I just picked up a very nice vintage/mint 589.2 Meridian CD/DVD player is fantastic condition for $1050. It has a DVD mechanism vs a CD mechanism, which I have read is better. It went for $6000+ new. Sounds fantastic. I have a unity core and rip my cds also, so really did not need it, but I do not regret having it in my collection. Its the best sounding cd player Meridian ever made, I am told.
I can defo reccommend the Yamaha cds-1000 cdp, it’s a wonderfully sounding natural player and is built like a tank. The silver version looks like pure class and weighs 15 kilo but you’ll need a lot os space to fit it as it’s approx 450mm by 450mm. It suits my nait 5i-2 down to a t and i don’t think there’s a better combination unless you’re prepared to spend a lot more money. I’m very, very happy with mine and would only change it for a better Yamaha model maybe the cds-2000 but not at the moment.
Neither you nor Nigel give the reason why. Why wouldnt you attach a cd player to the Nova??
Anyone know the answer to this please?
Yes, the Atom, Star and Nova do this so that the input can be multiroomed.
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Y
Really? I can play all my library on car Using Bluetooth and besides fitting over 600 CDs on the boot is a lot to ask for.
We were addressing records and their limits
Just to clarify one point, am I correcting in my belief that the Nova digitises all analogue inputs from the get go, whereas the NaimUniti stays within the analogue domain?
Hi @mathewf1
Correct. On Atom, Star and Nova we have a high quality adc implementation so we can get the audio in to the digital domain. Primarily we have a powerful dsp in each and we wanted to ensure all inputs can have the same functionality now and in future software upgrades.
On the older range of products (Qute, Uniti, Superuniti) we don’t have an adc and do a more traditional preamp structure.
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Simply put: the nature of streaming avoid the necessity of redundancy of another transport.
And if the OP choose the path of a CD player, it’s pref the way Of separates where he could get better results in SQ. 
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So the Nova pretty much nullifies any benefits of using an analogue source?
Thank you. However the quality of streaming is not as good as a CD? Unless you splash out for hi-res streaming that is. And that’s if we left aside the issue of increasse in the box count.
Not necessarily. If an ADC and DAC are in the same unit, they will obviously be matched to each other so that the conversion processes are pretty transparent.
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It all depends on the quality of the streamer and CD player. A CD rip can easily sound better than the original CD.
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Sell your current streamer and buy a Uniti 2 an excellent machine I had a Uniti 1 with the upgraded board it’s best of both worlds CDP, Streamer and Dac.
I was thinking in regards to connecting a turntable to the Nova. Would the Nova in this case negate the benefits of the analogue sound coming from the turntable?
I have an Audiolab Transport attached to an RME Dac…Sounds great with Naim 202 & 200
Have many CD.s and think with this combination sound better than when ripped with WAV files.
Cost me just over £1000…Furthermore I can upgrade the transport or the DAC at any time.
I compared the RME with the Qutest and feel i bought a better DAC for £300 less.
My feeling is that @ChrisSU has nailed it for you: matched ADC and DAC pairs can do a really good job, and are extensively used to “insert” DSP into an analog signal flow … the most common being the ubiquitous digital crossovers used in active monitors where each driver gets its own amp (DynAudio does this extremely well, as do many other “studio” or “pro” brands that don’t get much mention on a hifi forum such as this one).
That said, and apropos your question, I have just added a turntable to my Nova and it clearly has a character of its own… I’m really enjoying it. Others on the forum have also reported success and happiness with their TT and Nova systems, including reports of greater happiness after various cartridge, arm, table, or phono preamp upgrades.
I previously had an offline conversation with Naim about this, and clearly they are very pleased with the sound quality from their analog inputs, with the added potential bonus (?!?). of being able to use it in multi room streaming mode. It’s a good input for line level, but insufficient sensitivity to avoid the need for a phono preamplifier.
If you’re considering adding an analog source, like a turntable, to your Nova I’d say go ahead and jump in, the water’s fine!
Regards, alan
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I play vinyl through a Star, love the analogue source.
Sounds great to me, but how it would sound without digitizing it first we’ll of course never know.
As you like CD’s, I’d buy a good transport and let your Nova DAC do the conversion. . .
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Embarrasing to admit but I dont have much knowledge regarding the internals of the Nova so I didn’t understand @ChrisSU 's post properly. Are we saying that Nova does have an ADC and a DAC which are matched?
I already have a Technics 1200G attached to the Nova and love the sound that comes out of it but was wondering if I am missing something and whether I would get a much better sound if the TT was attached directly to an analogue amp?
If that is the case then I might as well use my current Marantz CD5001 deck and take advantage of Nova’s DAC. If I connected the CD player to the Nova via coaxial would that allow Nova’s DAC to do the conversion? Or does it have to be connected via optical only?
Whilst we are on the subject and probably another daft question: does Nova’s DAC do the conversion for the music played from an external USB connected to the Nova via its usb port?