CD and Network Streamers

Hi Martin?

There has been a lot of progress over the last ten to twenty years, quickly replaced by streaming. We have gone from CD players and Vinyl to streaming. I have been following and been disappointed by digital for decades… but then CD players (a transport, streamer, and DAC in the same box) started to mature and approach vinyl about fifteen years ago.

In the last ten years there has been a flash of playing high Rez files. But today streaming (Qobuz … or Tidal) can equal vinyl. In my system it does… yes full wide soundstage, imaging, tonal balance… etc. it is worth skipping intermediate technologies like CD players. You need a high end streamer (think Aurender) and a high end DAC. But for $12.99 per month you have access to nearly infinite music… at CD quality or better. Qobuz has over half a million high resolution albums on line. I have had many streamers to get my systems where they are.

Don’t waste your money on CD players. Work on putting together a streamer / DAC… it will future proof you and give you nearly infinite access to music.

If you have a PC you can rip any CDs to lossless files and play them on most streamers from $100 up (with USB input.)  I have a fine CD transport but rarely use it..

I ripped all of my CDs and play them from the Aurender’s internal SSD.  Hardly worth the money unless you either have lots of free cash, or want to spend a good bit of time listening to music.

@vonhelmholtz

I would think you intended to say, “hardly worth the time”. assuming you already had the CDs. I’m giving away my CDs.

Fortunately I had ripped mine over the last fifteen years… so I put them on my streamer… but I never play them. They sound exactly the same as the streamed version and often Qobuz has a higher resolution version available. I probably play a ripped CD once a year.

Do you have a lot of CDs?  One thing to consider would be a streamer that incorporates a CD ripper that can also just play CDs.  Melco N100 is a streamer with 2TB storage and if you get their CD ripper it can be used as a CD player.  Total cost around $3500.  The N100 can also be used as a server for other servers that may be on the network, such as in a second system elsewhere in the home