, the repetitive, unsolicited, unwelcome and thinly veiled "advice" from "experts" about Streamers/Roon/SSDs/Ripping/FLACs etc. is tiresome at best, especially in threads specifically about CD players. The OP is looking for guidance on CD players to play his CD collection the way he wants.
Not unlike the customer who comes into a HiFi store to buy a pair of $500 speakers and ends up walking out empty handed, because the "salesman" hasn't listened to a word he said, and pursued his agenda of selling him a home theatre rig he neither wanted, nor could afford.
Your opinion is strong, maybe.
I was an early adopter of file based music about 20 years ago.
I have pretty well gone back to CDs now.
restorer-john
Grand Contributor
The force is strong with this one.
Perhaps our experience is viewed as irrelevant, Frank. When people were throwing out Linns, Thorens* and Technics TTs, we were wrong to pick them up and keep them. When high quality stereo pre/power/amplifiers were being put out to the kerbside pickups, we were wrong to pick them up and restore them. When CD players were donated to thrift stores, we were wrong to buy those spectacular examples of technology and keep them for a "rainy day".
What's old is new again. And. It is better made by a longshot.
* True (but old) story. First day at a new recycling facility my friend asked me to check out. Thorens TD-145 with TP-16 arm and a Stanton 681EEE calibration standard cartridge (perfect) for $6.
I do think that on these question based threads we should, as you say, try and answer the question. I say this a Raspberry Pi using streamer! I wouldn't expect to ask a question about my RPi only to be told that I should embrace CDs.
For all those who want to bask in the glory of your physical media, I say bask away
restorer-john
Grand Contributor
I do think that on these question based threads we should, as you say, try and answer the question. I say this a Raspberry Pi using streamer! I wouldn't expect to ask a question about my RPi only to be told that I should embrace CDs.
For all those who want to bask in the glory of your physical media, I say bask away
Mate, read the OP's requirements before mouthing off maybe? He wants a CD player. Shall I say it again?
Raspberry Pi is kids' stuff. My son uses Pi andArduinos for his science projects and he is 13 years old. When he (and I) want to listen to perfect, bit perfect digital audio we don't piss around with that garbage.
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Sorry, you seem to have completely missed my point. I was agreeing with you. Perhaps you would do me the courtesy of re-reading my post.
In my post I supported the idea that responses should stick to addressing what the OP has asked. I then went on the illustrate this by reference to the RPi.
I have no idea what in my post (a post fully supportive of your posts) led to your abusive and demeaning response.
Poor form I'm afraid.
I repeat - for all those who still love CDs, that's great. There is no need for anybody to try and persuade you otherwise. To each their own.
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MRC01
Major Contributor
Nah, that's way too modern. I use a stonemason's chisel and copy the bits, one at a time, into stone tablets.
Using base 60 reduces the number of marks you must chisel.
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Threads wander...they always will...and often some of the best info comes from those digressions. However, the above offers little in the context that this forum is already steeped with said advice and information. Meant as no offense A Surfer, but please recognize each of us has our own preferences where your logical assessment does not always apply, and that there is no wrong or right to how one wishes to experience their love for music. I personally prefer CD’s. A dying medium, sure...but the tactile quality of physical media as well as the equipment we use to play that media is still deeply ingrained in me and many of the still surviving older generation...and we ain’t dead yet...and I think all our noses are still intact. ; )
For me it was/is speed and convenience. I mainly listen to classical music and when I rip a disc the standard tagging systems make it hard to impossible to find what I want to listen to next in the library without a fair bit of editing tags, which some people find acceptable but I am too lazy.
After 10 years of putting up with it because it suited my travelling lifestyle I stopped when I retired 10 years ago and went back to walking to the CD rack, taking out the disc I wanted and playing it. Much quicker than searching the library. I tried many systems, the worst being Sooloos, OK for suggesting you something, poor for finding what I wanted when I knew.
I am reminded how exasperating it is now I have dabbled in streaming services. Qobuz is slow, irritating but can find something eventually, Amazon totally useless.
Popular music is OK, so I can find stuff easy enough when in that mood.
After 10 years of putting up with it because it suited my travelling lifestyle I stopped when I retired 10 years ago and went back to walking to the CD rack, taking out the disc I wanted and playing it. Much quicker than searching the library. I tried many systems, the worst being Sooloos, OK for suggesting you something, poor for finding what I wanted when I knew.
I am reminded how exasperating it is now I have dabbled in streaming services. Qobuz is slow, irritating but can find something eventually, Amazon totally useless.
Popular music is OK, so I can find stuff easy enough when in that mood.
MRC01
Major Contributor
Yep. The tag metadata schema was made for pop and classical music doesn't fit. If Chicago Symphony is playing the Brahms violin concerto, Reiner conducting with Heifetz the soloist, who exactly is the "artist?" It could be any of them.
Idagio and Primephonic addressed this problem by creating their own metadata schema and applying it across a large library of classical music.
I have a Qobuz subscription and don't use that much so these are not good enough value for me, I'd rather buy the CD if I find something spectacular though I have a couple of thousand already so have most of what I want.
A lot has happened in the last 10 years. Besides, in a couple of years, the process of " walking to the CD rack, taking out the disc I wanted and playing it" will get a lot slower while computers keep getting faster and smarter.
FWIW I also use a CD transport feeding, in effect, the DAC, though the DACs I am using at present reside in the amplifier.
Mine is 25 years old and still going strong. About 5 years ago I bought a backup I liked the look of secondhand but haven't needed it yet.
I have others though since I rarely sell anything.
Mine is 25 years old and still going strong. About 5 years ago I bought a backup I liked the look of secondhand but haven't needed it yet.
I have others though since I rarely sell anything.
I am only 70 and still reasonably fit so it'll be a while I hope.A lot has happened in the last 10 years. Besides, in a couple of years, the process of " walking to the CD rack, taking out the disc I wanted and playing it" will get a lot slower while computers keep getting faster and smarter.
I tried Roon but it is just an (expensive) update of the Sooloos I have abandoned in a box somewhere and I thought it not worth it.
Any other other suggestions? I can usually find the disc I want but not always...
I think that streaming services come into their own if you're listening to new music or exploring artists' back catalogue. 12 months ago I had Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Lou Reed on heavy rotation. All CDs, no need for streaming, had never got around to ripping.
At the moment I'm enjoying new releases and recent back catalogues and so Qobuz does the job.
Robin L
Master Contributor
Right now I'm in the ripping/tagging stage. As I now live in a tiny apartment, racks of CDs are no longer viable.
Very recently got a Topping E30 DAC. Managed to hook it up to a Sony Blu-Ray player I picked up from a thrift shop for $6. Sounds fine, works fine. When I unpack my CDs, I'll have more ripping. I've also got a $27 DVD burner, can hook it into the laptop, rip CDs or burn them.
My copy of the Heifetz/Reiner/CSO recording is tagged [in I-Tunes] as Brahms Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos - Jascha Heifetz Fritz Reiner Chicago Symphony Orchestra. For all the concerti the order is composer, soloist, conductor, orchestra. I've got way too many duplications of some classical titles, so I've got to retag most of the CDs I've ripped. Listen to that recording a lot, amazing early stereo. Doubt I'd could hear the difference between CD layer and the SACD layer.
Due to all those needledrops I made for others over the last ten years, I'm used to tagging [or re-tagging]. Thanks to all the "free time" the pandemic has granted me, I've got lots of time for such minutia.
But to go back to the OP, if I were in the market for a new CD player, I'd be looking at something that plays all discs and has a coax digital out. I've got SACDs and DVD audio discs, don't intend to get rid of them. I'd get a DAC to hook up to universal/semi universal. If one really wants a CD only player, I'd still look for a coax out and I'd still get an outboard DAC. I'm very happy with the Topping E30 sound. If someone wants to play CDs but also streams, an outboard DAC with multiple inputs ups the options.
Very recently got a Topping E30 DAC. Managed to hook it up to a Sony Blu-Ray player I picked up from a thrift shop for $6. Sounds fine, works fine. When I unpack my CDs, I'll have more ripping. I've also got a $27 DVD burner, can hook it into the laptop, rip CDs or burn them.
My copy of the Heifetz/Reiner/CSO recording is tagged [in I-Tunes] as Brahms Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos - Jascha Heifetz Fritz Reiner Chicago Symphony Orchestra. For all the concerti the order is composer, soloist, conductor, orchestra. I've got way too many duplications of some classical titles, so I've got to retag most of the CDs I've ripped. Listen to that recording a lot, amazing early stereo. Doubt I'd could hear the difference between CD layer and the SACD layer.
Due to all those needledrops I made for others over the last ten years, I'm used to tagging [or re-tagging]. Thanks to all the "free time" the pandemic has granted me, I've got lots of time for such minutia.
But to go back to the OP, if I were in the market for a new CD player, I'd be looking at something that plays all discs and has a coax digital out. I've got SACDs and DVD audio discs, don't intend to get rid of them. I'd get a DAC to hook up to universal/semi universal. If one really wants a CD only player, I'd still look for a coax out and I'd still get an outboard DAC. I'm very happy with the Topping E30 sound. If someone wants to play CDs but also streams, an outboard DAC with multiple inputs ups the options.
Robin L
Master Contributor
It's not just file sharing, it's now a lot more about streaming. It's easier for me to hear a new recording via YouTube or Amazon Music then to go out and buy it.
I'll be pointing back to a different era, but 30 years ago, in the realm of "Classical Music", the musicians I knew and recorded thought about recordings much like the indies do today, CDs being a lot more about promotion than income. The project I worked on that was the most successful was Kitka's Nectar", from an Oakland-based Eastern European acapella choral ensemble performing in the mode of "Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares":
The word I got back from musicians who signed up with Major CD labels was that production costs usually ate up any potential profit, and that they never saw any money from sales of their discs. Those who signed with smaller labels usually would get a cash payout on the first [usually only] production run, along with a pile of CDs potentially worth more than the cash they received. Kitka's "Nectar" was self produced and self-distributed. Kitka sold a lot of copies of Nectar out of their website and also sales at concerts. Kitka made a considerable profit off the recording. As far as I can tell, later self-produced CDs were artistically successful and also sold well, mainly via the Kitka website. But we all know what happened when streaming took over.
I haven't spoken directly to any of the Kitkettes for a while, I suspect they are doing the best they can during this difficult time.
Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble
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MRC01
Major Contributor
One factor to consider is that optical media lasts longer than hard drives. I've got factory CDs that are over 30 years old, and CD's I've burned from a PC that are 20 years old. If you buy high quality optical media, they last a long time. I've never seen a hard drive last longer than 10 years. Of course, we don't keep computers that long anyway. We tend to back up the data and transfer it to new discs.
Well, I have a few years on you and I am still quite fit but I am fully prepared for what may come. Unfortunately, the time it takes to prepare means that one has to anticipate the need. I did it for other reasons but I am glad that I did.
I had a brief fling with Sooloos which was simultaneously exciting and disappointing. Not ready for prime time. Roon is much better, even tolerable, but is not responsive to my particular preferences and never will be.
I am a fan of JRiver. I can find anything with it and quickly. Unlike Roon, one has direct access to the files, the file structures and the metadata directly. And, of course, it scrolls up/down and not left/right!!!
I can, always, even if it is in the other house!
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