May I ask you which why the differences between hardware and software upsampling (I use Roon) and have you some references you can recommend ?
Best regards
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I am not expert, but I think a CD contains audio at 44,1 kHz and 16 bit. You can spin the CD in a transport or rip the CD to 44,1/16 and stream the file. This will go to a DAC (on board or separate) which will convert digital to analog. Theoretically the sound quality from playing the CD or streaming the file is equivalent, depends on the hardware.
Then you have many variations and you can use software or hardware or a combination.
You can convert your files to higher definition files and stream those files. There are several software programs and many streamers that will play the new, higher resolution files, using several combinations of higher frecuency sampling and bit definition.
Or you can upsample on the fly the 44,1/16 files and send that to a DAC. This can be done from the ripped files or spinning the CD in a transport. Some CD players have this hardware on board, or some upsamplers will convert 44,1 to 705,6 kHz that will go to a DAC.
Obviously, to be able to listen to any improvement using this technique you need a very high quality system. There is a lot of information in internet and in this forum if you search the words upsampling or upscaling. Good luck.
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Hi, @anon56814208.
To my surprise, my favorite source through my Qute2- Vienna Haydn system is my bare CD5XS via digital co-ax. More “bounce” and fun, somehow, to me.
Ripped network music can/should be as good or better; but I find a lot of points of potential weakness are managed better with CD, for most of us. Fiddle with it, and net music - local rips, Tidal and even Spotify - is/are excellent, too.
That said, I stream a lot. Cannot let pursuit of perfection kill the music!
Nick
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There is a very expensive Project CD transport , the RS2T which does not use Teac transport.
Pro -Ject designed and built it with the aid of former Phillips employees from a firm called Streaming Unlimited . Being a card carrying Luddite , I use my CDX2 with my Nova.
As the CDX2 is nineteen years old ( but still going strong) and the signal gets digitised , there may come a time when it gets replaced by a transport
And look it has a magnetic clamp
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The Pro-Ject CD Box RS2 T is a very nice piece of kit. It is a transport only and needs a DAC. For a long time I wanted to buy one.
I bought the more basic and compact CD Box S2 for only 370 euro. It has some interesting solutions but I found it is not without issues. It has a decent sound and an optical output that is useful to experiment with external DACs.
Previously I had a Pro-Ject CD Box DS player that bricked itself after swallowing a CD-R.
With this experience I sometimes look at the RS2 T but I think I will buy other options.
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There is also a Cyrus CD transport (note limited availability) at the same price (£2k+)
Must admit I wish with all their DAC based products that a CD transport was on Naim’s agenda
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A slightly better use of resources would be to ritualistically burn a €500 note while putting €1k into 30 year US treasury bonds.
Yes Cyrus has the Transport at 1,5 k and the T XR at 2,5 k I believe. The T is a bit dated in my opinion.
I do that several times per year, when I go out to eat and drink with my friends.
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Yes the Cyrus is a top notch transport (available for 1000 quid s/h on ebay). I think you will need a better DAC to make the most of it.
There are some bargains out there s/h as most people (not me) are moving away from CD. CDs are cheap too (even compared with streaming if you buy less than 1 a month).
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First class CD players at 1000 bucks, average CDs at 10 bucks (second hand CDs at 1 buck).
I started buying CDs when you could buy four LPs for the price of one CD…
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Staying with it for a number of reasons , such as poor broadband and ethics questions for artists payments,
On the other hand internet radio is good (proving no dropouts)
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When I say best SQ (from a CD) for a reasonable price I mean 10 k, for example Exposure CD Transport > Chord Hugo M Scaler > Chord Hugo TT 2. I see some members using this setup (with a streamer) in this thread, perhaps they are willing to chime in.
I’m quite prepared to accept that I’ve been lucky, but some of the estimates of CD player lifespan above are rather out of line with my experience. In fact, I haven’t gone through many players at all:
Technics SLP S50, bought 1991, used heavily, moved around the country countless times, spent the last ten years in an unheated garage. Still working fine, last I checked.
Naim CDX2, made in 2002, bought by me in 2015, used plenty, never serviced, still working beautifully with no issues (tactus lignum) despite being about to embark on its third decade.
I’m not trying to deny the more frustrating experiences that others have had, just pointing out that other outcomes are possible.
Mark
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I had a similar dilemma - CD player vs ripped CDs and streaming.
I faced the dilemma after my home network decided not to play one evening, I’d had a rubbish day with work and just wanted to listen to some music. So I dug out my 25 year old Marantz CD63 MkII KI Signature CD player and plugged the coaxial digital output into the DAC of my streamer. I wasn’t expecting much…
But it sounded fantastic - better than streaming red book uncompressed FLAC rips from my NAS and certainly better than Qobuz.
I went to my dealer a couple of weeks later intent on finding a CD transport but after talking through my experiences, he recommended that I try a Melco N1A server. I brought it home, again not expecting much…
I ripped some of my favourite CDs using the Buffalo disc drive the dealer loaned to me with the Melco. To my astonishment, it surpassed the sound I was getting from the CD transport into my DAC, again by quite a margin - and it seems to clean up the Qobuz feed [reduces jitter on the LAN output to streamer apparently] - so this also sounded much, much better.
I bought the Melco and the Buffalo drive that I’d borrowed a week later - sounds brilliant. I see it as a big ‘source upgrade’. Any thoughts of buying a CD transport are now long gone.
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You would buy a cheap Exposure or Rega transport to connect to 7/8 k dac / Mscaler combo?
Dear Mark,
I think your experience reflects reality well. I have had several quality players, only two failed.
One was abused using not recommended CDs, which I think resulted in a corrupted firmware.
My first ever Rotel CD player, bought in 1989, stopped opening and closing the lid at the press of a button. It still works if you do it manually.
I think the Naim, Rega or Exposure of today can play for many, many years. I said 10 in a provocative way, but I would expect more than 25 years easily.
All the best,
Rafael
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AFAIK Naim have never produced a CD transport, even when the excellent nDAC was being maufactured, so it seems unlikely that they’d change direction in the dying days of CD production. (Sorry!)
Roger
Peakman, that takes me straight back to the dying days of records 30 years ago!
Nevertheless we must enjoy our chosen front end. ATB Peter