Wiim Pro Plus with a CD transport

[Brian Hall]

I hooked up an old Sony blu-ray player to the optical input on my Wiim Pro Plus streamer. The Wiim Home app under sources has CD Player (optical). Selected that and now I'm playing a music CD using the old blu-ray player as a transport using the DAC in the Wiim. It sounds awesome. You don't need an expensive DAC or crazy priced CD transport to get great sound.

 

[SonicSleuth]

Will give this a go

 

[Doublej]

Same here. Unfortunately, my Sony player recognizes only about half of the cds I have. My second problem is that I can't find a new DVD or Blu-Ray with optical output. The few players that have a digital output are of the coaxial form.

 

[antcollinet]

The few players that have a digital output are of the coaxial form.

You can get relatively inexpensive Coax to optical converters.

 

[Doublej]

I scored a minty Panasonic Blu-ray player with an optical output for a fair price. Much simpler than adding another box and transformer into the setup.

 

[Hagan66]

I hooked up an old Sony blu-ray player to the optical input on my Wiim Pro Plus streamer. The Wiim Home app under sources has CD Player (optical). Selected that and now I'm playing a music CD using the old blu-ray player as a transport using the DAC in the Wiim. It sounds awesome. You don't need an expensive DAC or crazy priced CD transport to get great sound.

CORRECT!!!

 

[CT Man]

I miss the displays that have been stripped from current blu-ray players when using them for CDs. Manufacturers give no thought to flexible track selection using the TV display, plus I don't want my TV on for that.

 

[Joe Smith]

The older Sony DVP-NS300 CD/DVD player works pretty well for me in this regard. I currently use mine via Toslink to my JDS Atom+ DAC, switchable from computer USB via thr front button. This lets me easily toggle my workroom system between streaming from the desktop to playing a CD, using the good DAC in the Atom. The Sony unit is cheap and still readily available on the used market, and has decent from panel buttons, so I don't need a remote to play either CDs or the few DVD-Audio disks I have. I look for DVD units with optical out when I am thrifting, but you don't see them that often, the coax out is far more prevalent.

 

[Unbalanced]

I hooked up an old Sony blu-ray player to the optical input on my Wiim Pro Plus streamer. The Wiim Home app under sources has CD Player (optical). Selected that and now I'm playing a music CD using the old blu-ray player as a transport using the DAC in the Wiim. It sounds awesome. You don't need an expensive DAC or crazy priced CD transport to get great sound.

Is there an advantage to this approach vs ripping CDs to flac? Is it just a convenience factor?

 

[Timcognito]

Is there an advantage to this approach vs ripping CDs to flac? Is it just a convenience factor?

There is also the storage factor. Because I want to keep my physical media I have 1000+ CDs/jewel cases/lit in boxes in the garage and small NAS in the closet. Some say SSD storage is more accurate than laser and spinning disc, not sure about that one. Wear and tear on the CDs moving them in and out.

 

[Brian Hall]

Is there an advantage to this approach vs ripping CDs to flac? Is it just a convenience factor?

No. No advantage over having them all ripped and stored on a server (and multiple other drives for backup).

Sometimes I just grab a CD and listen to that instead of going to the ripped collection. Right now I'm listening to a ripped CD on my Wiim Ultra that is stored on my server. I switched over to Plex and set up Plex Media server and testing it out. Works great so far. The server is running Linux Mint as is my main desktop PC. Plex has a native server and a native client for Linux. Turned off the Rygel DLNA server and turned on the Plex DLNA server. It works better. The Wiim units see the Plex version without any messing around.

No need for a fancy NAS. This Linux server is running on a mini PC with 16GB of memory and a 2TB SSD drive which is plenty of space for my collection.

 

[Unbalanced]

Nice. I really have to get a DLNA server setup. I'm running Debian. Have you considered Minimserver?

 

[Brian Hall]

Nice. I really have to get a DLNA server setup. I'm running Debian. Have you considered Minimserver?

I started with Rygel because it comes with Linux Mint and has a very simple setup app. Specify the shared directories and turn it on or off.

Decided to try out Plex and liked it. I went for the paid version. $40 a year.

 

[Sashoir]

Nice. I really have to get a DLNA server setup. I'm running Debian. Have you considered Minimserver?

I know you didn't ask me, but I would *highly* recommend minimserver, especially if you listen to a lot of classical music.

 

[rukuknux]

Is there an advantage to this approach vs ripping CDs to flac? Is it just a convenience factor?

For my situation, my networking is a mess. Double NAT this, CGNAT that. Running a server is out of the question. However I can totally see the benefit for someone with a network setup that wasn’t managed by a dunce and someone who cares enough to set up a Roon server or something of the sort. Additionally, I also just don’t care about ripping my CDs. For me, why go through the effort when I can just play the original CD on my CD transport, and guarantee perfect quality.