I have a Naim CD5Si and it sounds very good to me. Bought several years ago after my Linn Ikemi died. I would recommend giving it a listen at aNaim dealer, you might be pleasantly surprised at the sound.
Ian
I have a Naim CD5Si and it sounds very good to me. Bought several years ago after my Linn Ikemi died. I would recommend giving it a listen at aNaim dealer, you might be pleasantly surprised at the sound.
Ian
I know that the Nova (and all Unitis) digitize analog inputs, but is this true? Why would it do that, if necessary it’s easier to convert the digital data to another digital format surely
Edit: Oh you mean if the CD player has only an analog out? Then sure
If you have your CDs on your NAS, you don’t rely on the internet – only the local network within your house. That should be pretty stable.
Have you ever considered a cd transport to use with the “naim” dac of your system?
Bye
David
I would definitely audition before making a decision. I’m very happy with my CD, which sounds more alive than the streamer, which might also be limited by my very limited broadband. I also saw a Naim CDS3 + XPS for sale at what I’d guess is a massive discount to the original price.
Hi,
If the Nova digitalize the analog sources, it could be pointless to invest in a qualitatif CD player
When my CD player was dying I looked intomit and realised the future was streaming not CD. I researched it and bought an ND5XS. I ripped my entire CD collection (only a year earlier I’d ripped my LPs to make into CDs), and had the backed up files as ready music). I’ve never looked back: initially the ND5XS matched my CD player for sound quality, but changes since means it surpasses, whilst the lack of any CD misreading and associated either error correction or jumping on some CDs is great. I then also downloaded hi res files, accessing music that hasn’t been downsampled. If I buy a CD (sometimes the cheapest source of music) or someone brings one round, it takes all of 5 min to rip before playing.
I can’t speak for you, but for me there is no point to a CD player.
But if I unplug the internet cable, doesn’t it shut down the whole thing? (I have wondered about this, inasmuch as I can see how my home network should operate outside the presence of the internet, but when the internet goes out, it seems like the whole shooting match doesn’t work…)
As you can see, I am a real networking expert…
If your Internet cable gets disconnected, your local network will still work, as should the app, and you will still be able to play any local music (USB attached or NAS drives etc). You wont be able to play any internet music obviously such as internet radio, spotify/tidal.
Your router just becomes a managed switch in effect, so your LAN will still operate.
The other day our internet was playing up, but the NAS kept “supplying” music. I think as long as your router performs as a switch in your local network all should be fine. But I am no network expert either — the opposite actually. Social scientist with little IT literacy…
That makes sense, and I have thought the same, but too busy/lazy to test it out…perhaps this will be the impetus to “pull the plug” from the router and see how it works.
I still like having a CD/DVD player as a backup source.
I don’t know when I would ever get the chance or commit the time to rip c2500 CDs!
Surely life is just easier to own a CD player, whatever make or model….
Ian
Yes, the initial pain is certainly no fun, and that is why I regularly back up my music content to a dedicated external HD.
Just do one a day and you’ll have it knocked out in under 7 years!
Sad state when putting a cd in a player and pressing play is considered inconvenient.
I still use my cd5si and it’s great.
I don’t see it as so much a convenience factor, but it can be helpful in some situations.
For example, as a ritual insomniac I can turn on the unit in the next room at a very low (barely audible) volume from the app, and it will help me to go to sleep without getting out of bed to initiate play. It is also useful for learning guitar parts to songs, or for making playlists for guitar play-along, or playlists for other reasons as well.
It also allows you to play your entire music collection on a random basis while doing other things (as opposed to sitting for dedicated listening), which has helped me discover songs I didn’t know I had. If one comes up that I don’t like, a quick pop on the phone screen and I am on to the next one…don’t have to leave my work bench.
I have a Philips 840 CD player from 1990 that is still going strong. To be honest I always preferred vinyl and continued with both CDP and turntable…but an advantage with CDs was I could listen in the car also. A few years ago I got a Chord Mojo as DAC for my CDP (& chromecast) and the CDP is as good as vinyl now.
The Mojo is extremely clunky with the battery charging & frustrates the hell out of other family users with its idiosyncratic controls…but I feel the act of playing a CD is much like playing a piece of vinyl…you read the booklet like the LP sleeve. I listen to mainly classical & feel that the individual CDs add a type of ritual to the act of selecting, sitting down and listening to music.
From one angle, yes. Looking long term, on balance I think not:
Ignoring machines designed to tip and store automatically making it even easier, ripping involves putting a CD in a computer CD drive of a computer, checking the screen and occasionally entering or correcting something if it doesn’t display the album details correctly, and saying go. Some time later (at least 5 minutes, bur could be any time after, swap CD for another and repeat. If you do it while working on the computer, or maybe watching TV or listening to music if you do it on a laptop, you can do virtually continuously, getting, say 20 done in 2 or 3 hours, with very little effort. If not in a hurry it might take as much as a year. But doesn’t matter if two years, or whatever.
Once done, you can browse your entire collection far faster - and with the convenience of doing from the listening seat if you want, even cueing up the next one in advance if you wish. And you’ll never have the problem of not finding a CD because it was put back in the wrong place. No more jumping/skipping disks, a particular problem once the CD player starts to show signs of wear - and indeed no need to replace the CD player every 10 years or so, or at least a significant repair, due to the mechanism wearing out and going out of alignment (You will periodically want to replace the storage drive : for 2500 albums that would be a 2TB drive - if hard disk maybe every 5-10 years, current cost about £60; if SSD currently about £200 but will be 10 years or more. N.B. double these costs because you’ll also sensibly have a backup drive in case of catastrophe - however in 5 or 10 years these prices will have dropped, unlike the cost of a new CD player or refurbishment of old.
It’s not putting it in the player that’s the issue. Rather, the space they used up in our not huge house and struggling to find the right disc because they’d been put back in the wrong order or wrong box. Or being unable to find Vaughan Williams London symphony because it’s filed under Butterworth as he also had a piece on the disc.
Then there’s sound quality. I have compared playing discs on my CD5XS using analogue out, digital out into my DAC and streamed from NAS storage. The differences were not night and day but were consistent across discs, with streaming giving clearer, less cloudy insight into the recording.
Roger
Buying a CDP in 2021 makes absolute sense if you want to play CDs.