Why CD players will never be dead

If we are strictly answering the question, then CD players will never be dead as long as you need a door stop.

Along with cassette,mini disk and DAT confined to history. RIP

Mrtennis,

I have followed your posts to audioengr. I would be careful here as luckily Hifi has now fallen into the arms of the computer world where all the snake oil is cleaned away. Unless you are finding some kind of lucky euphonic coincidence in your set up, it is unlikely any cd player playing in real time can compete these days with a computer server.

You will find focus & purity, with timing & dynamics all in place like no CD/SACD player can match from a well set up computer & DAC combo. I have been there with very exotic players, & they were completely out classed by a humble mac with a decent DAC.

At last digital has come of age like they promised 30 years ago... Don't fall into that audiophile nonsense. The source is unpoluted now... Just worry about all the rest down stream!

Mrtennis,

The fact that you write "alleged" to describe the benefits seems to show an unwillingness to believe.

If I were you I would make it a priority to move to some sort of computer "transport", if not for the "alleged" benefits in sound quality, then for the undisputed ease of accessing your music collection at the swipe of an iPad or press of a key.

I find it hard to believe in the 21st centurary that some wish to look through hundreds of cd covers to find the music they want, then wonder over to a steam powered disk player, pop in the disk, wait for it to read the index, then fumble for the remote to the press play. Why would you do this? The love of the audiophile hair shirt?

Even if the sound quality was the same (and is more likely to be better) the freedom is a much greater benefit than any nuanced euphonics. You can have high quality artwork & all the info as metadata embedded in the file.

It reminds me of the final days of my TT when I could listen to the whole album without having to flip over and clean before playing side 2. The ritual in the end was bogus. It was music we all fell in love with, not rubbish technology & its limitations.

Bjesien,

You can use amarra via iTunes. Amarra just sits on the output.

You can browse in iTunes then when you play, amarra will cache the file & play from memory.

Amarra sounds slightly better & can play gapless if you use amarra on its own. Depending on which version you have you can highlight tracks in iTunes & import into Amarra too.

Personally I like to use iTunes via remote as my browser. So you get full artwork & metadata on your controller (iPad/iPhone etc)

Hi vhiner,

The reason why anyone cares is because this is part of the above discussion. It means nothing to me personally, but I do recognise the audiophile disease in the above posts & I am contributing my experience.

Hi Mrtennis,

I was under the impression the PS audio is a memory player of sorts. So slightly blurs this conversation. It sounds good too. PS audio are an honest company.

Re this tube or that for added audiophile happiness, there is always a way to add the euphonics if that's what works for you. Ironically I ended up with a flea power SET being a bit of a tube hater! So I do understand, but the latest generation DACs completely rewrote what was possible from Digital. Even making my DCS Scarlatti sounding a bit "old" digital & at a cheaper price.

Ok you could use a transport in, but 0 jitter via FireWire sounds way better to me. Also you may find the coloration you are adding now is unnessassary with an extremely fine sounding DAC like the Weiss Medea plus FW. You won't want anything in the way of its stunning sound quality.

Hi Mrtennis,

I totally understand. What I would say is there is a level of digital accomplishment that is far beyond the reference digital of the past & is something that has happened very recently.

I have wrestled with the philosophy of whether a highend system is to be true to the source or not? After all most records have had a fair amount of work & money spent on them to sound the way they do. Then some enthusiast desides he wants it to sound different!

I guess in the end it is down to what you like. But in my experience a bandage over a problem eventually has to be removed. Is the tube output on your player there to bring life into a lifeless player? Maybe a DAC that's totally alive would remove the need for the added tube stage? After all there is a reason for many manufacturers of tube amps etc sounding less tubey.

Having said all that, I am using a power amp whose Genisis in the 1930s! Lol. In my defence I have a very simple signal path, with no extra connections & boxes etc. Just Source-power amp-speakers.