I guess I just don’t see the value proposition of it? high-res streaming has surpassed CD in resolution and quality, a device like a uniti core or a variety of others allow you replay CD files without any on-the-fly errors. My Naim dealer who is quite respected and a recording engineer has said the Uniti Core out into a really good DAC is as good or better than any transport. I don’t think they would advise dumping a bunch of money into a compromised dead end format. YMMV, but if I am going to buy physical media I would buy the LP (which is why I have way too many records). Otherwise, for digital there are higher-res better ways to listen to digital music.
Goodness me, what is the compound noun for a group of trolls?
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Annoying 
Just because you don’t agree with a viewpoint does not mean you are being trolled. There are a lot of better alternatives to a CD players, but no one is stopping you from buying one if you wish…
He already has if you care to go back through this thread
Put a sock in it mate this thread is about CD players nothing else
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You beat me to it.
CD is not even close to a dead format in Japan. So Auccuphase and others are also making CD players. Denon and Marantz do some eye watering high end models. But as mentioned, they all double as DACs. They process a lot more than 16/44.1
I absolutely love my Luxman CD player and use it almost exclusively as a DAC for streaming. About 4 instances, a pack of new CDs to rip I couldn’t wait and plopped some in to listen while ripping the others.
The Luxman X10 range seems to be missing a preamp right now. It has CD player and power amp. But supply issues have scuppered both the preamp and their first streamer. Off topic, they’ve recently announced that they had to change tube supplier for their tube amps. After 30 years, JJ are no longer able to provide enough tubes that make it through the Luxman grading stage as it fell below their 40% threshold and deliveries are few and far between so they’ve gone back to US made tubes.
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I just sometimes wonder if constantly comparing resolution capability as the deciding factor to “quality” has reached the stage of missing the point once a certain technical capability has been reached.
Is there a direct comparison for the quality of the unrecorded human voice vs recorded, is it bit rate etc?
I mean, a painting completed in a Pointillism style has more pixels than a traditional impressionist, but which one is “better”, found this quote to that very question, I appreciate art but am certainly no expert at all.
“Paintings done in an impressionistic style tend to have a lot of emotion and sense of movement. Conversely, works produced with pointillism techniques appear very flat, static and lifeless”
I’ve got 4 HD / UHD TV’s, each one from different generations with ever higher resolution specifications, yet to me the most consistently “good” picture is on one of the oldest Panasonics with wide angle viewing capabilities. The others (Samsung, Panasonic and cheapskate Sharp) can on their day all can look superb, but are far more affected by other changing variables, such as room light, angle and source material, let alone all the noise and motion settings that are usually best turned off.
So it’s not to bash Streaming, just think a lot of the time there are potentially so many additional variables to getting the “best” sound to our ears than resolution figures.
I hope my CD players keep spinning and its a shame in my opinion Naim only have the one, just find my CDX2.2 gives a consistently enjoyable performance, if I’m faced with the unfortunate time when I need to replace then I’d be looking at Rega models as a first port of call at that time.
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Nyquist is not broken. And still cant hear above 20kHz. Sony/Philips did their reasearch well. But ”hires” is a hot ticket among salespeople and many believe them. A high number is always better right?
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Comparing downloads vs. streaming has nothing to do with what users want. Valuation is important among the investors paying for internet companies and MAU and DAU is what counts. Monthly and Daily Active Users. Streaming gives very high numbers while buying an album gives just one tick. So investors will not invest in download services, ever. Look at Qobuz within their Sublime accounts - as long as you stream you can have lower price on your download.
Agreed, having worked entirely in tech my career it’s amazing how many times quantity based units are used to explain quality.
Bandwidth and throughout often being interchangeable, this mistake makes tech like WAN optimisation then look like magic.
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Well I regret to advise you that your playing the music contained on them is illegal.
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I remember back in the 80s CDs were the future and vinyl was dead, yet vinyl is alive and thriving. Elsewhere on the forum is the vinyl vs CD and I assume streaming debate.
My brother and I did back to back comparisons between the two back in the 90s and concluded my Rega sounded ‘better’ than my CD player which cost 10x as much. Somewhere there is a paper by Roy Gandy from Rega which if I recall, points out the improbability of a record player doing what it does at all, let alone well.
These days after several system upgrades I can hear the shortcomings on my Planar 3 compared to the CD, but it is still a wonderful sound and it just encourages me to think about an LP 12.
I’m not anti streaming but can’t take proper advantage of it, and meanwhile can enjoy the other, physical, media. I don’t have an aerial so won’t go back to the FM route any time soon - however I remember that sounding amazing on a live broadcast and having it on constantly.
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I couldn’t read all of the 211 posts. If I was going to get a top shelf CD player it would have to also play SACD. To my thinking then it would have to be an Esoteric player. They sound amazing and unlike I think anyone else they make their own drives.
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They are fantastic players but I thought they used Teac transports?
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I know Esoteric is owned by Teac. I don’t believe that Teac players use the very different Esoteric drives.
Trollop?!
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One of my regrets, was giving away a Teac VRDS T1 to a mate, not in the same class by any way as the Esoterics, but a beast machine in its own way.
As technology has advanced I’ve flipped between dedicated and transports and Dacs, not sure there is a definitive better there either.
The Teac / Cambridge Dac made way for an Arcam Alpha 9, which was a stunning player, one of the first HDCD’s and made use of Ring Dac tech. It’s still in the loft.
I use a Rega Apollo CDP as a transport and MF MX-Dac with separate linear power supply in second system. Definitely an uplift on the bare player albeit the standalone Rega has a certain earthy charm of its own.
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That has a nice ring to it.
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Last time a visited my favourite music store they were filled to the brim with lp’s, cd’s and even cassette tapes so cds are still here…at least Naim should consider bringing back the Cdx2
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Very interesting chart.
I sold my vinyl and CDs in June to a specialist company. I had over 1000 records and about 750 CDs.
They said that there is a good market in second hand vinyl, but virtually no market in second hand CDs. They only take CDs if there is a record collection to sell, as the sellers usually want to sell both and not just the vinyl.
They further advised that since Covid, the CD market has collapsed even further and they have warehouses full of them waiting for the market to improve.
Their main route for selling CDs was selling at record markets in Holland where they sold CDs at €3 for 10.
Sad state of affairs for CDs, but as shown in the chart there is a huge demise in CDs.
DG…
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