Do You Still Play Compact Discs?
- Thread starter Ron Resnick
- Start date
I use a Luxman D-08u SACD player. I also rip all my CDs using a Aurender ACS10. It names the album, places the album cover in place, names the songs, automatically, etc. and if it makes a mistake you can edit them.
I have 100's of CDs and 1000's of records. Just not motivated to invest in streaming and new equipment. I also prefer SACD over CD, which means using a CD/SACD player (PS Audio).
I have ripped some of the CDs to put on a USB drive to play in the car.
I have ripped some of the CDs to put on a USB drive to play in the car.
I havent till today Streaming that sounded as good as my Cd Transport Dac i am using a Metronome Audio Kalista Reference Cd transport owned many cd transports and think that Zanden P2000 and Kalista are the best that i heard.
As i live in Netherlands i am planing to visit Taiko Audio soon to see if this very acclaimed server/streamer can catch my CDs and Kalista Transport...
As i live in Netherlands i am planing to visit Taiko Audio soon to see if this very acclaimed server/streamer can catch my CDs and Kalista Transport...
Analog vs digital formats, of course. There is no difference between a bit perfect download and a cd from a media perspective
We love our CD transports because of their sound signature, not their intrinsic accuracy. I still keep the old Metronome's and play them from time to time. The Vivaldi stack delivers more information and overall more "realistic" sound in aspects such as bass detail, timbre exactness or soundstage, but the Metronome's are extremely enjoyable. If I played just CDs and nothing else I would have stayed with the Metronome's, they are good enough for me.
Sometime I must borrow a DCS network bridge and try the Extreme with the Metronome C2A .
BTW, are you enjoying your the TheSonusFaber's (Fenice) ?
Hello and good evening to you, Ron.
Question #1 and my answer - I have CD's from since I was knee high to a duck (so to speak) all of the way up to a CD purchased and delivered today (one that I have been waiting on from Japan for a month or two). I have probably a thousand or more on my wall in the main rig room, with many more in the closet. Some of them, you will never hear anywhere else (on ANY medium).
They are going nowhere, except for when I pass from this blue globe. In that case? They will be inherited to my son and no one else. Some of the CD's (SACD's/XRCD's/HDCD's and the like) are limited edition/rare/highly sought after and some are simply unobtainable anymore. To find some of what I have, it would be easier to win the mega million lottery. Even on other formats (if the versions I have are even available on other formats).
Question #2 and my answer - The advantages are described above. That's just one point of why. There are other aspects as well. Sometimes (just sometimes), one does not want to go through the ritual of LP cleaning and everything that is entailed with pure reproductive efforts of a vinyl rig. Sometimes, when the LP portion of the stereo is under construction, in the process of upgrading or the like? Sometimes, it's nice to (while you are working on upgrading/modifying) just put in a CD and listen while you are working.
Every once in a while, even though it may not be as pure as vinyl? One just wants to listen to zero snaps, crackles and pops.....just what one of the the original reason for CD's were about....purity. (Laughable, I know). This is just me though. But that's beside he point. Your question was why I would want to play a CD versus streaming.
So, on to my answer on that....
In my travels, I have heard many a streamer. Many DAC's at all kinds of price ranges and on many different systems. Every single one of the streamers have what I refer to as a "mid-bass" suck out. Do they sound great in the room you are listening in? Some of them/many of them? Yes. Are they comparable to physical media? No. Not in my experience. At all. Is it close? AbsoF'nlutely. (Please excuse my "French")
For many out there, I am full of it. For me? Sorry man, they just don't do it for me....sound wise. There is something missing (always) and I can hear the difference. Price of gear does not seem to make me change my observations.
Just for S&G's.....take the same "audiophile album" that is full range, demanding with respect to frequencies (not some easy audiophile album that is just acoustic). Play that album or song in your listening room. Sounds great, right? Well, it may or may not depending on your rig/setup. Now, take that same album/song and listen to the same thing about 100 feet away in your home.
Does it have the same frequency output? In my experience, there is something missing. There is a "mid-bass" suck out. Something (the very thing that gives music "life" to me is missing.
Now, go back and put that same album/song in with physical media and not your streamer. Listen in your room and enjoy all of the wonderful bliss that it brings. Now go back out 100' away and listen to the change from that position from what you heard before. Sounds a little bit more "full", right? Perhaps a little bit more "complete" in the frequency range.
Well, this is that "mid-bass" suck out I am talking about. I really do not know how else to describe it. I could be WAY off with my description, (Self admitted) but that's about the best way I (personally) can describe it. All I know is that I do not like it and now that I know what it is I am missing? It does not matter where I am or what I have listened too? I hear it on streaming systems versus physical media.
With that said, some streamers have certain attributes that I desire with certain songs/albums/reproductive efforts but we are not doing an apples to apples comparison here. Different animals making different sounds......but I guess that's my point. While streamers may get you "perfect" bit for bit (or whatever the latest audiophile phrase of the week is) reproduction of the original? It simply isn't the same to me.
I can still appreciate it though. I'm not knocking it at all.....and as I type this, I am actually listening to a streamer with a DAC......from 40 feet away. Hardly ever in the sweet spot. To me, it's just a convenient aspect of the rig. One I can appreciate but I am not about covenience. I am about the end result as to what hits my ears.
Question #3 and my answer - Marantz Reference Series SA-7S1, Nerve Audio PC and Transparent Reference RCA IC to my Canary Audio pre.
My apologies for the long winded answer. Please forgive any typos....I wanted to say what was on my mind quickly without distractions.
Tom
Thank you very much, Tom, for your very detailed and thoughtful reply!
Interesting Tom and thanks for this. My experience has been innuos ripped files compared to gryphon scorpio player. My self and another heard no difference while testing otw i would have kept the player. Maybe my ears, dont know, but i was ready to keep the player. And we did back to back. This is what has me a bit befuddled why I did not hear a difference but your experience says its not subtle. I honestly do wish it were so.
I have a couple hundred cd’s, sacd’s and dvd-a. My Ayre C5 just keeps on trucking. It’s around 15 years old. I have a back up transport. I do want the Spectral 4000 SV. I listen to discs several times a week. That said I’m Listening to vinyl as I type this and lp’s are still my pick.
Shiny discs can do it, as can all the various playback options. I figure there’s a hundred great reasons why all of us take the audio roads that we do. The need to hold and play and cherish, the love of ritual, the yearning for discovery, the pleasure of revisiting the past and the meaningful music that recalls the moments of our lives... the library we make can take many forms and be a composite and vary greatly through time.
The drivers are also varied. The priorities for each aren’t the same and the perceptions are often very different. I love a great storehouse of music but I also love a seeming infinitely expanding stream of access to the new. Once that box is opened for a music lover it’s hard for some to then get back in the box.
Just grasping the sonics isn’t the sum of it either... for some it’s mostly about the sound and also about the music, for others it’s more about the music but also about the sound, and then for many it’s also about the functionality and the expression of values in the building of a great physical treasure (the system and the music) or alternatively the desire for the freedom to go and grow well beyond anything that can be easily imagined in a single space let alone held within the hands.
So we each take our road. Best is best experience... and that is always individual. I love the connection to the art in the spinners of vinyl, tape and silver disc but the stream is now a very viable and rich other way, so each road brings differing potentials and also constraints... but the great music can be unlocked in each.
The artisanal approach can be a part of the joy in what we build and the machines are very much important... and then also there are the great cultural values held in all the music that we find and play.
CDs are great, I gave all mine to my dad and he loves them.
Our job is perhaps just to find it where it is and to make it work for ourselves, not sure there’s too much worry as to why we choose to take the specific roads that we do, it’s nice to also understand but there’s not a single road, they’re all good the way I see it.
The drivers are also varied. The priorities for each aren’t the same and the perceptions are often very different. I love a great storehouse of music but I also love a seeming infinitely expanding stream of access to the new. Once that box is opened for a music lover it’s hard for some to then get back in the box.
Just grasping the sonics isn’t the sum of it either... for some it’s mostly about the sound and also about the music, for others it’s more about the music but also about the sound, and then for many it’s also about the functionality and the expression of values in the building of a great physical treasure (the system and the music) or alternatively the desire for the freedom to go and grow well beyond anything that can be easily imagined in a single space let alone held within the hands.
So we each take our road. Best is best experience... and that is always individual. I love the connection to the art in the spinners of vinyl, tape and silver disc but the stream is now a very viable and rich other way, so each road brings differing potentials and also constraints... but the great music can be unlocked in each.
The artisanal approach can be a part of the joy in what we build and the machines are very much important... and then also there are the great cultural values held in all the music that we find and play.
CDs are great, I gave all mine to my dad and he loves them.
Our job is perhaps just to find it where it is and to make it work for ourselves, not sure there’s too much worry as to why we choose to take the specific roads that we do, it’s nice to also understand but there’s not a single road, they’re all good the way I see it.
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Very interesting...I stopped investigating a number of years ago after spending several years looking. But the one discovery I DID make was how remarkably good the Metronome Kalista Ref transport was...and this was when i had just an older Zanden DAC and before I bought the matching Zanden 2000P with a latest spec DAC. I very nearly had the Metronome matched with the Zanden permanently...but someone else wanted it a bit more and offered our dealer a price I would not match, and I let it go.
Of the 12 owners of Zanden digital, all but one have kept their 4-box Zanden digital...and another to date has kept the DAC but changed the 200P to a Metronome Kalista Ref CD Transport.
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