I was reluctant to move to streaming, but the demise of my CDS 3 forced the issue. I thought I would use an inexpensive streamer To “preview” music before buying a physical copy. Once I heard how well the NDX 2 worked in my system, it was a game changer. My Pro-Ject CD transport still sounds better then the streamer, but I do find the fun of chasing a song through different artists to be a real treat, without having to get up from the couch.
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As i said no one way is right or wrong.
If you want cd’s then fine, if you want to rip all them cd’s again fine,if you want to stream then fine.
If done right then they all sound basically the same as my system is testament to just that.
But i guess the cd transport is the cheapest way, followed by streaming (only if you need say a switch, if not then it’s the cheapest by far) but obviously ripping them all and then being able to buy and download albums is a great combination of them both really, plus you can download much higher rates than red book or sacd.
I personally can do all 3, plus i have vinyl, reel 2 reel, and elcaset, but streaming is my go to about 95%, as its easy, huge range of music, and it sounds fabulous. But as said we can all choose what we want to do.
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This hasn’t been my experience. I was unable to achieve the same level of musical coherence from my £5K N50-S38 Melco compared to my Moon 260D CD Transport, both through the Chord Qutest DAC. This despite very considerable investment in various noise reduction devices from The Chord Company, all of which helped and improved things a lot. But just not enough.
As I said earlier I do believe that some set-ups are more prone to being affected by network noise than others both by virtue of the particular components, system configuration and the location / environment. It was apparent to me that with our system we would need to spend a lot more money on noise reduction before the Melco could equal our CD transport’s performance.
On the other hand, some people seem to get on fine with streaming without these noise issues, even with minimal care taken to reduce possible noise.
Melco now gone so we are CD only. Incidentally disabling the wi-fi on our BT Smart Hub 2 has noticeably improved the sound of the system.
As said what ever suits. I don’t have a chord dac so can’t comment on that, but with my dac it’s certainly not the case.
Even though the manufacturer of my dac makes some of the very best cd players you can buy, they even mostly demo either with streaming or nas. The cd side is mainly for the Japanese market but obviously anyone can if they want.
I have gone out my way to find a cd transport that can also take advantage of the clocking my system can provide. Without this the streaming was slightly better than any cd transport i have tried.
So i think things massively depends on what gear you have and use, and because of this the results we all get can be very different
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Dunc, I defer to your experience (and eminent optimism)
But I think you know, that on this forum, there must be a right or wrong between streaming/vinyl/cd…
im team cd. Go go go!
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Well said Pete, I tried streaming didn’t like it found I was just flicking all the place. CD replay to me is sublime listening to the artist album and reading the notes. I derive great pleasure from choosing several albums to play and loading into the player.
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Same here I like many have built an extensive collection of cds over many years it’s great to see a huge storage of cds, wondering what to play. Doesn’t take long to put a playlist together 
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Hi @juliushui
Just wanted to acknowledge your post. I think that’s quite a courageous thing to say on a forum like this. I appreciate your honest reflection - and I agree with you; a pre-loved P3 is a bargain and a capable TT.
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I use Verbatim Azo CD-Rs or their 90min discs if the music lasts 80 mins or more. It’s important the software uses buffering (the free Burn works well on Macs) and I’ve found it best to keep speed at 16x or less. Also - don’t use markers to write text on uncovered areas on the disc - at least on my player that can lead to skipping.
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Thanks. Just to be clear, you mean writing on the label side with a marker (ie. opposite side to the playing surface) can affect playback?
I have re introduced CD.. I use it along with streaming. For me I have many CDs that are not available by cloud streaming services … and yes I could rip, but I tend to rip very popular CD… more occasional or fir immediate play back, I pop my CD in my transport and play out through my DAC.
Of course the disadvantage of CD resurfaces.. ie keeping them clean to avoid dropouts or skips, and CD clutter… but it works for me.
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Up until 2024 I wouldn’t give up CD, the CDS3 to me was almost an icon, but increasingly mindful that eventually the laser was going to go terminal I took advantage of the Naim trade in for a NDX2 and then later with a UnitiCore.
Never looked back, the scope to play anything in my digital catalogue on either the NDX2 or Qb2 is brilliant but more the quality of the playback just makes sublime music. Further I find the Core very simple to use and actually by browsing on the iPad I end up playing stuff which wouldn’t have come off the shelf when I had the CDP. And more being a complete luddite I’ve mastered transferring files from the Core to Flacbox on my phone so with the Dragonfly DAC I’ve got music on the move.
And here’s the point, I never expected this to happen, but I’m playing less vinyl.
However, it’s all good, I completely get that some would choose to stick with physical media.
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It’s complex in terms of, there are hundreds of network components that can all be used with each other, giving millions of combinations. That’s why in general it’s pointless taking any advice regarding network equipment, because nobody is using the same combination of equipment.
With regards to CD transports. They are simply providing a spdif output, that is then fed into the dac. There are poor quality CD transports, good quality CD transports and excellent quality CD transports.
If you want to stream to the same quality as your CD transport, you simply need to buy a renderer that outputs spdif at a similar quality as your CD transport. You don’t need numerous audiophile switches, switch power supplies and cables to do that.
If you buy a dac and streaming bridge that uses optical spdif, that will provide isolation of the dac from the network.
I’ll probably be buying a CD player myself in the future, but my preference is CD player with onboard DAC. I like the idea that I’ll be listening to exactly what the designer intended, the analogue output precisely controlled. If you mix and match transport and dac, that isn’t the case.
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When I finally got a streamer (ND555), I didn’t have enough rack space (or £) to keep the CD555 and 2 555 PS’s for it and 2 more for the ND. I got a Melco with a PS, a Melco switch and a ripper, but agree with OP it was quite complex to use. So when I ‘went’ active I changed all the Melco for a Core (~1000 CD’s) and a switch, but got an Audiodesk record cleaner which makes a huge difference, so play nearly all vinyl anyway! I do retain an Arcam BD player which can play CD’s if needed…. (and a Uniti Star in the dining room)…
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To my great surprise we’ve gone totally over to streaming and only use Qobuz and the quality is amazing. We’ve had absolutely no issues setting up the streamer. Initially used a good Ethernet cable but I think it actually sounds better via wifi which is how we now use it. We’ve had no drop outs etc, it just works 100%
My partner and I have hundreds of cd’s and quite a few of his vinyl albums but we are both completely converted to streaming
If my partner has a vinyl version we do spin up his Rega turntable though 
Even though my partners cd player is in the rack it’s not switched on as we haven’t used it since I got the streamer
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Perhaps not. But we have two DACs in effect, our Qutest (which is what we use) and the on-board DAC in our Moon amp which is actually the same DAC as used in the player version of our CD transport. The Qutest sounds very superior to the DAC in the Moon amp.
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I ripped my CDs and sold the CDX2 in 2012. I do buy cheap CDs to rip still as I like to have my own copy of some things. The biggest step for me was getting a Linn DS3 Organik, suddenly Qobuz was way ahead of vinyl. Using ripped or Qobuz via a Mac Mini M4 with Audirvāna is a step up in quality from the Naim or Linn apps. Simple EE8 switch with Farad on the bottom of the rack. I think the key for me is choosing a high quality DAC/ streamer as a source and using Audirvāna.
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Totally agree if you already have a great dac you like the sound off, then a cd transport makes much more sense than a cd player.
As having two dacs is basically saying i like the sound better from the cd player dac than my other dac, you would be better using the cd player dac for it all if thats the case. Plus the transport will be cheaper.
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Hi Brendan. Fascinating that you rate Qobuz streaming as being way ahead of vinyl - not that I’m a vinyl fan - we haven’t had a record deck for more than 30 years. Which turntable were you comparing it to? I’m a little confused by what you have said re your Mac Mini and Linn/Naim apps. If I understand correctly, you are ripping your CD’s to your Mac Mini and streaming from Qobuz using the same. Then using your Linn DS3 to stream from you Mac which is acting as a music library. I’m not familiar with Audirvana but from what you say it seems you can control your Linn streamer with this rather than using the Linn app. Is this correct or have I got it completely wrong?
The same for me,when comparing a streamer to a
CD player it is so obvious how inaccurate a CD player is.