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Ditch the CD transport and go with computer?
- Thread starter ck42
- Start date
tw99
Senior Member
Sell it now while it's still worth something....
restorer-john
Grand Contributor
Put it this way. The best players are investments. Not only do you get to enjoy "hang the expense engineering" and the incredible performance from 16/44, they appreciate and become rarer as time goes on. I have several TOTL players and they aren't going anywhere. I was recently offered over $6K for a transport/D/A combo and said no thanks.
Look at TOTL turntables and their prices. Compare a Technics SP-10mkIII with the latest model. It's a better machine and has appreciated in the last 30 years. Even SL-1200mk2s bring two to three times what they cost when new. Why? Because they are so good.
TOTL CD players are no different. The CDP-X7/77/777esD machines were the pinnacle of Sony's single box players. Hand built by their pro division in a completely different factory to the run of the mill stuff and it shows. Open up a "7" series machine and marvel at the quality. If you haven't owned or seen one inside, you are missing out.
Modern HiFi is simply rubbish alongside that gear. A time where being the best was not measured in ROI, it was measured in pride. Long gone, I'm afraid, but plenty of us remember.
Fluffy
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What is this "Si di" you speak of??
But seriously, CDs have no point anymore. It was a physical medium that stored digital data extremely compactly relative to every other technology in its era, and was the only viable way to facilitate the use of digital audio. But those days are long gone and the technological limitations that forced the use of optical storage don't exist anymore. Locally storing data on a hard drive or streaming from a remote hard drive are the logical solutions today.
I do appreciate the use of local storage and the ability to own and control your music collection. I won't feel comfortable depending solely on streaming services, because as well as being internet dependent, they have their own idiosyncrasies that I sometimes just don't want to deal with when I'm listening to music (like cumbersome interfaces or randomly missing a specific album for no reason).
But seriously, CDs have no point anymore. It was a physical medium that stored digital data extremely compactly relative to every other technology in its era, and was the only viable way to facilitate the use of digital audio. But those days are long gone and the technological limitations that forced the use of optical storage don't exist anymore. Locally storing data on a hard drive or streaming from a remote hard drive are the logical solutions today.
I do appreciate the use of local storage and the ability to own and control your music collection. I won't feel comfortable depending solely on streaming services, because as well as being internet dependent, they have their own idiosyncrasies that I sometimes just don't want to deal with when I'm listening to music (like cumbersome interfaces or randomly missing a specific album for no reason).
restorer-john
Grand Contributor
Ever heard of distributed back-up? My thousands of CDs are naturally distributed back-up. A crash doesn't take out my entire collection...
I have a few NASs. I love them for my movies, files, photos and miscellaneous stuff I want access to.
But perhaps there's only three or four CDs worth of music/test discs on the NAS and that is just because it's handy to use for checking streaming to a laptop or some device I want to quickly test. Music on my NASs is an anathema to me, and yet I had shared network drives before most people even had the internet.
For actual listening to my HiFi, it's a dedicated CD player. YMMV.
tw99
Senior Member
I get that it's a lovely piece of engineering, but the OP seemed more motivated by value. I doubt there's a whole new generation of CD player enthusiasts coming along to push prices up even further. So he needs to sell it to some old guy while they are still around 
Fluffy
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If your house burns, then you lose all that data. Distributed storage includes also storing it off-site. Not really viable when it's all in single-copy physical discs.
I like owning a tangible source of entertainment. Given the current price of CDs, etc, so do many others. One thing that is sure about the internet: you no longer have ownership rights to most subscription downloads - access can be denied or lost in a business sell-off or a streaming model change.
If one has to 'have it all', well ……….. .
Seriously, the bicycle is alive and well in private ownership.
If one has to 'have it all', well ……….. .
Seriously, the bicycle is alive and well in private ownership.
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Before 30 years, i bet they had worse DAC's than the really cheap ones Amir measures these days with excellent results.
A transport is always useful.
You get as a present a silver disk, the turntable cannot play it...
The silver disk could be a dvd audio disk, a blue ray movie or a concert, an sacd, whatever. A cheap ($150-200) sony blue ray player can play all these, with digital outputs only (transport).
I can understand why some of us cling to the past. I wear mechanical wristwatches, have a few and none of those tell the time as well as my smartphone. Still I think about acquiring a new mechanical watch from time to time ...
Let's not forget the notion of ergonomics. a CDP is an appliance. It does one thing and, rather well. You put a CD, press "play" and it ...plays... a computer needs somewhat to be booted to begin to play and sometimes you have to go through a GUI. Such interface, is not as tactile as putting the CD and pressing "play" ... for some...
Speaking for myself. In these days of streaming, I see little value in owning a CDP... I still have in some carton boxes some of my CDs but do not care about these anymore. My CD collection, ripped through the years to various NAS, has been backed-up in the cloud for a couple of years. If it weren't for the relative low cost of the back-up, I woudl have let it lapse. I stream much more from Spotify and Tidal than from my own CD ( err...files) collection. Roon makes it seamless anyway to go from streaming to my collection ... The only caveat in all that is that , a PC of some sort must be running at all time.
Keep in mind that in most instances, the cloud model is Rental. You don't own the files or the songs,. You rent them.
Let's not forget the notion of ergonomics. a CDP is an appliance. It does one thing and, rather well. You put a CD, press "play" and it ...plays... a computer needs somewhat to be booted to begin to play and sometimes you have to go through a GUI. Such interface, is not as tactile as putting the CD and pressing "play" ... for some...
Speaking for myself. In these days of streaming, I see little value in owning a CDP... I still have in some carton boxes some of my CDs but do not care about these anymore. My CD collection, ripped through the years to various NAS, has been backed-up in the cloud for a couple of years. If it weren't for the relative low cost of the back-up, I woudl have let it lapse. I stream much more from Spotify and Tidal than from my own CD ( err...files) collection. Roon makes it seamless anyway to go from streaming to my collection ... The only caveat in all that is that , a PC of some sort must be running at all time.
Keep in mind that in most instances, the cloud model is Rental. You don't own the files or the songs,. You rent them.
I really don't mind how personal music libraries are constructed. I just don't like partisan sneering.
What you like is fine by me.
Asylum Seeker
Senior Member
It's not either or. You can continue to hold on to your music and rent-listen to other music simultaneously. They are not mutually exclusive. Ironically I have bought/acquired more music after signing up for Spotify.
Did sold last year my Modified Philips CD630 with TDA1541A dac + modified CD filter (Analog part). Got 200,- Euro for it. Iám using Mathaudio Room Eq with a laptop windows 10 OS, Topping D10 which sounded thighter (low end) than the Philips, Foobar2000 so i ripped most of mine CD's an put it on my laptop 1TB HDD an a backup on my stand alone 3 TB HDD. Don't miss the CD player or searching for/in 500 albums/cd's. For sentimental reason i keep the cd's an if i can find some interseting Cd's (mostly used) i still buy them ha ha an ripp them immediatly appart.
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Did use a Raspberry with Volumio worked flawlessly but i found sharing my standalone HDD an issiue that i also use for my laptop than i was introduced to Room correction software. I know that there is a possibilitie with Volumio to use Roomcorrection but found it way to complex an it was in a sort of test fase at the time. With Windows 10 i can use whatever I want including REW or Mathaudio Room EQ which does not require any hardware or cost an is simple to use/setup.
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Asylum Seeker
Senior Member
OP
- Thread Starter
- #60
....wow.
Lots of excellent thoughts coming from several angles here! Some of which I hadn't even considered.
Really appreciate the banter and point/counter-points discussions too.
If I do sell the CDP, then I'll need to actually go through and RE-rip all my CDs to FLAC, current collection is just 320Kbps mp3 (no small task)
Then there's the thought of....what if the 777ES values actually goes DOWN if I wait longer? That would sort of suck.
I already do a combination now of listening to CDs and streaming at home/car. Streaming has its obvious benefits/conveniences. But when I'm just wanting to zero-task listen to music and fully enjoy it, I kick back (usually with the Sennheisers) and pop in a CD. I guess I could still do the same with a some sort of media player&FLAC...old habits I guess. Plus, I'm a real sucker for beautiful mechanics - like the 777ES transport is. For anyone who hasn't experienced something this well designed and made, you should try to at least once. You know that whole genre of 'Oddly Satisfying' videos out there? Well, opening and closing the 777ES tray does that for me. It's mechanical butter.
Lots of excellent thoughts coming from several angles here! Some of which I hadn't even considered.
Really appreciate the banter and point/counter-points discussions too.
If I do sell the CDP, then I'll need to actually go through and RE-rip all my CDs to FLAC, current collection is just 320Kbps mp3 (no small task)
Then there's the thought of....what if the 777ES values actually goes DOWN if I wait longer? That would sort of suck.
I already do a combination now of listening to CDs and streaming at home/car. Streaming has its obvious benefits/conveniences. But when I'm just wanting to zero-task listen to music and fully enjoy it, I kick back (usually with the Sennheisers) and pop in a CD. I guess I could still do the same with a some sort of media player&FLAC...old habits I guess. Plus, I'm a real sucker for beautiful mechanics - like the 777ES transport is. For anyone who hasn't experienced something this well designed and made, you should try to at least once. You know that whole genre of 'Oddly Satisfying' videos out there? Well, opening and closing the 777ES tray does that for me. It's mechanical butter.
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