My Last CD player

@vitussl101

Obviously it depends on the equipment one compares. But a CD player is a mechanical device that reads a file off of a CD, a streamer, and a DAC. The file could just as easily be sourced off of a hard drive, or the internet. Noise is a critical factor in putting combinations of these functions together… But there is nothing inherently making a CD or SACD player better / or different sounding like is the case with a turntable. I have owned many CD Players, and streamed. High end audio streamers are now available that can equal or best CD / SACD players at different price points. They have the added advantage of giving you access to virtually unlimited high quality (much of it High resolution) music for the price of one CD per month.

My system is only one example of this, at the higher end admittedly. I have a Audio Research Reference CD9se and a Aurender W20SE. I can directly compare a streaming copy of a red book CD and the red book CD version. My preamp supports gain equalization allowing me to directly compare. No difference… although it wouldn’t surprise me if I listened long enough I wouldn’t find the streamed copy better because I am sure the base noise level of the Aurender is slightly quieter than the ARC CD player (Aurender uses battery power). The key here is that the Qobuz for instance has a lot of high resolution material and it is getting larger every day. The cost is near zero at $19.99 month… you don’t have to buy and store disks… etc.

I’m not just trying to be an argumentative jerk here. I don’t want folks to be thinking if I want the best digital sound They need to buy a CD player and collect disks. That is simply not true any more. Sure, some folks may still want to do it, that is an individuals choice. But the age of the CD is over. It is just a storage media. Over the next years more and more folks are going to be choosing streaming over CDs. As I said it is fundamentally different than analog where there is a difference in the sound of a vinyl disk..

@sgreg1. “IMO the best approach is cd transport only to external dac. Gives  you the most flexibility for upgrades. When the tech changes you upgrade the dac and still maintain the current cd transport.”

I agree. The DAC is the important component... and there is unlikely to be another CD Transport... streaming is taking over... much content is higher quality on streaming service and will only continue this direction. Manufacturers are discontinuing CD Transports. A file is a file, if on a CD, hard drive, or streaming service. CDs are not like vinyl.

To me it was worth getting a streamer that was equivalent to or better than my CD player. Then the amount of music available is nearly infinite at almost no cost. If you can find a CD with different files... you can always rip it. But I have found that there is increasingly more HiRez stuff available on Qubuz and Tidal. Also, when you have access to nearly infinite music you do more exploring and less listening to the same stuff. A CD player is a mechanical spinner, streamer, and DAC... or maybe no DAC. 
You don’t need to go as far as I have, with an Aurender W20SE streamer and Audio Research CD9SE (which I use as a DAC... no difference in Red Book CD versus streamed). Btw, I also have a Berkeley Alpha 3 DAC in my system at the moment and I prefer the ARC CD9SE as a DAC ever so slightly better than the Berkeley).