Headphone system+ CD player

[Teranaki]

Hello everyone.
I've been following this forum for a couple of months now and I've started my "audiophile" journey with a portable DAC + IEM combination (Moondrop Dawn Pro + Salnotes Zero) with my android phone serving as my source. Although I've spent very little money, my music has gained new life.
I have a vast CD collection that I would now like to bring back to life. I will be listening to these through headphones, AKG K92 and my IEM's, but can't seem to figure out what to get.
I have a few DVD player's at home and the idea would be to hook one of these up to a DAC/AMP. I've been reading as many posts as I can, but still haven't figured this out. My modest budget is around 200€.
I'm sorry if this has already been answered before in another post or if this is in the wrong thread.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions and thank you for a great forum.

 

[Joe Smith]

If you have a deck with optical out, you can just pipe that into a dac of your choice and use it as a transport...I for instance use a Sony DVD deck with some nice controls on front, optical to a JDS Labs Atom+ dac, from there to my speaker amp or headphone amp. The main thing is to have a player that does not make noise, in my opinion. Plenty of decent ones out there, and yours may be fine to use this way.

The audio world needs a small, good transport with optical out that costs about $250, but it's a rare item. Closest thing to it are the Cambridge Audio decks and one other slot loader available, but those are $400-500.

 

[AnalogSteph]

I have a few DVD player's at home and the idea would be to hook one of these up to a DAC/AMP.

That is under the assumption that at least one of them has a digital output of either the coaxial or optical variety, I guess?

BTW: A plural never involves an apostrophe.

My modest budget is around 200€.

Which is good, 'cause that doesn't leave you with a whole lot of choice. A Topping DX3 Pro+ can be had for 199, that would be bang on. A FiiO K5 Pro is like 189 and a bit more rustic, but should also be decent.

Once you'll have this going, you'll also want to establish a workflow for ripping those CDs that you deem worthy of adding to your digital collection. In principle, any 15-year-old PC that nobody wants should be quite adequate for this task, it just needs to have a decent optical drive in good shape (which is a big if) and a connection to the ol' interwebs for tagging and rip verification purposes.

 

[Teranaki]

If you have a deck with optical out, you can just pipe that into a dac of your choice and use it as a transport...I for instance use a Sony DVD deck with some nice controls on front, optical to a JDS Labs Atom+ dac, from there to my speaker amp or headphone amp. The main thing is to have a player that does not make noise, in my opinion. Plenty of decent ones out there, and yours may be fine to use this way.

The audio world needs a small, good transport with optical out that costs about $250, but it's a rare item. Closest thing to it are the Cambridge Audio decks and one other slot loader available, but those are $400-500.

Thank you very much Joe. The point you make about the noise from the DVD player is very important. I have one that makes a ton of noise when spinning the CD, not to mention the tray mechanism .

Would the SMSL SU-1 be an option for me? If so, what amp do you think I could pair it with?

Will any of these allow me to hook up some speakers in the future?

 

[Teranaki]

BTW: A plural never involves an apostrophe

Thanks for the English lesson AnalogSteph

 

[Teranaki]

That is under the assumption that at least one of them has a digital output of either the coaxial or optical variety, I guess?

BTW: A plural never involves an apostrophe.

Which is good, 'cause that doesn't leave you with a whole lot of choice. A Topping DX3 Pro+ can be had for 199, that would be bang on. A FiiO K5 Pro is like 189 and a bit more rustic, but should also be decent.

Once you'll have this going, you'll also want to establish a workflow for ripping those CDs that you deem worthy of adding to your digital collection. In principle, any 15-year-old PC that nobody wants should be quite adequate for this task, it just needs to have a decent optical drive in good shape (which is a big if) and a connection to the ol' interwebs for tagging and rip verification purposes.

Thank you very much for your reply.

Ripping all my CDs will be a nightmare

Will I hear a difference between the coaxial or optical outputs and would a new DVD player be a better choice, even a budget one?

 

[MaxwellsEq]

Ripping all my CDs will be a nightmare

Yes it is (not to mention metadata!). However, the solution is just to start and take as long as it takes! There's a technical reason why ripped CDs can be better than the CD in a player - if there are errors, ripping software such as EAC can often resolve some which a player only has time to mask.

 

[AnalogSteph]

Ripping all my CDs will be a nightmare

Well, the best time to start would have been 20 years ago. As it is, you'll have to pick and choose.

Will I hear a difference between the coaxial or optical outputs and would a new DVD player be a better choice, even a budget one?

No. (I would prefer optical.) DVD players are mature obsolete technology, there is no fundamental reason why a unit that's 20-25 years old would do a worse job than something new for what you need, especially a more upmarket model (cheap DVD players can be nasty plasticky things). Try what you have. Loading times, drive noise in operation and lack of controls on the player are all things to watch out for. Old players may suffer from dead lasers, flabby belts or power supply trouble (the 2000s had a lot of issues with bad caps).