Some months ago we decided to sell our Melco N50-S38 music library and revert back to CD. My wife always preffered using CD but I liked the convenience of use of the Melco and I thought it sounded quite a bit better. However life isn’t so simple…
A few things happened. I came to realise the negative impact of network noise on our system. We already had an EE8 switch and two EE1 isolators. Even so, disconnecting the ethernet line from the Melco, which rendered it in effect unusable, resulted in clearly better sound from the CD player with greatly improved focus and musical coherence. It was apparent that many hundreds or thousands of pounds would need to be spent in order to address this effectively….
The whole complexity of streaming from the Melco began to bug me. Fiddling with ripping, back-ups, re-naming files etc. etc. really started to grate. I didn’t want to be doing any of it. We are retired now and as I sat there one day messing with some files I suddenly thought “I’m not enjoying this at all. I don’t want to do it. I don’t have to do it, so why am I bothering?”
Granted playing tracks using an iPad to select them is lovely. But not all the other associated stuff.
Further I came to realise that the CD transport (Moon 260D), through our Qutest DAC, whilst perhaps not so immediately impressive sounding as the Melco actually sounded more musically coherent and involving and had a nicer voicing through our Moon 340ix amp and Klipsch Forte III speakers.
So it’s back to CD. It feels like a weight off my shoulders. Lovely to just pick a CD from the rack, pop it in and press PLAY! No messing with Apps or files or network parafernalia any more.
Has anyone else here had a similar experience or am I very much the odd man out and behind the times by reverting to CD?
The moment one goes down the route of servers - streamers - access to internet services - networks - and all the gear, there is an implied assumption that the user has knowledge of how the tech’ works ?
But, sometimes it doesn’t work so well. Or, is just less easy to use.
Utility is everything.
FWIW, here’s another angle…
By continuing to buy “physical media” - vinyl records or CD’s - some how feel the artists benefit more too.
Thanks @ratrat. I do like using physical media - holding the CD case in my hand and selecting tracks. I accept that streaming is the future and those who don’t have their roots very much in the age of physical media as I do may not feel the same kind of ties to it. But now having given it a good go I know that streaming isn’t for me. In a way I would love to have a nice neat little one-box system plus speakers. But what chance of such a thing with only CD as the source? A CD only Atom or Nova perhaps? Fat chance!
Thanks @ninanina . My guess is that your experience is typical of many here, who seem to love streaming.
As for the ‘tech’ working - yes it did work (although not entirely seamlessly or without issue) but it just seemed too much faffing about. I suppose it depends on how one wants to spend one’s time. Some people get a kick out of fiddling with such things. I just don’t.
@70sPete I understand your point and share the same feeling. I still enjoy a lot physical media in general, I have no clear preference here, either CD or LPs it does not really matter.
Somehow, at least you tried and made your choice, honestly I am unable and unwilling to enter the “computer science” about music enjoyment.. it’s sort of hostile for me (or to me ).
Laptop/data/server/network > OFFICE
CD player/turntable/records > HOME
It might sound a limitation or narrow thinking but at least is not harmful for anyone
I felt a similar way when committing to vinyl only - it just works for me.
My daughter (17) just got into CD. She had vinyl for a bit but doesn’t really have the space. Now she can’t believe how stupidly cheap 2nd hand CDs are from a local charity shop - 20p each Anyway, like you, she’s loving it - particularly the ownership and hunting for new gems.
You can’t beat physical media in my book and can always stream from your phone.
70Pete although I’m quite technical I certainly don’t get a kick out of messing about with something that just doesn’t work as it should do
Have you tried any other streamers?
I don’t know the Melco so I can’t comment on it but placing a streamer into your system should not be difficult, quite the opposite in my experience
I only bought my streamer to see what all the fuss was about but I’m now a streamer convert and haven’t once used the cd player since… I’ve now sold my Naim cd player but luckily I have two other decent cd players I can use if I need to
Gave up playing CDs years ago, streaming only for me.
However ….
into my study arrives a Nait 50. But with no source when it came, my dear old CD5 XS is dragged out of retirement. Connect up, switch on and … am I really hearing what I’m hearing in that little room? Although there’s now a WiiM/Chord Qutest also going into the N50, the CD player is such a jolly pairing with the little Nait, it demands to be included in the study system. And I really don’t have the heart to refuse.
Not at all if you stream from local files stored on Melco and connect it directly to your DAC or streamer. That’s how my streaming is set up, though not a Melco: music doesn’t go across a network.
In my systems, I have both. I stream from an Atom when listening to the radio, or from Tidal, and when I want a specific album that I own, I know it is on my Uniti Core (also on the rack), but then I bypass the Atom. The Core is hard wired by 75 Ohm coax to my Benchmark DAC3 HGC which does DAC duties, as well as pre-amp and headphone amp duties. The Benchmark drives my Moon 330A power amp. However, I still like the simple physical act of getting a CD out and playing it on the CD transport while I refer to the album cover and documentation. Incidentally 70sPete, I have been considering an upgrade to the Moon 260CDT as it would match my power amp in the shelf below. I assume you have only had good experiences?
I’ve owned a Moon 260CDT for the past 3 years and can highly recommend it, it’s build quality is first class and very robust, it has worked perfectly all that time and its sound quality performance is fantastic connected via AES into my Lumin P1 DAC.
The sound quality was an improvement over my original Roksan Caspian M2 CD Player that I was using in Transport Mode before I bought the Moon, so overall I’m very impressed with it.
I use both a CD Transport and Stream Tidal and find that the CD’s are just that little bit better sound quality wise in my system (nitpicking really), but the convenience of Tidal is very appealing and it gets a lot of use.
I first looked at getting a dedicated Music Server in late 2022, re-visited it in late 2023 and took another major look at them in late 2024 when I demoed an Innuous Statement as the Dealer did not have an Innuous Zennith MK3 on demo, which I had short listed along with a Melco N50-S38.
Each time I’ve looked at the Music Servers, I’ve come to the same conclusion, that it was just not worth the very large sum of money when the sound quality of streaming from Tidal is so good, this was confirmed when I demoed the Innuous Statement, where I found really no significant sound quality difference between Tidal via the Statement and locally stored files on the Statement (using Roon, as the Dealer would not allow me to just use the Innuous App, which would of been my use case).
My search on this Forum and others also found that quite a lot of people who had previously ripped and locally stored their music, were now not accessing their locally stored music and were using Tidal or Qobuz instead as the sound quality, library choice and convenience is now so good using those services.
I also concluded, that it was just not worth all the huge amount of time and effort required to rip and catalogue my large collection of CD’s just to use a dedicated Music Server when I can just pop a CD into my Transport and away I go, listening to music.
Totally get it Pete. I’ve got streamers but I’ve always tended to use them as I did tuners. They are good for finding and trying new stuff.
However as soon as I like something I’m off to buy it on something physical. Typically that was vinyl but I’m becoming more particular on that front and it can be CD or vinyl.
On the connection to artists, well I got a lovely email from one the other day who runs his own store personally where I bought a few Cd’s through over the years and it’s happened with another artist too, she even popped a couple of free signed CDs in as well.
Enjoy the little silver disc, maybe the music for life tagline wasn’t so wrong after all.
Hi Pete, I’m very much like you but actually grew up with CDs, MP3s and streaming, and gradually feeling like I lose something fun in the process of music listening, even I had never went through those ‘vinyl only’ days. Then I get on the retro trend with records (vinyl) and in love with it.
But also gradually found besides the great 70s 80s music my ‘childhood memories’ are mostly in CD format, so I bought my first proper CD player a Naim CDI last year and couldn’t pull myself out since. And no wonder why CDs had almost pushing vinyl to death back then. When the mastering done right it takes a far more expensive turntable to outclass its sound. In the end I bought a CDS1 that is better still, and a 52 for far better sound and keep the LP12.
But also interesting to let you know, my girlfriend born in the late 90s had totally no concept of album and song’s priority as she was totally grew up with Spotify. Like she defo knows Radiohead and No Surprise but never know the album name what songs come before and after.
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