CD players = dead?


From an audiophile, sound quality perspective are CD players obsolete? Can a CD player offer better performance than an audio server / streamer? 
madavid0
I see Used PS Audio units selling for $1000 now. Not cheap,, but perhaps more affordable? 
I buy used cds and immediately rip them with DBPoweramp

My tastes run to classical, jazz and folk. It is cheaper to buy a used CD and rip it than down load digital version from HDtracks, etc.

Used CDs can be purchased for a few dollars on Amazon.

But, my CD player has been in a closet for 3 years.


I have 25,000 LPs and 7,000 CDs, 7,000 78s.  I was not a CD adherent until I purchased an EAR Acute CD player (upgraded the horrid stock A/C cable and upgraded to NOS tubes).  Then, my well remastered CDs (I toss badly remastered ones) sound as good as my megabuck analog front end.  Many CDs sound better than their LP counterparts (especially Decca mono classical box for example).  I could not collect and hear the fantastic early opera and piano recordings on CD mastered by Marston Records any other way.  I still have 78s which sound very dynamic if frequency challenged due to most not having been transferred or adequately remastered onto LPs and CDs.  So, I hope CD players continue to be made at the current higher quality than seen during the first 15 years (generally yuk) so that I can enjoy the great sound and convenience of my CDs.  CDs also take up much less room on my shelves than analog and with good reissues, have much better info booklets than most LPs provide.  Three cheers for CDs!  

Here, here- fleschler-

Three cheers for CDs indeed! You have a sweet collection of discs my friend. What gear is in your system?

Happy Listening!

I use my Oppo only for blu-rays. CD disks are for ripping and archive. It’s easier to get to really low jitter without the CD transport. If you must use a CD transport, at least reclock it:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=154408.0

As you can see, the jitter is 35 times higher using only the transport. DACs are not jitter immune either. Even DACs with upsampling sound better with a low-jitter input signal.

Using the reclocker also eliminates ground-loops, upsamples the data and negates the need for CD treatments, green pens, destatic etc... Don’t waste your money on CD tweaks. Buy a reclocker instead. Much more effective and can give you 20psec of jitter, as good as a $20K+ transport.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio