My old Denon 2930ci is having problems on start up.Im looking at a new cd player.Is it best to go with a designated cd player or a Blueray and say a topping external Dac.I need RCA connectivity.Also an option is to rip my CDs and go that way,but I'm not very knowledgeable on these things. Any advice is appreciated. Budget is not high end. Thanks
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CD player or Blueray?
- Thread starter tobyjug
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Either option can work well. Go with what fits your need and budget. Generally, ripping your CD's requires a computer and computer drive that can read CD's - like an external portable DVD writer with a USB connection.
JeremyFife
Major Contributor
Hi,
CD players and Blu-ray players both play CDs just fine - Blu-ray seem to be better value (cheaper) too and that's what I'd look at. Plenty of well made Sony examples.
If you want to use an external DAC then you don't want RCA connections from the player because that uses the built-in DAC on the player and there is no point in having an external one as well.
Look for a player with digital out: optical (toslink) or coax (spdif) and make sure your DAC has the same connection.
As said above, you'll need a different solution to rip CDs - a PC/laptop with a CD drive or an external drive (reader). The external drives are cheap though, and fine.
One thought, when you said "RCA" do you need to connect something else analogue to your DAC (like a turntable?). There are not many DACs that also have analogue inputs until they start getting expensive, although the WiiM Pro Plus is good.
CD players and Blu-ray players both play CDs just fine - Blu-ray seem to be better value (cheaper) too and that's what I'd look at. Plenty of well made Sony examples.
If you want to use an external DAC then you don't want RCA connections from the player because that uses the built-in DAC on the player and there is no point in having an external one as well.
Look for a player with digital out: optical (toslink) or coax (spdif) and make sure your DAC has the same connection.
As said above, you'll need a different solution to rip CDs - a PC/laptop with a CD drive or an external drive (reader). The external drives are cheap though, and fine.
One thought, when you said "RCA" do you need to connect something else analogue to your DAC (like a turntable?). There are not many DACs that also have analogue inputs until they start getting expensive, although the WiiM Pro Plus is good.
- Thread Starter
- #4
Thanks, I'm familiar with ripping CDs.The RCA was just to connect to my pre amp.I noticed most players just offer digital out, my amp doesn't have digital in, just analogue. I presumed a external DAC would be needed ,and possibly better. Thanks again .
Think beyond sound, ask yourself if you can live with the functionality.
A few years ago I had a cheap NAD DVD player and the sound wasn't as good as from my slightly more expensive NAD CD player. It was probably an inferior DAC in the DVD player. OK you might get round that with an external DAC, but, also, the functionality of the DVD player was irritating - needed to control it from the TV screen, slow to load, noisy, nasty plastic feel, too light, overly complicated to operate, bad remote,...
Chceck out all reviews, then audition it in a store and play with the controls, load CDs, check out the remote and control buttons. Ask yourself if anything seems irritating.
Do you really need RCA from the CD player? Why not get RCA exclusively from the DAC? As you are planning an external DAC, why not get a transport like the
Cambridge Audio CXC? (Note I haven't checked this in store. At first sight, it looks good and generally gets good reviews... but I'd check it out in store before purchase...)
https://www.richersounds.com/cambridge-audio-cxc-lunar-grey-in-store-clearance/
P.S. A reviewer dissed the main competition to the CXC for having a really irritating stop & eject button - watch out for that kind of comment in reviews! Check out the irritation in the store to see if it irritates you (the reviewer might be all thumbs or his particular transport might be faulty...
A few years ago I had a cheap NAD DVD player and the sound wasn't as good as from my slightly more expensive NAD CD player. It was probably an inferior DAC in the DVD player. OK you might get round that with an external DAC, but, also, the functionality of the DVD player was irritating - needed to control it from the TV screen, slow to load, noisy, nasty plastic feel, too light, overly complicated to operate, bad remote,...
Chceck out all reviews, then audition it in a store and play with the controls, load CDs, check out the remote and control buttons. Ask yourself if anything seems irritating.
Do you really need RCA from the CD player? Why not get RCA exclusively from the DAC? As you are planning an external DAC, why not get a transport like the
Cambridge Audio CXC? (Note I haven't checked this in store. At first sight, it looks good and generally gets good reviews... but I'd check it out in store before purchase...)
https://www.richersounds.com/cambridge-audio-cxc-lunar-grey-in-store-clearance/
P.S. A reviewer dissed the main competition to the CXC for having a really irritating stop & eject button - watch out for that kind of comment in reviews! Check out the irritation in the store to see if it irritates you (the reviewer might be all thumbs or his particular transport might be faulty...
JeremyFife
Major Contributor
The need for an external DAC depends on how good the DAC in your CD/Blu-ray player is, and they could be perfectly decent. A DAC has to be pretty much broken for it to mess up the analogue sound enough for you hear that (any problems tend to be below our audible threshold, inaudible).
One option is to get a player with both analogue (RCA) and digital outputs and just try it directly into your Amp:
Player => RCA => Amp line-in
If you feel the need to add an external DAC later then you can. I doubt that you will hear much of a difference, if any, but that DAC may give you other features that you like. No need to rush in to the purchase though
Player => Digital => DAC => RCA => Amp line-in
You do not need an external DAC, although you might want one. Your choice
- Thread Starter
- #8
Thank you.The need for an external DAC depends on how good the DAC in your CD/Blu-ray player is, and they could be perfectly decent. A DAC has to be pretty much broken for it to mess up the analogue sound enough for you hear that (any problems tend to be below our audible threshold, inaudible).
One option is to get a player with both analogue (RCA) and digital outputs and just try it directly into your Amp:
Player => RCA => Amp line-in
If you feel the need to add an external DAC later then you can. I doubt that you will hear much of a difference, if any, but that DAC may give you other features that you like. No need to rush in to the purchase though
Player => Digital => DAC => RCA => Amp line-in
You do not need an external DAC, although you might want one. Your choice
Did change my almost full 1TB HDD Lenovo Thinkpad X230 laptop to a 2TB SSD playing my ripped cd's an high-res files. Not only a seriouse more stable speed increase around >80% (specialy starting up Windows now done in seconds) an a silenced remarkable more efficient power consuming fan. The power consumption dropped back considerable lower than my Raspberry Pi3 in combination with my WD 3TB HDD backup sometimes used as NAS for housewide wireless music acces mostly for headphone use. When i close the laptop screen an manage Windows power settings total power consumption is around 7 watt instead of around 14 watt compared to combi Raspberry Pi3 + WD HDD remarkable. Foobar2000 is used for music overview/acces an NAS in combination with Monkeymote, MediaMonkey an Wavelet (parametric EQ headphone) on my android phone an Mathaudio room EQ ideal combination totally for free if you don't make use of the system wide Mathaudio room EQ solution. Ripping cd's is about nothing after you did one
Cost only time the convenience is great especially from a universal acces point of view an making use of WASAPI driver OS audio independed bit perfect.
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One thing about bluray players is without a display/tv navigation may not be straightforward, may have to negotiate player menus. Some have autoplay which can help. The built in display on a bluray player won't tell you a lot. I wouldn't spend so much as to get a separate dac, just find one with the dac/rca stereo outs you need, there are still some models that provide that even though they all used to at one point....
JSmith
Master Contributor
DVD & Blu-ray players of course play CD's fine especially when just used as a transport.
However, keep in mind many won't have a screen to tell you track number and duration if that is of importance.
Also not all DVD and BD players will play CD's with gapless playback.
JSmith
However, keep in mind many won't have a screen to tell you track number and duration if that is of importance.
Also not all DVD and BD players will play CD's with gapless playback.
JSmith
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