Do I still need my CD player?

For me it it still is a frustrating feeling when I recall myself with a calmness when I press play on the cd player. And I will know the playlist physically. That is more easy for me with the cd player than tidal or upnp, so I think it is up to individual…

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I have also ripped all my CD’s (thousands of them) to a 24TB NAS, via first a Naim DAC and now a NDX2/XPSDR which is fabulous. I was looking to sell my CDX2 which has been to Naim for a service and for photos unboxed it, and then for old times sake plugged it in (without XPS). It sounded great! So I added the XPSDR again. Wow. The NDX2 is fantastic, but don’t rule good CD out it can still be stunning, although logic would say a good rip should be bit perfect. I have not yet sold the CDX2, probably will but hestitating. Good luck.

I ripped all my CD’s to a NAS and use a NDX2. I do not miss a CD player…

The best way to validate is to demo the NDX2 at home and compare to CD and your stored files on the USB. Your system, your room and your ears will give you the answer.

JMHO - YMMV

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Thank you all for the great comments

Kind of misses a point… it’s not about your ears, it’s the convenience of casually playing CDs say from events, performances, magazines etc without needing to rip and transcribe meta data every time.
If however you don’t listen to music this way, and your recordings are more sourced by mainstream methods, then yes, having a CDP is unlikely to give you any usability benefit.

As an avid streamer user since the late 90s… I certainly ensure my CDP is on hand in my system for precisely these uses, I enjoy my music recordings from all sources, not just the mainstream ones… I wouldn’t want my system to limit and restrict what I listen to.

Ripping a new stack mught take a while before you find the time. This is where a player comes in handy. In general, my transition to streaming in 2013 was smooth and I’ve not looked back. But the ability to spin a few discs the second I get a batch home is great. It need not be a high end player (though if you have one, I’d hang on to it). You can as easily use a good quality transport fed into your streamer as a DAC.

Addendum: I’d stick to $1000 or much less for a transport. Given that it’ll get used only a few times a year, there’s no need to go crazy.

Absolutely… and if you use the NDX with a Naim CDP the automation integration is (was?) rather good. The CDP automation is more limited with the NDX2.

I’d just keep my old Musical Fidelity X-Ray player

I still purchase CD’s. When they arrive I rip them to my NAS and find it very convenient to find and play them. I have two bookcases with seven shelves and each hold approximately 399 CD and also have several boxes in a closet holding another 1200+ CD’s. When wanting to listen to an album spontaneously it is much easier for me to access via the NAS from an app on my iPad or iPhone via the dac on my streamer.

For me having to keep a CD player on a shelf on a hi-fi rack for the seldom spontaneous occasion is something I personally decided not to do.

If anyone wants a Turntable, CD player, Cassette player, Reel to Reel player, USB, or streamer or any other device, or any combination, or all of them, or just one that is fabulous as far as I am concerned.

For me after getting a streamer and adding a NAS I found from my experience I did not need a CD player.

If I did find a difference in my listening experience I may have kept the CD player and that would have been a reason why I kept it. That is why I recommended giving a listen. It would have been the sound of the music being more enjoyable from the CD player and not convince of using one, as to why I would need one.

I still take my CD’s on road trips to play in the car.

Different strokes for different folks…

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I haven’t had a CD player in years. I buy CD’s and rip them to my NAS. I also occasionally buy HiRez downloads, and recently I’ve bought a few Japanese MQA cd’s that sound really great. I might someday subscribe to a download service, but I doubt I’d use it enough to justify the cost. I do subscribe to Pandora for my wife on our household Sonos. And for the car I have 300 or so Cd’s on my iPhone via CarPlay and satellite radio

You may wish to consider something like an Innuos Zen/ Zenith to store your music on and play to your NDX2. There is a bit of an overlap of facilities but this is one of the things they are specifically designed to do. If you decide to off load your cd player, the Innuos models come with an integrated cd slot for burning cd’s to the hard drive.

Personally I love the simplicity of having a cd player to hand, lifting a cd off the shelf and playing it. With digital I’m always anticipating something going wrong!

Peter

With a streamer and all CDs ripped, and a means of ripping any other CDs, there is no need for a CD player. Help answering the thread question may come through considering a question: Is its likely sale value sufficient to be more useful to you than the time likely to be taken ripping and checking metadata on however many CDs you think you may acquire over time and which otherwise you wouldn’t bother ripping? And a secondary one: would the freed-up space be a benefit?

Unless you are in need of the funds realised by the sale of your CD player and you are storing your CDs away, then I would say hang on to it.
You never know when your network or your Internet may fail.
Sometimes I think we depend on the old CAT cables too much.

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Why? In a non repeated flexing setup they are probably every bit as reliable as, say, many an interconnect from CD player to amp… and surely most people have thd odd spare ethernet cable kicking around? If not and you’re worried about it a spare isn’t exactly expensive! (And even if you’re someone whose network setup, electrical environment and streamer/DAC and their setup are such that expensive boutique cables make a significant difference, el cheapo spare would at least endure music can be had.)

Great advice, thank you all…I think the CD player will stay, I have space and I don’t think I’d get much for it (Musical Fidelity X-Ray0.

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I really miss my CD players - I’m currently using a Sony UHD as a transport via a Naim DC-1 into my Nova, and though it does indeed sound great, I’m really craving several of the CDP I’ve bought and sold down the years.

I’ve tried out a few recently - usually on a loan basis - and though I haven’t bought one, yet, I’m pretty likely to do so in the near future.

As Simon mentions above, the sheer convenience for certain CDs is what I really enjoy, and though I’m a big vinyl and streaming fan, I still like the sound quality and the experience of selecting & playing a CD.

I sold my Naim CD Player and PS some years ago - don’t miss it at all. Everything is on my NAS (and backed up to a couple of other NASs) and am very happy with the result. If I want to play a whole CDE, then select “play all” from the Naim app. Generally, though, I set up a list of things that I want to listen to, and press Play.
It also gets over the slight niggle that I had of playing the next track, in my head, as each track ends - over-familiarity with the order of the tracks.

And this also adds some realism to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at this time of year … Spring, Winter, Summer, Winter, Autumn Spring…

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I replaced my naim separates with a Uniti about 8 years ago and gradually phased over. Due to my being a lazy old git, I still haven’t ripped all of my CDs but finally made the change to a Nova last year, having ripped enough to justify the transition. I decided that it would motivate me to rip my remaining CDs! Who am I kidding though. O doubt I’ll have done it another 8 years from now :joy:

Regards the USB I started using a stick instead of my NAS due to network issues and am sticking with it as it’s fine. The sound seems slightly brighter but am fine with it. Most importantly I never get any dropouts.

I’ve still got my old cd5xs in storage. Hasn’t been used for several years. Had an offer for £600 to take it off my hands but have resisted the temptation.
If at any time my Unitiserve needs to be looked at I can still play some music.