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Looking for a CD Player

I am in the process of replacing my Moon CD 5 CD Player --- or might be no reason to replace my present CD Player.  The next CD player if purchased is probably going to be my last as I am a senior in age.  My wife and I are tired of getting up and down and up and down did I mention up and down to listen to the other side of an album. So, we have a number of CDs and frankly like the ease of listening to them.  Not wanting to purchase streaming music.  Therefore, we / I need an education on two subjects -    Do we need to have a DAC incorporated in the CD player and secondly do we need to have SACD capability??  Not wanting to spend more than 3000.00.  All the help would be appreciated.

smerk
kennymacc
538 posts
 

@smerk 

We're senior age, too.  We got tired of albums and CD players, so we went with streaming all the way, and we love it.  We've never been happier!!!!  I understand you opted not to stream your music.  Just my 2 cents.  Good luck on your CD player search.  Happy listening.     

smerk OP
18 posts
 

@kennymacc 

The cost of streaming??

Not computer or phone savvy - so all help is better for this OLD MAN.

gkelly's avatar
gkelly
406 posts
 

Now that you are tempted by streaming look at a Innuos Zen mini. It will kill two bird’s.
Qobuz is $12.99 a month. 

kennymacc
538 posts
 

@smerk

We subscribe to Tidal as well as Qobuz (Qobuz was cheaper 3 years ago than it is now), at a cost of about 10 bucks a month each. We also rip our old CDs as well. We made sure we purchased very high quality streaming components and cabling in order to get the very best sound quality out of our streaming audio system that we could afford. The combination of #1-sound quality(most important), convenience, and ease of use, made streaming just irresistible for us at this juncture. We just love it, and couldn’t be happier!!! Happy listening

bassbuyer
471 posts
 

I second the Rotel RCD 1572 MKII. It’s the single play CD player in my system. It has a good DAC.

I would encourage you to try streaming. I’m over getting up and down too to change the disc. Old guys like us need to try new things that will help.

To start you can get a free trial with Qobuz (actually all services have free trials for about 30 days but I found Qobuz to be the best in my experience). Start with an inexpensive but decent Streamer and DAC combo like the Bluesound Node. You can find a lot of used ones for about $200 US. Easy to setup and use. The Node comes with cables to connect to your integrated amp or preamp. They have a BluOs app you can use on your phone or tablet to choose your music on Qobuz and run the Node. You will need a wired or wireless wi-fi connection. Once you start streaming you’ll never look back based on my experience with friends. So much old and new music available at your fingertips.

Once you decide streaming is for you, you can upgrade your system based on your budget. Now that I’m all in on streaming and ripping my CDs to the same music server, I have a Innuos Zen Mk3 streamer with a 1 TB storage to save the CDs I rip to the unit. Connected to a Holo Audio Cyan 2 DAC. Bought the Innuos used so both cost me about the $3K you have budgeted for a CD player.

Enjoy your new musical journey and please share what you decide to do.

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