CD vs.same CD ripped to HD


Hi all,

So I hope this seemingly simple question doesn't star a war.  

The background is that I have a ton of CDs and am considering getting a Bluesound Vault 2i so that I can rip them to the Vault's HD, and play them from there. 

The simple question is: how does the SQ compare between the two?  The CD player is a Marantz SA-8004 digital out to a Denefrips Ares II DAC.  I would also use the digital out of the Vault 2i through that DAC.  

FWIW, I prefer vinyl (though it is getting closer and closer).  But more than anything I'm a music fan, with a whole lot of great music on silver discs.

Opinions??

Richard


rnm4


A ripped CD to a HD has just as many read errors as the cd had, as it’s the CD transport/player that uses it’s error correction to correct the bit error reads, and inserts a 1 or 0 in place of the error, which is has a 50% chance of getting it correct.

Then you’ll get bit read errors from the HD that it then has to correct, also 50% chance.

Then jitter also comes into it for both.

A ripping from CD to HD is is NOT any cleaner, it can be worse.

Best is playing the original stamped retail CD, as any read errors are corrected once only.

Cheers George
+3 George 

to specifically deal with the OP equipment, I have owned both the Marantz and the Vault2.  They are a good match sonically.  The Marantz rolls off the top end but is great in the midrange.  The Vault2 is more balanced but short on detail everywhere when compared to better equipment.  I would find myself preferring the Marantz, but it isn’t night and day, and yes the convenience of a streamer can be seductive.
  A few points about the Vault2.  It isn’t a perfect ripper.  I had batch ripped hundreds of discs and find areas of skips, some that were truly unplayable.  Make sure you clean each disc prior to ripping.  Secondly, the Vault2 can crash , particularly after the frequent mandatory updates.  Don’t throw out those CDs just yet.  And if you like the Vault2, resist the temptation to add another unit to a different system, such as the Node2, because a lot of issues occur during the aforementioned updates, where one player gets hung up during the update and the other doesn’t.  If the whole home thing is important, try Sonos.
  I personally am very happy with Melco, both sonically and quality.
If you get the comparable player/NAS unit, the N 100 it will cost slightly more than the Vault2 but well worth it. You can use a standard Optical Disc ripper, but their ripper CD/ transport is well worth it
Thanks for the replies, all.  On the whole, it sounds to me as if I should just stop being lazy and use my CDP.  This convenience thing is going too far!