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CD Player vs. music streaming

Dear audiophiles:

I am in the cross road for the media choice.  My CD player suffered from abnormal tray movement and consider to replace a new one (maybe the 2nd hand one).  But on last Sunday, I paid a visit to the audio show and find out there are showing many streaming player of the famous brands with  the price range of US$ 5000~20,000.  I feel the sound is not bad with short listening. 

I am thinking about my situation once more, if I buy a HI-Fi CD player, the price might equal to the audio streamer.  Then, if I choose the CD player, I would keep on buying CD. But if I give up CD player and replace it with a audio streamer, my expense might be the monthly subscription expense which cost a CD or so.  Besides,
my kids have no interest in classical music appreciation. There is no meaning for me to keep on buying CD. When I  am passed away, the CD are useless...without not penny. 

Under such kind of   consideration, should I stay in CD player or should I switch to music streamer. 
Any good opinion?
faust168
bigkidz
3,330 posts
 
IMO unless you are looking for the best possible sound which would be a CD Transport and DAC you are probably better off getting a good streamer and a good DAC.  A transport and DAC will probably give you better layering of instruments for classical music if that is your goal but that won't come cheap to my ears.

Happy Listening.
gadios
94 posts
 
Two people mentioned Innuos. Zenith level $4,500. 
No one mentioned the other burn benefit I hear of.
That is that the downloaded cd SQ actually IMPROVES
when played back as a file. 
WTF you say. Me too. How? It was explained to me by 
the Innuos folks at RMAF last. Too technical for my feeble
mind. 
So Faust-Buy the Innuos, copy all your CDs into it and sign
up with Amazon $13/Mo Hirez. Price will get better over time
for subscriptions thanks to competition. No more money
on CD players unless you buy the Hegel Mohican.
Keep us posted!!!
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
faust168

I’m a CD man with good cd transport and discrete MSB R2R Multibit ladder dac and passive volume control preamp. I’ve yet to hear a streamer that would make me change.

Cheers George
sdj888
13 posts
 
Hi, I too would recommend the Bluesound Node 2i as well, it covers the bases and I rate it as great equipment and good value. It's a fantastic foot in the door and let's you store your existing cd collection. Its family friendly and SQ is brilliant. It also gives you internet radio. A fantastic way to get into streaming and make use of your exusting cd library. I brought one for my 75 year old father, he's in music heaven with the variety and selection at his fingertips (via a tablet and phone), he's not tech savvy generally, but he's figured this one out. 

 What us the system you are running? Happy listening. 

mazian's avatar
mazian
365 posts
 
As duckworp pointed out one of the major problems with streamers is the quality of the app needed to control content. I bought a Cambridge Audio CXN which sports 2 awful apps. No search function for albums downloaded from Tidal makes it almost impossible to find classical albums you have saved. At least Tidal has a search function but you can't use the Tidal app with a CXN streamer. I'm surprised that more Audiogon forum contributors don't have a problem with streamer apps. Maybe not many classical music listeners on this site as A-Z listing works reasonably well for pop, rock, jazz etc. Anyway to get to the crux of this I am thinking of getting rid of the CXN and would welcome any info on  streamers, with or without a DAC and preferably the latter, that either have a usable app for classical music or allows you to use the Tidal app.
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