Do I still need my CD player?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by action pact, May 12, 2019.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    if one owns CDs...of course!
     
    bhazen likes this.
  2. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    Keep the Rotel CD player to use as a transport. And also to use as a comparison for HDCD decoding.

    Playing the same CD on the transport connected to your DAC and playing the same CD ripped using your computer connected to the DAC is a subjective sanity check to make sure the computer as source playback is working properly and not sounding too different. If shrooms ever become legal in your state you may find yourself tempted by the subjective la-la land and decide to compare digital-to-digital playback with your Rotel as a transport and with your computer as a digital source. If that ever happens you'll need to have kept your Rotel to use as a transport.

    I'm also fascinated by HDCD playback and how HDCD sounds (or more specifically, how the Pacific Microsonics sounds as an AD converter). Yet I've never owned a HDCD capable CD player. If I ever did own a Rotel CD player capable of HDCD payback I would absolutely keep it so I could compare its HDCD playback to the computer decoded HDCD playback.

    So if it were me, I'd keep it.
     
    JayNYC likes this.
  3. siebrand

    siebrand music lover

    Location:
    Italy
    for me it would be unthinkable to get rid of my CD players, it would also mean, of course, having to undo me (sell ?? gift?) of my CDs (I have a lot of them, I don't know exactly but we certainly exceed the 3,000 pieces.
    Apart from that I don't care for anything (and I'll never do it) to rip my records on PC or other stuff, but to think of finding my house without records would make my life much sadder.
    Anyway, I don't see the need to sell your Rotel reader ... you would get little, to make of that, then?
    and would you just go ahead with those files? and if you find any interesting CDs tomorrow, or someone gives you some? what would you do then?
     
  4. action pact

    action pact Music Omnivore Thread Starter

    I have no intention of ditching my CD collection, and I am continuing to buy cheap used CDs.

    I also have an (small) external CD drive for ripping and can use it for playing CDs via computer, if I should want to.

    I should have made that clear!
     
    Last edited: May 13, 2019
    ThorensSme and fogalu like this.
  5. L.P.

    L.P. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austria
    I have four CD players, three of them hooked up to two systems. And an old discman. In other words, I am prepared for dysthopian times without CDs.
     
    uzn007 likes this.
  6. CN211276

    CN211276 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cardiff, UK
    Sold my CD player a while ago. Rips and high-res streams sound better. Also far more convenient to control everything from a phone. A big consideration was the huge amount of space they were taking up. Also, the print was too small for me to read.
     
    Newton John likes this.
  7. Hipper

    Hipper Forum Resident

    Location:
    Herts., England
    What I did was make the shelves about 20mm narrower then the CD cases to deal with the 'finger issue'.

    What you could do is put 20mm (or slightly less) battens along the back of each shelf so the CD cases stick out a bit.
     
    Pop_Zeus, Matt I and Litejazz53 like this.
  8. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital

    I actually thought about doing that, and when we move again in the next year or so, that is exactly what I will do, all I need is just a tiny bit hanging out the front and problem solved, thanks so much for responding. :righton:
     
  9. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Which is generally the case of someone who owns a CD player. :)
     
    fogalu likes this.
  10. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital

    It was interesting to read your comment, and I believe so many people in this hobby feel the exact same way. They want to control everything from the phone or at least as easily as we possibly can, including changing tracks or albums with an instantaneous button push. To me this proves vinyl is much more about the overall experience than the fidelity, we just like to fiddle with things, me included. What change can I possibly make in my analog system to pull out that last little bit of fidelity from my 20-50 year old records? It's the chase! :thumbsup:
     
    action pact likes this.
  11. uzn007

    uzn007 Watcher of the Skis

    Location:
    Raleigh, N.C.
    Keep it as a backup, as others have said. You're not going to get much use out of it.

    I don't know how big your CD collection is, but I can't imagine ever taking the trouble to rip all of mine (1500 CDs or so) to a hard drive. Too much hassle for me, especially for discs that I might listen to every 5-10 years at max.

    If you dump your CD player, then you're essentially committing to ripping every additional CD that you're ever likely to buy. Do you still buy CDs? Do you think you'll always have a computer with a functional CD drive for the forseeable future? Those sort of computer drives (CD/DVD/Blu-Ray) are probably going to become specialty items within a few years if they haven't already.

    Let's say it's ten years down the road. Your CD collection has become pretty stable, supplanted by streaming and downloads for the most part. You have everything ripped, and your CD-ROM drive has fallen into disrepair. You've never replaced it because you don't buy CDs anymore.

    Is it even conceivable that you might see a CD you want to buy at Goodwill or a yard sale? If so, keep the CD player. If you can't imagine that you ever wouldn't be able to find what you want to listen to online, for the rest of your life, then dump it.
     
    phantomime likes this.
  12. action pact

    action pact Music Omnivore Thread Starter

    Good points, however...

    My CD player is close to 20 years old. Chances are good it will crap the bed before my external CD drive will, and those are still available new.
     
  13. uzn007

    uzn007 Watcher of the Skis

    Location:
    Raleigh, N.C.
    So I guess you're really asking... "Should I buy a new CD player as a backup?" :D
     
    Audiowannabee likes this.
  14. Kristofa

    Kristofa Enthusiast of small convenient sound carrier units

    Location:
    usa
    After getting Roon up and running this new year, I have played actual CDs only a handful of times, and those times are when there is something wrong with the Roon app and my old iMac being taxed too much with metadata refreshes. My Oppo UDP-205 is my Roon endpoint, so I won’t be getting rid of that optical drive any time soon. Plus I use it to watch DVD/Blu-rays.

    That said, I still maintain (clean, organize, re-case, display, curate, etc.) my rather large CD library which takes up the entirety of a spare room. In that room, I also have four CD players (and one in the bedroom which is an older Oppo). At this point in my life, I will likely keep at least 2 dedicated CD/SACD players plugged in and operational until the CD library gets packed up and stored. But honestly, caring for the CDs and LPs is relaxing and as enjoyable as gardening, so I don’t WANT to store them yet.

    My biggest problem now is figuring out which CDs to keep and which to let go of since—as others have mentioned—now is the time to buy CDs due to their rock bottom prices (imagine buying these as digital downloads for $2 a pop...nope!). My room is really at capacity, so I really must make choices of what to physically keep.

    As long as I have a CD library at my fingertips, I will have CD players to play them—regardless of how often it gets used.
     
    Reamonnt, action pact and uzn007 like this.
  15. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    I left the racetrack a while back. I have worked to get my system to the point that I am completely satisfied with what I hear and have no desire to case one more little thing.

    It took me quite a while to get there, but now, I just want to sit back and listen to music, what ever source it might be from.

    I like to listen to random selections of music, which is why Pandora is very agreeable with my listening habits.

    When I listen to CD, ripped CD's or records, I like to just put on the album and listen to the entire thing.

    I never futz around or change tracks.

    Getting high quality audio is a piece of work in the first place. After that, I want to be a lazy as I can, while listening to it.
     
    Dave likes this.
  16. Joey_Corleone

    Joey_Corleone Forum Resident

    Location:
    Rockford, MI
    I am in the same situation as you - I ripped everything to lossless, switched to Roon, and am doing playback controlled by a Roon Remote (Mac, iPhone, iPad) to a Sonore UltraRendu setup as a Roon endpoint and then USB directly to my DAC. I love the setup, and it's wonderful to have your entire digital library in Roon, and also be able to take advantage of high resolution and DSD

    The only reason I still have my CD player (Oppo) are the following:

    1) It is an Oppo that I use to do SACD rips. The minute I get a new SACD, it's ripped via the Oppo and stored on my server
    2) It doubles in my Home Theater to play Blu Ray and DVD

    That's literally it.

    Joey
     
    Kristofa likes this.
  17. Bingo Bongo

    Bingo Bongo Music gives me Eargasms

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Great another convert who has seen the light! The hardest part is not holding that CD/LP cover in your hands while playing the music!

    I agree with most here. If you already got it and have room, keep it. Otherwise if you have a Blu ray player, it can do the same for you.
     
    action pact and Joey_Corleone like this.
  18. Joey_Corleone

    Joey_Corleone Forum Resident

    Location:
    Rockford, MI
    Roon does a pretty good job with giving you a lot of content to look at during playback. I do miss it though sometimes. Particularly, I miss the booklets that came with the CD, the liner notes, stuff like that. Also, sometimes I will want to know who played on a session, and Roon doesn't always have that information. Technically, you could painstakingly scan them all and import them into Roon, but man, I don't have that kind of time.

    A game changing feature add to Roon would be if they could somehow include all the original booklets, etc when the software matches an album.
     
    Last edited: May 13, 2019
    Bingo Bongo likes this.
  19. action pact

    action pact Music Omnivore Thread Starter

    I was just researching completed sales on eBay, and see that the RCD-1072 is fetching between $150-$300. Mine is in good condition but has some scratches on the top, so I probably won't get top dollar for it.

    What the hell, I guess I'll keep it and drive it into the ground.
     
    bhazen, Dave, Kristofa and 1 other person like this.
  20. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    You never know, it might be worth more in the future?
     
  21. action pact

    action pact Music Omnivore Thread Starter

    Highly unlikely, but ya never know!
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  22. Bart

    Bart Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    I got my first UPnP server / player hardware in 2012, and promptly ripped my cd's. After that, I still bought some used cd's, and some hi res downloads. I made backups -- on usb external drives, and a backup in Dropbox. I didn't turn on that cd player for a couple of years, and sold it off. Kept a few MFSL cd's, and threw out those that I could sell for like 75 cents. I don't miss the cd's or the player. It wasn't even a backup by the time I sold it off in 2017; it was just a dinosaur.
     
    action pact likes this.
  23. ClassicalCD

    ClassicalCD Make audio great again

    Location:
    Bogotá, Colombia
    Collecting and playing physical CDs is an altogether more engaging experience than simply listening to rips. Your expectations of the listening sessions are higher, your mind is more focused, and your enjoyment and assimilation of the music is greatly enhanced.

    Also, to my ears a CD played through a CD player sounds better than its corresponding rip. This isn't hard to believe either, as many factors are different, from circuit architectures to interconnects. Whereas a PC performs a myriad functions, a CD player is made with a single purpose in mind: to play CDs well.
     
    ukrules, Tebbiebear, Dave and 7 others like this.
  24. JayNYC

    JayNYC Chase that sound

    Location:
    Miami Beach
    Having a CD player is an invaluable tool for making sound quality comparisons with your current/future digital playback solution(s). As you make changes to your system (audio player, DAC, streamer, streaming service, digital cables, transport) having your CD player as a sonic reference will come in very handy so you know if you’re making sonic progress or regressing.

    A lot of the early computer playback adopters ‘forgot’ what CD playback actually sounds like and are re-visiting CD players because they are an all-in-one-box of: content, transport, UI, digital link, and DAC.
     
    Last edited: May 13, 2019
  25. bhazen

    bhazen I Am The Walrus

    Location:
    Deepest suburbia
    I don't have Internet. I have a CD player. End of story.
     
    Pop_Zeus, Dave, Melody50 and 5 others like this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine