Why Purchase A CD Player or Transport ?

tomcy6
I must agree with you. I am interviewing Amps and Receivers currently and when you walk into a store and they can't play something that you know well...

I have always taken in my own music and now all they want to do is stream and they can't do that correctly. One store actually didn't know how to change sources. I wanted to be listening to something from Steinway & Bros. studio recordings and I was hearing VOCALS. This was the Oldest and best So-CAlled Hi-End store in Denver. Another had the ability to play disks if you consider an Xbox a suitable transport device. I am thinking if I want to look for new equipment I will have to drive or fly to Albuquerque or Salt Lake City because Denver HAS NOTHING to offer. Of course, this hilly billy town never did have any class.
But back to your comment. I know of a lot of offerings that are not readily available. Possibly they will have one from the same musician but not the album you want to hear. That is unless you want to listen to Youtube. Then there are issues with the providers. Amazon music likes playing the ignorant game of not providing consistent service if you use something other than Firefox for a web browser. If places like that can't grow up...

Then there are the bit rates of the different services. I believe that 16/48 should be a minimum even for the free users and then when looking at what is offered, not everything is offered at higher quality bitrates. I know this is improving but still lacks hugely.

I took these past few 'stay at home' years to upgrade, bit by bit, until main/office/garage-shop systems were all upgraded.

Began with wanting a long tonearm. Led to a TT with 3 tonearms, proper mono listening for the first time, and essentially all vinyl.

However, I own a heck of a lot of CDs and SACDs, and I started a quest for a better sounding SACD/CD player.

I went thru 9 different players until I settled on my Sony xa5400es

I went thru a re-discovery process, opposite of vinyl re-discovery, it put new life in all my existing CDs and I am buying used CDs occassionally without hesitation. after R2R tape, vinyl is preferred, but my CDs sound better than ever!

Do It.

@vonhelmholtz Why not invest in a proper high resolution file server instead? Do you already have the CDs that you want to be playing through a transport? If not, you will still have to find and buy them. Most high resolution albums, even DSD versions from a SACD are available for purchase for download to local storage from HDTracks, 7digital, or other services. A proper high resolution server will have no spinning parts, hence less vibration, with lower noise through a quality internal LPS, SSD storage and file caching, and improved isolation from non-digital signals. You will get a bit further with your money this route, as chances are you would invest in a file server down the road anyways once buying, storing, and playing discs becomes too cumbersome.

The NUC you have is a great start but there are much better server solutions that include the features I list above, and the sound quality will be a huge step forward with them as a result. Happy to chat options with you over PM. 

@esarhaddon 

What places have you visited in Denver ? Soundings Fine Audio and Crescendo both are high end and have very knowledgeable sales people. 

ronboco
Crescendo was the shop that used the Xbox, and the salesperson spent more time making excuses as to why I couldn't hear anything below about 60 Hz (he had removed his sub) instead of making sure his system was running its finest. I did call ahead and tell them exactly what I wants and expected. Also, their walls are paper thin and I got more sound from the unit in the room next door than the one I wanted to hear.
Soundings, What can I say, I believe this is the store that just moved and they are not even set up for auditions.
Two or three other stores, have TXT windows on their web pages and they pretend to talk to you for ages upon ages only to be told they will have someone call you back and no one ever dies. on One of those sites the person I was texting actually thought that Marantz was a speaker manufacturer.
Denver has nothing but Losers (LOOZERS!) for contact people. Colorado Springs has far better options but not many. One store there actually offered to let me bring in my speakers and try them on their amps. Not an easy task as they are full towers and weigh about 80+ lbs ea. I thought that was brave of them. But were they knowledgeable all they would have to do is pop a meter on my speaks and see what they measure before connecting than to their Equip. Also, the Springs has a few National class designers living there.

I try not to mention names, but you brought them up.