If the CD and player are in good condition, then all else being equal - in particular same DAC - then the sound quality of a rip vs CD, or a downloaded 16/44 copy from the same mastering, should be absolutely identical. The ‘potential’ was because sometimes CDs are imperfect, and as they get older it is not uncommon for CD mechanisms to start to misread - I certainly had that with my two CD players, both causing significant reads by about 10 years old (with my usage of course), and maybe they were increasingly doing that but less obviously for a while before it became annoying.
Then of course there are higher resolutions that can be downloaded: some people report noticing a night and day difference - but what is major to one person is a minor difference to another. I don’t notice a huge difference - sometimes none, and sometimes a slight lift in performance in a way I can’t describe, but I recognise the description of the replay having a bit more ‘air’, which seems to be the concensus impression. All comparisons of course are only relevant where the CD version and hi res are from the same master.
For me, I chose to replace my last dying CD player with a streamer simply because it seemed to be the future of music replay, so made more sense, especially as I had then only recently ripped all my vinyl to make into CDs (to avoid further deterioration, while removing a consumable cost of cartridge replacement), and had all the .wav files on hard disk. I didn’t really give much if any thought to potential benefits, but very soon realised them and haven’t looked back. The only negative of a streaming-only system is if someone brings round a CD to play, or I get a new one, I have to spend a few minutes ripping before being able to play - of course, some systems have a built-in CD drive with the option of playing a CD as well as or instead of ripping it, removing that slight negative.
Hi @Bevo and @Innocent_Bystander in particular - does this topic fit into the category of ‘Every Generalisation Is Dangerous’?
I have lots of CDs where there is only one version on Qobuz/ Tidal, sometimes HR and sometimes not. I have ripped my CDs via a Core. I stream via NDX2/ XPS2 and play CDs on a CDS2 (great player, but sadly not eternal).
Comparing 3 formats on multiple bits of music over months made clear to my ears that: -
Some music was considerably better on CD or rip than any streamed version I could find.
Some music was considerably better on a HR stream from (say) Qobuz than on my CD.
I have found no music that sounds materially better or worse if ripped/ served versus played on the CD.
There are a very few CDs that play on my CDS2 but refuse to be ripped (too many errors), but none of them sounded great anyway.
I have recent had a hifi salesman explain why CD was always superior if one uses the right CD player. I have also seen the argument that a rip avoids reading errors and so can only be better than the CD, and had people explain that that is what they hear.
Listening evidence thusfar suggests to me that (a) it is not as simple as A best B, and (b) the differences here are jolly small - this is not RP3 versus LP12 or Atom (as streamer) versus NDX2/ XPS2.
Hi - I experienced this with a handful of CD’s - my workaround was to make a CDR copy via Exact Audio Copy (no doubt others would work) and the copies would then rip in 100% of cases.
Yes, as I said in an earlier post (or was it in the other current thread?), i haven’t noticed any difference myself between CD and a CD rip (though as my CD player was on the way out I wasn’t doing direct comparisons, hence my use of the word ‘potential’, as I suspect only evident with poor CDs. Downloaded 16/44 (from same master) I would expect also identical, but haven’t bothered trying to compare.
As for CD played direct possibly sounding better than a rip, I note that dealer’s talk of “the right CD player”. The moment you use different DACs for CD and streaming any difference is far more likely to be due to that. And of course cabling might be significant as some DACs are vulnerable to RF interference.
Every time I see a beautiful pic of the Linn CDP, I shed a tear for selling my Linn Unidisk 1.1 dynamik. I still can’t believe I did that and it’s been 2 years.
But your unit looks great and I know it sounds wonderful. Enjoy!
last year I bought a spare block with wire harness for my CD5XS on ebay - its got a Philips label stating VAM 1202/12 etc. It appears to be identical to the stock block in my CD5XS [2017].
I think its Naim that has been fuzzy and misdirected and questionable or random in many of its marketing decisions in the last decade or so. It had established itself as a power in the CD market. It threw most of that away and now sells the CD5si, which has alot of competition, and the uber expensive 555 player.
Awww Thanks, it’s good to know. Really is. It’s too early for me to fully return just yet, but I have email notifications on, so if anyone summons me, I’ll know about it.
I have an Arcam alpha+ amp at my parents’ house on top of a wardrobe which I gave my father many years ago along with a poor (though well-reviewed) CD player.
Can you remember if that was the same form factor as the amp? I’ve a funny feeling the amp was redesigned to go with the CD player but it’s so long ago (aroung 1987) I’m not certain.
Isn’t this a fault of you not storing your CDs properly rather than the format? Even memory sticks and hard drives can be damaged or corrupted if not cared for or powered down correctly. Vinyl is very susceptible to damage as well.
Indeed! I missed some formats out such as DAT, Minidisc and 8track. I would dearly love to get a decent R2R. I remember my dads old Sony machine and the fun we had with that, but there are some beautiful looking machines out there. I dare say some of them might even sound good too. One day.
Thanks, it’s good to know. Really is. It’s too early for me to fully return just yet, but I have email notifications on, so if anyone summons me, I’ll know about it.