Ok, great.
I am originally from Ashford, for my sins , so when I am back in Blighty, I always pop in.
Ok, great.
I am originally from Ashford, for my sins , so when I am back in Blighty, I always pop in.
Good work ! Enjoy
Tony did give you a mention
Iāll expect my finders fee!
Nah, my discount ate that up
Sorry. That was me who bought it from them.
The new owner of my ND5 has just checked in, all good and up and running!
Good to see the love for the ND5 continuing here
Assumining you have a pc/ laptop with a cd player to rip, decent NAS from Qnap or Synology is where a lot of suggestions will point you. Neither are perfect. I chose a Synology is 218+ from Amazon @Ā£300 delivered the next day. Popped in both drives from my exiting WD Nas. The WD would not take either minim or asset. Hence the change. As a media server the Synology is very good. Easy to upgrade the memory via critical/Amazon. Streams movies nicely as well of course music. Good online and forum support too.
Quick work Roberto, good for you.
Every time I pop in, Iām hoping to find an ex-demo Muso for the lounge. But Iām only there twice a year soooooā¦
The way Iām justifying this purchase to myself is that with the lock down and working from home Iāll have saved two months worth of rail season tickets and station car parking so thereās Ā£1200, plus whatever I get for selling the CD5si and the Sonos Connect should be at least another Ā£600 so I may actually end up in pocket
And, if you really,really want to spin some CDs. Plug a cheap player into one of the many digital inputs of the nd5 xs2. Yep, Iāll get flamed for even mentioning that, but whatās to loose.
Not that I intend to sell my cd5si. But it I did, I may hook up my old DVD player.
I had the CD5Si and then got an ND5XS and added a DAC. Ended up not using the CD5Si very much, because the ND5XS sounded very good indeed with the DAC.
And so then bought the CDS2 with XPS. Wow it sounded so amazing. And the ND5XS with DAC didnāt sound as good as that.
Then came the NDS with 555PS. I had to sell the CDS2 to fund it. The sound between the two was close with the NDS having a clearer presentation and being more practical on so many levels. Something about the CDS2 was a bit magical though. Sounded more like my LP12 TBH.
If I had the funds Iād get another CDS2 and XPS in a heartbeat. Or a CDS3. But that would be decision with the heart. Certainly miss the CDS2 but longer term the CD player world is going to get difficult as mechanisms will ultimately be in short supply and it could become redundant.
CD5Si is a good player but have never missed it since the ND5XS with DAC.
Looking back on my journey I donāt have any regrets and the NDS and 555PS is the best thing for me to have right now. It sounds wonderful and the ease of use and not having to change CDs makes life easier.
My favourite source for serious listening is my LP12. Probably use the NDS 70% of the time though for sheer ease of use.
Iāve had a Qnap 253A for about four years, running Asset, and itās been very reliable. The best thing is that you can plug a WD passport into a USB socket on the front - backing up is essential - and press a button and it does a differential backup. Then you keep the passport elsewhere.
While itās a bit of a pain ripping on a computer you will probably find that most of your new acquisitions are downloads, so itās less of an issue than many make out. The ability to buy music from the artists direct or via Bandcamp is great.
Iāve used QNAP NAS drives for years for storing media and work (photographer) and, so far, never had a problem with them. If itās just for music and other media, a 2 bay drive would do but I would go for something like Ironwolf Pro drives and run as Raid1. Theyāre more expensive but, are extremely reliable and are designed to run 24/7.
Edit. You can also install Roon server onto the QNAP (as well as Synology I believe).
Noā¦ do keep your CDPā¦ youāll likely regret if you donāt. Basically CDP are convenientā¦ itās not always appropriate or desirable to rip every disc before you can playā¦ but more importantly each source adds its own character, this includes the CDPā¦ this renders recordings in its own inimitable wayā¦ if you enjoy that sound then keep the CDPā¦ you may find the way your CDP renders certain recordings works just rightā¦ where as your streamer does everything elseā¦
Audio recording and replay with current technology is still a huge compromise in ultimate performanceā¦ so each source will often bring something unique or distinctive to the party. Sure it may become a minority source for only occasional useā¦ but it adds to the experience.
After all that is why we have those inputs on our NACs.
I still use my CDX2 as well as my current and previous streamersā¦
well saidā¦
Yeah butā¦look where the industry is going. We have IoT everywhere, we stream Netflix, we work by videoconference, we have smart homes and we stream music through local stored files or streaming services that offer very high resolution. Look at the music industryās business model for the last few yearsā¦itās based on streaming royalties rather than sales of a hardcopy medium, whether itās vinyl or silicon. I enjoyed my CD players since the first Magnavox I purchased probably in 1983. Nothing against them intrinsically, but theyāre laborious to use and stocking CDs and vinyl takes up space. Once again, to each his ownā¦and nostalgia is sometimes an enjoyable trip to take, but for me nothing currently surpasses the convenience and quality of streaming audio with a competent tool such as Roon.
Thatās fine @anon64018693
For meā¦the industry might go one way but I neednāt go that way if I get my enjoyment via playing physical medium
I find myself more relaxed and having fun without any mobile device or iPad next to me.
But thatās me
And maybe my position is also related to the fact that Iām stupidly addicted to my silly iPad! Enjoy the music, thatās what we do!