Thinking of changing to digital

Hi-Fi Corner
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Presently we have a Linn / Naim / Kudos system.

However, we mainly listen to Jazz through a small and cheap Internet Radio Adaptor. And the Linn LP12 (Akurate+ spec) and Naim CD5SX to be honest, don’t get used that much.

The rest of the system is;

  • NAC282
  • NAP250DR x 2
  • Supercap
  • FlatCap
  • SNAXO242
  • Headline
  • Kudos Titan 606

We don’t know much about streaming, but if we were to sell the deck and CD player, what are the options digitally wise, keeping with Naim. We still want to listen to Jazz24 via the Internet as have found this to be a great station, playing the type of Jazz that we like.

We have a collection of vinyl and CDs. The CDs, could be ripped, but what how do you rip the vinyl. So this also needs to be taken into consideration.

We know that the LP12 and CD5SX can be sold, but can you sell vinyl and CDs, is there a market for these?

We are interested on what other forum members have done and their thoughts on this madcap idea.

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Last question first; Yes, there is a thriving secondhand market for CDs and vinyl records in good condition, moreso the latter. However, if you rip your discs then to stay within the spirit of the law you will need to keep the physical items.

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So difficult as you have a collection already.

Cd’s are easily accommodated by ripping as you suggest.
The LP’s can be digitised but I wouldn’t. Keep the turntable or release funds by changing for a lesser but still adequate replacement- say a Rega of some sort.

Naim streamers are discussed endlessly on here and personal preference seems to vary.
I have decided to stream via my own ripped storage and via Amazon HD which has a vast collection of jazz and other content available.

My chosen set up then is Auralic streamer to support Amazon HD, plus a Rega p8 turntable to play existing, and new, LP’s.

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For that setup, a NDX2 would be the minimum from the Naim range of streamers and preferably a power supply to go with it. But, it’s a big change you’re contemplating and it would be costly to go back, so I would strongly recommend finding a helpful dealer who will allow a home demo of the streamer if that is possible.

I agree with Richard that if you rip your CDs first, it would be immoral and potentially illegal to then sell them. You might even decide to keep the CD5XS to use as a transport feeding the streamer’s DAC. That’s what I do.

Roger

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My first Naim streamer was a NDX int a Olive system I had already sold my LP12 and was using a Naim CD player CDs were ripped to a NAS.

I found that the CD player was just gathering dust and just used the NDX.

I decided to upgrade and bought a new Classic system adding a power supply to the original NDX and I sold the CD player.

To b honest I do not miss CDs or vinyl at all and much prefer the convenience of streaming.

I would suggest that you visit your Naim dealer and listen to various options and look at how you would like to rip and store your CD collection I use a Core because I don’t like messing with computers to rip CDs but your dealer can show the options available. When I sold my LP12 I replaced most of my albums with secondhand CDs and ripped them.

I use Qobuz and find it excellent but as in all things in life everybody has personal preferences.

If you want to stay with Naim in your system I would have thought that a NDX2 would be ideal preferably with a additional power supply plus you should be able to use systam automation if you take the Naim route happy hunting.

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Given the capability of your amplification and speakers, the NDX2 with an XPS DR or 555PS would be the ideal partner, especially since , as mentioned before, this would provide system automation in the Naim app. You could rip all of your CDs onto a USB Flash drive which could be pugged into the rear of the NDX2.
I have done exactly that and it provides you with your entire CD library attached to the streamer. It works very well as long as you don’t buy more CDs but even then it is only a matter of unplugging the drive from the streamer and attaching it to your computer if you wish to add to the drive.
I did consider using a Core but this solution suits me fine and costs a fraction of the price of a Core.

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Thanks for the prompt comments, so far. I wasn’t aware the legal side of ripping the CDs, so many thanks for the advice on that element. I may just sell the CDs without ripping them first.

That will save me a lot of time and effort, plus the storage of them.

Also, I then won’t need storage device of some sort.

I’ll also look at the XPS power supply as well.

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Richard

Thanks for this. Can you advise any companies who would be interested in buying bulk vinyl and CDs.

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There are several. Look up Eil, for instance. I’ve not sold to them, but the quality of the records they sell has always been high in my experience. They look for records (not sure if they do CD) in very good+ to excellent condition.

You have any record shops near you? Check them too.

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You mentioned your Internet Radio player - what is this?

Jazz24 is great and there are another 20 excellent jazz stations.

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In my experience the CD market has died up and you can hardly give them away.

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I was under the impression that prices for rarer and more sought after CD releases have firmed up in recent years.

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It is a Majority Robinson, which also has a remote control

We absolutely love Jazz24, no adverts.

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Not madness, I went all digital five years ago. excellent decision. I now have wonderful control over my music listening. Ripped all my CDs and some vinyl (and some cassettes!). I now can play my music from my AssetUPnP server, stream from Qobuz and listen to Internet Radio.

I suggest you take a step back and review what you want to achieve.
Do you want to stream from likes of Qobuz?
You suggest you might just sell your collections and not rip - so is local streaming a requirement?
A “NDX2 with an XPS DR or 555PS” is an expensive way to listen to Jazz24.

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Jazz24 is on most of the time, but listen to vinyl and CDs as well.

Musical tastes go from Jazz / Blues / Rock / 80s / punk (giving my age away here).

One of the other things that I’m taking into consideration is that I have some vision loss which may get worse, so preempting that.

Done a bit of reading up on streaming and that would appear to replace the record and CD collection.

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I am in the same boat, but I didn’t spend thousands on my vinyl rig. I have struggled for a couple of years with vinyl. I thought it would be “romantic” in the sense that it is listening the way I did when I was a kid (although CDs and cassettes pretty much took over by the time I was 8 or 9). I thought the sound quality would be better. I thought I would enjoy the intentionality and physicality of having to select an album, put it on the turntable, place the stylus, turn the side, and so on. All of those things are somewhat true, sometimes. But what I hate is the fact that I am on my 4th cartridge and 2nd Phono Stage trying to get things right, that I have had to buy a record cleaner, a stylus scale, a protractor, anti-vibration turntable feet, etc., and that I have had to purchase things on vinyl that I already had on CD, or via FLAC/ALAC, or that I could listen to over Qobuz or Tidal for less than the cost of one vinyl album per month.

So, I have the Nova, and streaming is so simple, and I can listen to a symphony or opera without turning a record over. I don’t have to worry about whether the speed is perfect, or whether the bias is just right to get proper bass response. And the sound quality of streaming FLAC over Qobuz, or FLAC or ALAC from my own NAS, is superb. No pops or clicks, and well-mastered digital music listened to at a high sampling rate doesn’t have the “artificial” quality that plagued many early CD releases and MP3 files. And all of the storage space! I have a problem with too many books and CDs as it is. I don’t need to add hundreds of vinyl albums to the mix! So, I am seriously thinking of removing my modest vinyl setup from my system entirely.

For what it is worth, ripping vinyl isn’t worth it in my opinion, as long as you are able to access those albums on a streaming service. The sound will not be better than the same album streamed or even purchased on a used CD in almost all cases. I have transferred a few old vinyl albums that are not commercially available in digital format (the Buckingham Nicks album comes to mind) as well as a few that my parents recorded back in college with a singing group, and it is a serious pain, even with good vinyl ripping software. Doing that with dozens or hundreds of vinyl albums would take the rest of my life!

And I am not sure where you live, but the last time I tried to get rid of a bunch of CDs the place wouldn’t even take a lot of them, as they weren’t sure they would sell. And on the others I got pennies for each one. So, I would recommend keeping the CD player and the CDs. At least you can use them for coasters!

Sorry for the bit of a rant. I am just pretty disaffected today when it comes to vinyl, as last evening the suspension collapsed on a stylus I recently purchased when I was trying to listen to one of my favorite albums. Sure, I can probably get a refund, but with streaming, I don’t have to worry about that kind of thing!

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Think twice before selling your lp12. Streaming albums from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s is not the same as listening to an lp with a good turntable. You will not have the same emotion and liveliness. It’s the reason why so many have sold their CD players , bought a streamer, but kept their turntable.

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With the active Kudos setup you are really looking at an NDX2 with XPSDR or ideally the 555PS. The former option costs the best part of £10,000. You can rip the CDs to a NAS using your computer, and then stream from the NAS to the NDX2. Morally you should keep the CDs but in the real world you could sell the valuable ones and give the rest to the charity shop. Who wants a loft full of plastic that will never get used?

As for the vinyl, it would be ideal to keep it, but if your worsening eyesight makes that impractical, then sell it. You may have a local secondhand record shop that would buy them. You’ll get a lot more selling via Discogs but that takes time and may or may not be something you want to do.

If you are quite happy with your Jazz 24 via the current hardware you may want to question whether the whole active setup is necessary, and whether you may be just as happy with something simpler.

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Like others here I would suggest the NDX2 as the streamer. You will be able to find many great Jazz stations with that! Also, I suggest a Uniti Core. I ripped all my CDs to one, and I still buy files for downloading and even CDs if the file format is not available. Streaming from the Core or Tidal (or internet radio) is about as easy as it could get. Once you have ripped all the CDs, put them away our of site (perhaps with the CD player), and worry no more. Depending on what you have on LP format you may experience regrets at getting rid of that part of the system. I suggest putting the TT and the LPs in the same out of site storage place as the CDs and player. If a year goes by and you don’t have the urge to get it out and play an LP or two, then you know what to do.

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That was my experience too - they were not interested in buying any CDs nor asking or seeing what I had.

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