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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
ghdprentice
6,465 posts
 
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). 
jafant
18,899 posts
 
chilli42

You have a very fine short-list of CD player choices. In this day and time, I would consult each company or their authorized repair center(s) for availibility for critical parts. Specifically, drive/optical blocks for future replacement. 
For me, this aspect of ownership is crucial.

Happy Listening!
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. 
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