I want to upgrade my digital side … (currently Bluesound Vault 2i feeding the DAC of Oppo 105) … plan to spend around $2k … since I’ve ripped all my CDs to the Vault, thinking of spending it all on a DAC, and retire/sell the Oppo while it still has some value. I do have a few older CDPs I could retain as backup, but not sure why I would ever need.
Alternatively, was considering a better combined CDP/DAC like a newer Marantz or Yamaha … upgrades DAC performance some, and a reliable spinner for quite a few more years … but I have very few SACDs, so feeling like this would be the tail wagging the dog.
I still am buying CD's I don't follow trends, I've burned some discs to USB and played them back and the CD always sounded better, and I still like holding a disc.
I have neither the time nor care to burning 1,300 CDs and god knows how many songs so I can sit with a tablet in my hand had to pick a song to play. I know it's cool though and different, but hey I still know why a preamp sounds better than using the volume control on my Esoteric SACD player.
I just purchased a new CD player last week (Marantz cd 6007) it made my CD collection sing again. I have been streaming Tidal and just recently Qobuz.I must say when comparing the two ( streaming to CD player) I am hearing a bit more from the CD player. I have about 60 CD's so I will keep listening and comparing.
I think that like most of the discussions on this site there is no correct answer, just preferences. I grew up in the late 60s where vinyl was the only option. Now I am one of the youngish baby boomers who loves the physical aspect of the CD disks, and although I sometimes stream for headphones, my primary focused listening is to different CD types through a tube-based system (Esoteric K-01XD player (with external Cybershaft clock) >Luxman Cl1000 preamp>ARC 250SE amps>Wilson Audio Sasha DAW speakers).
For my it is now and always be about the music snd any way I can get it. I never want to eliminate any of the access I can use. I will always look to add the new as additional options but will never take one step backward. This is why I still have my Nakamichi cassette deck up and running. There are times I just want to put a tape in and kick back, not always the critical sound I want but still has that mellow relaxed sound. Remember it is about the music so always look forward but don’t close any doors behind you.
Assuming that you do a proper job of ripping and storing and backing up your files, I would spend the money on a better DAC instead of a player. I've ripped all of my CDs (around 5,000) to WAV files.
The issue is adding to your collection. Will you be adding CDs (need for a ripper) or downloading files or streaming to get new content? A lot of content that is available for streaming is not of high quality; much has been actually re-mastered to lower the dynamic range to makes it better for listening in high noise environment such as in the car or through earbuds while in public, or because a lot of people actually like "loud" music. If you are diligent, you can actually find older CDs or specialty re-issues that are superior in sound to what is streamed to you. I continue to add to my CD collection, which means doing some ripping and storing the content. For that, I have a ripper that has an 5TB built in hard drive.
Personally I doubled down on a better CDP in the last few months simply because CDs are such good value now compared to vinyl. I am one of those folks who likes to choose the right tool for the job - so I maintain streaming setups and spin vinyl as well, but wouldn't just abandon one format for another.
Having spent more time and money building a digital music library and a streaming workflow than I care to admit, I'm now thrilled to have "gone back" to CDs. I had a small collection of about a hundred discs, so I never really left them to begin with, but I was on the verge of doing so, having been seduced by the ease of storage and supposedly better sound quality of lossless digital. Eventually, I realized just the opposite is true. Myself and many others are finding overall CD sound quality to be superior to that of FLAC, ALAC, etc., but not by the numbers, not by any technical assessment, and only if you have quality equipment that can bring out what's really on your discs. Plenty has been written about this and I don't want to hijack the OP's post for another long winded debate.
For me, the other joy of CDs is what vinyl fans have known for a long time. There is nothing better than sitting on the floor with some friends and wading through a music collection, taking time to enjoy the liner notes and artwork, and playing an album through from start to finish. In fact, I set up my listening space with exactly that in mind.
My humble compact disc collection has doubled in size over the last year. I also upgraded one of my old Sony players, and a good one it was, to a Music Hall player that also serves as a stand alone DAC. At the same time, I've downloaded some singles here and there, which is the real value of digital music for me - when I'm not excited about the entire album, I can buy just a few. Because I purchase most of my CDs through places like Bandcamp, I always have free access to an album's lossless files for those times when I want to listen during business hours at my workstation. Some of those files get downloaded to my hard drive, some I just stream with my iPhone with the app.
I really think there's a place for both CDs and digital downloads in this world. Vinyl, on the other hand, well, no thank you. It has its moments, but they're too few and far between for me. Good luck, and enjoy the music!
Several years ago, I ripped my CD collection (about 10,000 tracks) to an Innous Zenith MKII streamer. It took me a while! I retired my McIntosh CD player and haven’t looked back.
I’ve had no issues playing FLAC, DSD, and streaming via the Zenith to a Matrix x-SPDIF 2 to my DirectStream DAC. I’ve got a decent system and love the way it sounds. I’m finished buying stereo equipment and physical media.
The convenience of having so much quality sounding music at my fingertips was worth the trouble of ripping my collection to FLAC. On rare occasion, I’ll record one of my old school albums (that you can’t find on-line) to my media laptop, burn a CD, and store it on the Zenith. I even went so far as to record a couple of reels that I made back in the 80’s to a computer, burned them to CD, and stored them on the Zenith.
Being able to create custom Roon playlists from Tidal, Qobuz, or anything on the Zenith is pretty neat. I’m 73. At this point in my life, I'm just trying to enjoy the music!
I sold all my CDs, except for remasters and hard-to-find. I'm now 90+% Amazon Music HD and the rest ripped CDs. So I stream from either an Echo device or my laptop through a
S.M.S.L Sanskrit 10th MK II DAC. Go to Audio Science Review to see distortion specs on DACs. You don't have to spend a lot to reach well below audible distortion levels.
My CD collection is a lifetime's work- a lot bought at concerts and workshops- having to scroll through a screen is an anathema to me- the whole world is full of zombies with earbuds staring at a little glass tablet or spending their day in front of a screen only to come home to he same (or worse be at home all day in front of one as well). What's so hard about using a CD? My Discmaster is still going strong and is a joy to use with the top opening glass lid and magnetic puck. I have a back-up collection of CD players and DACs should the worst happen.
Also a mistrust in placing my custom with streaming services. Discovering new music used to be about listening to the radio with a pen and paper and talking to fellow music lovers, even reding one of those book things or a magazine, not relying on algorithms.
Right now I’m streaming Bandcamp off my iPhone 📱 into a Zen iFi Bluetooth receiver into an Odyssey Etesian pre > Odyssey Khartago > QUAD 21 L. It sounds great. My Marantz HD-CD1 is a fantastic CDP for the thousand or so CDs I have. My 5500 LP library gets played the most. I ❤️ media. Peace
@orgillian197 Of course you can backup everything. If you keep multiple copies it is a very, very low risk that you will lose it.
I like to have one or two hard drives and a cloud based backup. If the cloud goes out of business I still have my hard drives and can upload everything to another provider. Or if my house burns down I still have the cloud backup (but maybe no stereo to play anything on anymore).
Why would you want to create a computer file when you already own the CD? I cannot see any advantages other than a saving in rack space. 99% of all the music I listen to is on CD or SACD, and I cannot see the point of converting them to computer files or ditching my CD player. Although I do own a Bluesound Node 2i and I have a few FLAC files stored on its USB drive, this is limited to music that is not available on CD. So far I have only used 12GB from a 128GB USB drive and although it sounds reasonably good it is nowhere near as good as music played on the CD player.
Hard drives crash and you can't back up everything. Cloud services change owners or even worse just vanish. Meanwhile, I have a radio station's worth of CDs, SACDs, some vinyl and an OPPO and Onyko for the digital and a Music Hall turntable for the vinyl.
Some might call holding onto physical media being foolish but I prefer the peace of mind it gives. In fact, if I could go back and not dump my original vinyl collection and turntable, I would.
But best of all, if my wife outlives me, it'll give her something to sell.
Me, I’ve ditched my spinner. I still buy CD’s though, just to RIP them to my NAS drive, which is a RAID array, so built in backup. The sound quality from the CD RIP via my optimised Ethernet network to my Bricasti M5 streamer to the DAC is in a different league to the same CD played directly on a £2000 CD player.
I have ripped more than 1100 CDs with my Cocktailaudio X45Pro. Just stick the CD into the slot and it rip's away to the HD. The X45 automatically downloads meta data from web. I have ripped to FLAC with no issues. Occasionally the X45 finds the wrong meta data. This can be easily corrected manually from several sources on the web.
I no longer use a preamp. The X45 has all the features needed included digital balance, a feature that I find useful. I just connect it to my Classe amp with balanced cables and my audiophile friends are amazed.
Many are migrating to all digital streaming and hard drive, and there is no doubt a good DAC can extract a lot of detail and make a great system. But the problem I see is that, because everything is at hand, your listening changes too and you just jump around rather than listening to a CD/LP that often the artist put a ton of time into to create a musical arc. It’s instant gratification time. So I still prefer to keep my CDs and Vinyl as physical music I put on and play through. So, like some other posts have mentioned I’d keep both the ‘shiny spinner’ and digital hard drive. Like you too I have a few SACDs but given there all but one playable as CDs too, opting for a new SACD is probably not the ‘best’ option. So it all comes down how you listen and interact with your music collection, but I’d buy the DAC and see how it all sounds before ditching anything!
troutki5040, please let us know how it sounds. I've got the 1st pressing, 2 different mofi LPs and a mofi CD, so I tried to resist buying the new DSOTM SACD.... but I'm sure I only succeeded in putting it off for a day or two.
I’ve got 2 Marantz sacd 30n’s that can also be used for streaming that I purchased within the last year. I love having physical media and have collected a lot of cds over the years. Before that, it was cassettes and before that was vinyl. The cds have survived my youth and subsequent moves much better than either (though I am discovering the joys of vinyl again). Who, knows perhaps I’ll refurbish my old Nakamichi cr-2a and revisit cassettes? My old Nakamichi om-s1 is still kicking, though the new Marantz units sound much better to me. I realize that there are superior options for streaming and the convenience of having a digital juke box has its appeal. Though I’m too set I’m my ways and quite satisfied with my gear.
I like the streaming aspect of the sacd 30n best for sampling new music before making a purchase.
I'm still staying with CDs cuz I think they sound better than streaming and I have an esoteric P10 transport with a Wyred for sound 10th anniversary dac.
Personally I like cd/ sacds better. Streaming isn’t there yet imho. Plus I just like the equipment and collected music! Everyone has their preference! Happy listening!😎🎶
I just got the new SACD of Dark Side of the Moon today in the mail. Can't wait to see how it stacks up to the other various versions I have of this album.
Digital to me is just another method of getting what I really want more of...music.
This is an interesting discussion…I have been focusing on my vinyl collection and had planned on completely ditching my CD collection and rely on a streaming solution…then I had a conversation with someone about how much they enjoy their SACD recordings and I had the opportunity to acquire a Modwright modified Sony SACD player. The player arrived a couple of weeks ago and I am stunned by the sound quality. I have reversed my stance completely (in fact I have ordered about a half dozen SACDs this week) and have been playing CD after CD. As others have said, I really do like the physical media and the liner notes and, maybe, a bit of the nostalgia as I harken back to when I got into higher end audio as the CD was making its emergence. For me, the CDP is here to stay.
I have a huge collection of vinyl & discs and just keep spinning them. I'm old (too :-)) & just haven't had the desire to dig into the streamer &/or hard drive rabbit hole (yet).
Streaming is great to find new music. I reward those artists I discover by purchasing their CD and truly enjoying on my Oppo 205. I only listen seriously to music when the mood strikes me and only the Oppo can satisfy me.
@david_ten - funny you should say that because as I was writing I was thinking that exact thing. People who never experienced analog probably think that the vinyl thing is a separate hobby unto itself. Look - everything we do is far beyond what the average person does in bringing music into their home. If they do it at all. And all of us take it to the degree we find interesting. I have a very nice analog setup, but I could never spend 30 minutes cleaning a record on a Kirmuss, but some people live for it. Enjoy yourself how you like while you can.
I would never give up any of my disc spinners because i have a vintage system and streamers do not sound good enough on vintage speakers, disc spinners are the only way to go when you have the speakers capable of playing what is on the disc.
@chayro Would you say the same regarding the pursuit of analog? I. E. "It's something else to do to keep busy"?
the whole streaming thing seems like a hobby unto itself. Servers, streamers, endpoints, switches. I think if that’s what you like, have at it. It’s something else to do to keep busy.
I like CDs, but to me, the whole streaming thing seems like a hobby unto itself. Servers, streamers, endpoints, switches. I think if that’s what you like, have at it. It’s something else to do to keep busy. But it doesn’t intrigue me personally.
The PS Audio memory player keeps my silver discs relevant as they sound better than the streaming versions (at 16/44) or ripped versions. Great player!
I did just that ripped all my CDs to the Bluesound Vault and gave away my CDs I'm using Ayre Codex Dac upgraded the Bluesound to Aurended N10 and will upgrade my Dac to Aesthtix Pandora I think with the Pandora I will surpass my analog setup you don't have to worry about the drive crashing because you back it up on another drive
The physical media is nice, often, in settling me into a continual experience. It helps one "commit" more often to an extended listen with an album or artist.
The streaming is a discovery tool like no other; a cornucopia of newness.
I opt for BOTH and think I'll stay with the CDs for a while but would not give up the streaming.
maybe I'll bite the proverbial bullet and cruise Qobuz or Primephonic for something I've never heard before.
Finding new music, a lot of which I’d never have found otherwise, is the best thing about streaming IME. In fact, I find myself listening more to new music than my own stuff, and frankly I’m enjoying and have more fun listening to music than ever before. Beats the crap outta wandering over to my CD rack for more of the same old stuff, but that’s me.
What can I say? I like to wander over to my CD/SACD rack and ponder what I might want to listen to. The same goes with my LP shelves & boxes of singles. I just find it easier to stroll through physical media than to squint at a website. By the same token, though, maybe I'll bite the proverbial bullet and cruise Qobuz or Primephonic for something I've never heard before. How 'bout a new performance of a Mozart Symphony, an oddball outtake of an old REM tune, or something mentioned in a record review?
Not me. I'll play my CDs until my player dies and just get another one. Back ups always go bad which is why you need to copy and backup even more. It's a never ending process.
Every day I read of how sound improvements pop up with better this and tbetter hat for all the boxes and cabling needed. Instead of simplify, it's more complicated way to do it with so many variables to go wrong.
I don't mind handling CDs. I don't get why people do mind. If you're not handling a CD, you're handling some app instead on your phone or tablet. Never wanted to be a DJ and scroll thru tons of songs I'll never listen to just to say "look how much I have stored but never listen to".
By the time you're all set and ready to go, along comes a better way to do it but it'll cost you even more and require better cabling or some new software or app. And in the end, lots of pro reviewers talk of how their CD always sound better than their streaming set ups.
I'll take their word for it and save myself the hassle.
@deadhead1000 exactly what I am doing now and planning, although still have the CDs and probably have a harder time parting with them (though I should). For all practical purposes the Vault IS the CDP, and don’t think an upper level CDP’s DAC will be as good as ripped and fed back to a stand-alone DAC at same price point. We dinosaurs find it hard to break old habits 😁
I ripped all my CD's to a Bluesound Vault and never use my CD player now. I have several backups just in case and run it through an outboard DAC now, which did improve the sound. I have once in a while though about buying a newer CD player, but can't seem to find a good reason. And now I don't have shelves filled with CD's. More room for books....
has beaten all the usual suspects bluesound innous lumin and roon we sell most of those and the difference is audibile a better server creates a more analog like presentation with a more engaging sound with a biger sound stage
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