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My Last CD player

I like my vinyl but digital has its own set of benefits. When my last CD player fell of its perch, I move to streaming audio.  Overall, I have been happy with this decision.  I did notice that lately, a number of posters have been claiming that CD is “better” than streaming.  I figured that most of these were flat earthers. I recently had the opportunity to listen to a “new generation” CD player on a friends system.  I am not sure I would say it was better but it was different and in a very good way.  As I have an extensive CD collection, this set me off to evaluate a new CD player for my system .... at my age presumably the last I will own.  I have identified a few different used players that seem to check the short list boxes: Audio Research cd 7 SE, Ayon cd10 Signature II Ultimate, Ayon cd35 Signature I and Luxman 

D-06u.  I am auditioning the Ayon cd10 at home .... smooth, natural, musical, holographic image, but light on dynamics and soundstage. Anyone have experience with these players?  Any other suggestions?

chilli42
wdguru's avatar
wdguru
12 posts
 
I use an Oppo 203 player as a transport only, with the HDMI audio out port going to a black box from China (HDMI/MHL to IIS I2S HDMI IIS I2S Separate Extract Audio I2S/DSD/Optical/Coaxial). From there it goes to the I2S input of my Holo May dac. The black box costs about $50 and change and works very well. My sacd's play as DSD64 files on the dac. This way you can use one dac for streaming, tv, and cds. I think there is a thread on the PS Audio web site that goes into more detail. The sound quality between  using the Oppo internal dac and the Holo is very large.
rird
91 posts
 
I would never buy any last cd player!
I would buy a transport and a dac. Keep the moving parts units away from the dac. Also, no aes/ebu cable can even near a HDMI IS2 connection. So i would look at a dac and transports that use IS2.
I have Nuprime EVO dac and CDT 8 Pro. But if i would try any new transports i would go for Jays Audio mk3 transport.

bezmania
11 posts
 
It's my understanding that the streaming master isn't always the same as the master used for the physical copy. I'm not sure how accurate this is but it is what I have been told. I have a friend that buys a lot of media, physical cd's, vinyl and also hi-res/flac files. He also streams from a couple sources and he swears there is a difference between the streaming version and his other versions of the same album in most cases. How detectable that difference is and which version will be preferred is debatable.

It is very detectable. I recently added a transport to my system (an old Linn Classik CD), purely as transport. I run the digital output through my streamer (Cambridge Audio Azur 851n), so both streams use the same DAC/amp/speaker chain. The CD-input consistently outperforms the 16/44 source material (from Qobuz in my example). Not so for remastered/hires digital source material. Your suggestion that there is difference in the streaming versus the physical master seems to make the most sense. 
accuphaseyyz
5 posts
 
Whoever made the point about the mechanisms above was right.  Whether your player will be your last one is solely dependent on whether it can be fixed when the mechanism dies - because at some point it will.  Doesn't matter how expensive the gear is (and I have a brand of player where the manufacturer also makes the "we have extra mechanisms" claim - better hope they are still around when my CD tanks !).  All of the suggestions above are reasonable - especially because there are so few decent CD products left on the market.
nordicnorm
313 posts
 
Check out the Esoteric K-01 or APL NWO-Master (a modified Esoteric UX-1Pi), or consider going the transport/DAC/clock route with an Esoteric P-01/D-01 Transport and DAC w/GORb Rubidium Clock combo.
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