Big source improvement using CD player

stereo5,

"The music server is a Sony HAP-Z1ES which Stereophile rated an A+ and it received a very high rating from TAS.  The Esoteric player is better, not by that much but it is more enjoyable sound."

My observations, except that it is a Luxman SACD player, are similar. Even when using Luxman player as a DAC for SONY (with SSD). Differences are not that big, but I think they are consistent (no, I never did any kind of real test except  "try this, switch to that").

Thankfully, I take it only as an interesting observation and it is the end of my involvement. Convenience prevails and I virtually never play CDs. And, to emphasize, difference may really be down to my preference and not to "better than...".

I find if I use the Sony server, I don't listen to the entire album.  I am always skipping around.  With the CD player, I listen to the entire disk.  That in itself is much more relaxing to me.

It's one of the reasons I listen to radio during the day. If I stream, I am too easily distracted to change the song.

Actually, to add to that, I use SONY server probably 90% of the time for Internet radio. First I was lazy enough to change CDs, then I became lazy enough to even change songs. To make it worse, some days I am lazy enough to turn it on. I would need to get two remotes and click two buttons. What a drag...

"Sorry, but that thing just uses a cheap $20 slot load media disk spinner, like this.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/TS-632A-GATEWAY-M-SERIES-SLOT-LOAD-DVD-RAM-DVDRW-DRIVE-TS-632A-GRADE-A-/264547058626?_trksid=p2385738.m4383.l4275.c10

Try going back to a real CD transport, with some cred."


Actually the above is inaccurate and tells me you don’t know what you are talking about here.