Buying CostlyCD Players-worthy during these days?

Audio_Freek

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Hi Fm,

I could see people ready to spend whole sum of amount even equal to the Amps some times for CD Players. But i was surprised that even they dont support the DVD or the Digital input,More over Blu ray player also doest cost.

Hence like to know the secret left behind owning a CD Player breaking the Bank.

Hence posting the thread in this forum.

Give me the keys to enter the world of CD Players:)
 
Unless you have an unlimited bank balance and cost is no consideration, its not worth buying a high end CD player.Instead you can go in for an all-in-one, like Oppo 103.This will play all your discs, stream all files,and give you audiophile like sound. If you don't mind spending a little more, add an external DAC to the 103, or upgrade to Oppo 105.
 
Docd,

Thanks for your feedback, yep its better to own a Multiple media Player which can play,CD,DVD,HDD,Blu ray etc.But i wonder so CD Players are sold in used market around 50K and above range. So just thinking how does it would be different from a Entry level CDP from Onida\Sony\ Etc when it some to sending the signals to Amp
 
I have hardly used my "expensive" CD player since I switched over to digital files. I would even consider selling it at 50% of cost - even though it has had about 50 hours of play. This is a CD player that doubles as a preamp, is a world-class DAC, regular and balanced outputs, offers optical and S/Pdif inputs as well as asynch USB input, is an SACD player too and has a transport that weighs 15 lbs. Yet in today's world it is a difficult sale. I think times have changed and there are many good alternatives if one is adventurous.

However, expensive CD players are the way for some - that is the beauty of audiophile equipment....there's something for everyone and not everyone is comfortable with digital or vinyl.
 
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Absolutely not. They play numerous audio formats. They handle video extremely well. If you need a machine with those capabilities, they are the right tool for the job. And there's nothing wrong with buying something because it's extremely well-made, or novel in some way, or just old-school.

It's pretty subjective, but there are differences in the sound signature of the different players. Where does the CDP technology end (ie. is it just the drives, optical reader?) or does the output stage also count? I'm not sure CD drive technology has really improved that much. The selection of different output sections (ie. op amp configurations, DAC configurations, tube vs ss) has definetely improved as far as number of choices available. I would rate some of these as a definite improvement over a couple of older CDP's I had.

Im a firm believer that it is the analog stage, transports and power supplies that feed them is what separate the good from the great as far as DAC and CD players are concerned. The entire audio business of CD transports and DACs is built on the totally backward setup of the CD player containing the Master Clock and the DAC being the Slave. This results in the entire palette of innovations to lessen Jitter, starting from air drives to expensive digital cable technologies with complex math to reduce line-induced Jitter, to very carefully filtered power supplies, to all sorts of very necessary things when you want to achieve the least possible Jitter. So we have the worst possible digital scenario bringing in the most possible amount of money.

There are plenty of people here who can afford much more expensive CDPs than they have. But they know what makes a difference, and what doesn't. Where as there are people who are trying to cover up the fact that they've wasted a boatload of money on things that really don't make a difference. You have to decide who you want to believe.

Cheers
 
What may appear expensive or very expensive to one, may not be to another.

Leaving consumer cdp from Sony/ Onida (I am not even sure if these companies make dedicated CD player or not, I think the cheapest one of Marantz starts at 26K at hifimart.

Even I wish to buy an entry level CDP around 20K (new or used) after sometime. Currently, I am very happy using my Philips DVD player to play ACDs. So I hope after buy a dedicated budget CDP, the quality will improve more. I do not have huge collection of cds, but trying to slowly built it.
 
Audio_Freek, since you are on this forum, I assume you have access to a computer and know how to use it well. With that assumption, I can wholeheartedly recommend you to move to computer based playback. I switched to computer based playback some two-decades ago and today I can't even imagine using any other way of playing music.

A CD player is worth bothering with only for 2 or maximum 3 reasons.

(1) You have an unexplainably large collection of CDs (physical media) that you are emotionally attached with and like the feel of playing the music by walking up to the transport inserting your disc and choosing tracks.

(2) You have an unexplainably large collection of CDs and live in a volatile kind of power situation, where you can't have a computer and a NAS storage running to assist play your music.

(3) You want to trade cost for simplicity. A computer based setup can turn out quite economical. But you prefer a simple one box solution.

If the above criteria fits you, by all means go ahead and buy an expensive CD player. But you will see that more and more people worldwide are moving towards computer based play which is a lot more economical and much more easier to get right then any other playback mechanism available in our time.
 
Docd,

Thanks for your feedback, yep its better to own a Multiple media Player which can play,CD,DVD,HDD,Blu ray etc.But i wonder so CD Players are sold in used market around 50K and above range. So just thinking how does it would be different from a Entry level CDP from Onida\Sony\ Etc when it some to sending the signals to Amp

The question here is will upgrading from a CD player costing 50K to say one costing 150K give you a proportionate increase in SQ? Some improvement may occur but is the cost justified? It maybe if you have very deep pockets! To give you my own case, I use my Marantz CD 5001 entry level player as a transport to feed the ESS Sabre 9018 DAC in my Peachtree Decco 65 digital amp. Iam very happy with the SQ. But just for fun I used my Sony Viao laptop's CD drive to play discs thru the USB input on the Peachtree. Believe me I had to really listen closely to ascertain if there was any difference. Iam sure there was none!
 
Audio_Freek, since you are on this forum, I assume you have access to a computer and know how to use it well. With that assumption, I can wholeheartedly recommend you to move to computer based playback. I switched to computer based playback some two-decades ago and today I can't even imagine using any other way of playing music.

A CD player is worth bothering with only for 2 or maximum 3 reasons.

(1) You have an unexplainably large collection of CDs (physical media) that you are emotionally attached with and like the feel of playing the music by walking up to the transport inserting your disc and choosing tracks.

(2) You have an unexplainably large collection of CDs and live in a volatile kind of power situation, where you can't have a computer and a NAS storage running to assist play your music.

(3) You want to trade cost for simplicity. A computer based setup can turn out quite economical. But you prefer a simple one box solution.

If the above criteria fits you, by all means go ahead and buy an expensive CD player. But you will see that more and more people worldwide are moving towards computer based play which is a lot more economical and much more easier to get right then any other playback mechanism available in our time.

To be frank, I have large collection of Cassettes getting played in Deck (Just followed from my Dad),Then CD entered in my life, again i was happy about the storage capacity which is available in them, but again my journey ended with into of DVD for few years and now like almost since 2010 am got used to Playing Music via Usb Sticks.

Now down to to Media Player, as only advantage of Media player, i can carry my music with me everywhere and just get lost, Connecting it to TV or PC.

But recently i fell in love with LP Now Planned to setup TT for my room listening. Am completely forgotten the DVD\CD\Cassette.

So am completely moved from Digital to the Phono finally.. But in corner of m heart some love last for Cassette too. But its not so easy to find Deck repairing and cassette recording now a days.

One thing is sure, i felt the soul of music in TT when i didnt get even in cassettes\cd\dvd these years.

Also the best part of LP is that it need to be taken care like a Baby, So cleaning them and maintaining them would be my best time pass during the weekends. It going to make my life happy anyways. Am very sentimental to the music, as once i have not spoken to my friend for monthsJust because he lost my CD, Which had my best collection collected almost for a year,:eek:hyeah:
 
My 2 cents,

With lots of thought and research, I went with Oppo 105 for my dedicated HT/listening room and Oppo 93 for my living room. Oppo does lots of things for me and absolutely love these players. Since I got both of them in US at USD price and hand carried them with me , with out paying duties :D, I think they are amazing value for me.

Here are the main advantages they offer for me.

1. It does all the network related playback that I needed. I use PLEX and Twonky Beam to stream music and video from my computer and android mobile to my Oppos.
2. It plays any kind of disc you put in. The biggest advantage is it plays VCD and I have lots of my kid's rhymes and other kids stuff still on VCD :). It reminds me of the old Onida DVD player ad where it plays even a "roti" when you put in :lol:
3. Oppo 105 has 2 HDMI in and it seems like they added these two inputs "just for me". Because I wanted Oppo - 105 to receive the HDMI video input from my DTH and play it from the Projector connected to Oppo. Also I wanted to watch the videos from my mobile in my Projector so the second MHL enabled HDMI input just does that for me.
4. Oppo 105 has a great DAC inbuilt and I don't need to invest in any other DAC and I get an all in one solution. And I leverage this DAC for all my music play back. Be it from CD/DVD-A/FLAC/Online Radio.
5. Though I don't play musing through USB, Oppo 105 has the USB input if I wish to play music through USB later.
6. The picture quality these players offer is just amazing. I can clearly see my VCDs and DVDs play in better quality than played from a regular Sony DVD-P.
7. Oppo - 105 has a built in pre-amp and digital volume control. I am now using Oppo - 105 directly connected to my power amp. And it sounds very good for stereo. For HT, I use the HDMI connection to my AVR.
8. Oppo 105 has an inbuilt head phone amp and I never used it yet :).

Thanks,
John.
 
Johny,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, of Oppo. But my wish list keep on increasing now:lol:, your interest would get matched for Fm's who like to keep all the CD to HDD era get played,just give them chance to preserve them instead of throwing them or selling for few penny's.

The only thing im looking is Portability and adaptability at present. After going through the forum and surfing i have finally planned to End up in getting Himedia Player 600B.
The few reasons i have for is
1. It has Slot for HDD which can be extended till 2TB. I could rip most of my stuffs from CD and load to them-So whenever i go out with friends, Just i need to carry the Player and just RCA Cables.
2.I understand that their is In Built DAC too, so it could provide me Seamless Music.
3.Its Small and hence can carry it with No hassle.

4.I could Buy CD's and rip them into the Player and i could find this is One stop solution for my all requirement.

But i really feel bad about the CD's, tough to Maintain, Even a lighter scratch would make me worried, and storing them is another issue.
 
Although a Universal player, the Oppo is at heart an optical disc player, albeit a very good one. There may be some value in a specialized disc player to some even to this day, and there are some people that are willing to pay a premium for it, although today I cannot see great value in legacy CD-only players.

It is interesting that there are several companies that take the Oppo-105 as a base and tweak it in various ways. Some called them Mods (Modwright, Ric Schulz) or Signature Editions (The Upgrade Company), while other boutique brands actually re-brand the machine. Oppo has always taken a very sporting view of this, acknowledging that there are people willing to pay even more for higher grade components with higher tolerance levels and ensuing sound quality.

The one reason why everyone (who uses digital) needs a CD-player is that inevitable day when one's HDD crashes :(.....or at least some form of back up. The best CD players today also provide world-class DACs, which is an added bonus for some to spend the big bucks in the pursuit of absolute sound quality irrespective of price.
 
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In my humble opinion it is a subjective choice. Its the same reason people still buy a pre and power amp instead of an integrated, or a Transporter and a DAC instead of a CD player. In the end its all about the sound and what you can afford.
 
Keroo,

Valid Point, I heard that Pre+Power combo are really out of market but still there a ample sum of Market out for Prepower. The most worrying part is they can be better sounding when paird as per Companies Protocol.

In case Pre\power sent down, We cant find the Market to buy either one, as they sold as combo.

Concern to DAC is think, its a dedicated unit and have a different function, So a private DAC is must in case to use with Mobile,Ipad,Mp3,PC.
 
Its a personal choice - if you have a large haul of cds, it does make sense to have a disc player. I personally lived without a disc player for a very very long time. However once I got a decent one, my disc collection has grown pretty astronomically of late. It also helps that my player has digital inputs so I can use it as a pretty high quality DAC for network streamed files. IMHO, buying a disc player without digital inputs (either USB or Coax) makes pretty much no sense. But if you do have a disc player, it does get used more often than you realize. Another interesting side effect is that earlier my wife never touched my audio system. These days after I got the cd player, she at times uses it more than I do.
 
Reignofchaos,

Now i have one question for you :), Do you like to RIP your CD's to Digital and use then at one touch or will search for the CD and play them, when you like too?

Moreover, the disadvantage i have noticed in CDP are they are restricted to play all formats of Audio too ,I Could rarely find of CDP with Digital Inputs playing FLAC or WAV.
As the RAW formats are always large in size and cannot be filled easily in 700MB Cd;S.
 
Reignofchaos,

Now i have one question for you :), Do you like to RIP your CD's to Digital and use then at one touch or will search for the CD and play them, when you like too?

Moreover, the disadvantage i have noticed in CDP are they are restricted to play all formats of Audio too ,I Could rarely find of CDP with Digital Inputs playing FLAC or WAV.
As the RAW formats are always large in size and cannot be filled easily in 700MB Cd;S.

I have most of my CDs ripped and if the cd exists as an iso image, I prefer playing that over the physical media. Right now I'm in the process of replacing my laptop with a battery powered raspberry pi to do the playback duties that can then be controlled by an android or ios device. I hate any sort of fan noise in my listening sessions and hopefully the raspberry pi can get rid of that issue.

If the cd player has an spdif or usb input, it doesn't need to support flac or wav. Those can be streamed by the source (computer or whatever) as PCM data.
 
Reignofchaos,

Now i have one question for you :), Do you like to RIP your CD's to Digital and use then at one touch or will search for the CD and play them, when you like too?

Moreover, the disadvantage i have noticed in CDP are they are restricted to play all formats of Audio too ,I Could rarely find of CDP with Digital Inputs playing FLAC or WAV.
As the RAW formats are always large in size and cannot be filled easily in 700MB Cd;S.

+1 to ripping of CDs and storing them in a hard disk and also on a backup if you could afford that :). I read Staxx's story a while back and it was unfortunate. A back-up always help. Even I had seen hard disk crashes and you CAN NOT afford to lose your music library. As Audio_Freek pointed out, the advantage of being able to search your music is also a very important advantage when you store then ripped. It also helps lazy bums like me to likes to play CDs back to back with out needing to "walk" to the player and change it. Though I love LPs, I don't want to play them on a lazy day as I have keep going to the player every 25-30 mins :D.

-John.
 
Yeah...I learnt the hard way. Now I have one set of my music on HDDs which I hook up to my media player; one set as back up on my NAS; and the most important of my music on a few more HDDs in storage. This is in addition to the CDs that have been ripped and are also put away in storage.

But I actually think, after some considerable experience with both, that a reasonably well set up digital system can sound even better than CDs played on a good CD player. I moved to digital in a quest for absolute sound quality (leaving aside the vinyl argument), which also has the added advantage of quick and easy access to my music collection. This is the main reason I am do not advocate spending big amounts on a CD player.
 
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