Not strictly true, as the Star is able to play CDs as well as rip them.
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But the Star is designed as a streamer, not a CD player. Although it can play CDs, it is not its forte (like it’s forerunner the Uniti 2). If you want to play CDs, buy a CD player.
Do CDs played on the Star sound worse than rips? I wouldn’t know - sure, I would want to have a listen before buying. Not that I would want to do this myself - I just know that it’s possible.
Not sure, I suspect so. I do remember CDs played on my Uniti 2 sounded very lacklustre.
I definitely do want to keep playing CDs for the forseeable.
- I have ripped almost all of them once to 320Kbps MP3s for when I’m out and about. I appreciate that nowadays I would probably rip them to FLAC or something, but I don’t really want to have to go through and rip everything again.
- I like browsing and using physical items.
- I expect people to keep shedding their CD collections, and therefore expect to be able to pick up quite a lot of stuff secondhand for the next few years.
So, I need a CD player. That would mean I have several choices:
- Buy a power amp and use the Uniti2’s pre-amp output. I assume I can do that. Given that people say the speakers I have are an easy load, so I don’t need extra power, would I expect to get better sound?
- Buy a Nova and use the Uniti2 purely as a digital CD input. But that means I can’t sell on the Uniti2 (which seem to go for a decent amount on eBay) and feels a bit of a waste of the Uniti2.
- Buy a Star, sell the Uniti2 and use the CD player the Star has. Nigel says it’s not a good idea. Feels like it might be a lot of faff for the level of upgrade I’d guess at, but would be a halfway house to the inevitable time in the future where I have to abandon CDs entirely.
- Buy another CD player, buy a Nova, sell the Uniti2. Given that people aren’t producing new CD players much and the CD5si is from 2013, is this even sensible?
Or buy some floor speakers instead.
Thank you for entertaining my faff. It passes the time.
Oh, and I don’t know what on earth I was thinking when I gave room dimensions, those are complete bobbins. Sorry if that has misled people in terms of power.
It’s more like 5m * 7.5m. The speakers need to be about 2-2.5m apart because of room layout. I do serious listening from a sofa where my head is about 3m back perpendicularly from the line between the speakers, and more casual but much more frequent listening when I’m working at a desk around 4.5m away. I have no issue at all with the volume that I can get out of the current setup.
You are probably getting the best from MP3s with your Uniti 2 and IMV there is no point in spending any more on your system if you are going to stick with low res files. Sorry.
If you are serious about getting better SQ from your system then you either have to invest in a CD player and better amplifier e.g SuperNait, as the pre or power amp sections of the Uniti 2 just aren’t good enough, or you have to rip your CDs to Flac or WAV and possibly upgrade to an Atom, Star or preferably Nova. Leave the speakers for the time being.
I know you like the convenience of streaming but you are not hearing its real capability with MP3 files. You will notice an immediate improvement by just ripping your CDs. Who knows, that could be all the system you need.
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Sorry, I can’t have been clear. I’m not playing MP3s on the Uniti2 - I agree that would be madness, and if I were doing that I might as well be streaming anyway. I’m playing those when I am out and about, on my phone. On the Uniti2 I play from CDs.
OK, but my comment about the Uniti 2 primarily being an integrated streamer and not optimised for CD replay holds.
Yes - you don’t need a full on CD player just something that will play CDs and has a digital out, it will only be a transport as you will use the excellent Nova DAC. I use a £40 Blu Ray player for the very rare occasions I play CDs through my Nova.
If the idea of a Star appeals, I think you should try to demo one rather than going by speculation from a forum discussion by guys who haven’t even listened to it as a CD player.
What I would do in your situation (and of course, you don’t have to agree with me) is buy something that makes CD ripping easy. Then, when you want to listen to one, stick it in, rip it, and play the rip. The only difference is that the next time you want to listen to an album, there will be a 5 minute delay while it’s ripped. After that you never have to rummage around looking for that nasty plastic box ever again.
A Star would do this, as would an Innuos Zen Mini, a Core, or a few other options.
Ok, that’s interesting. Are CD players basically a commodity now in terms of how well they read? I have some CDs which have been around for a quite a while, and I often buy secondhand CDs which are bashed up. So I don’t want to end up with a CD player that can only cope with pristine discs.
I’m not disagreeing with you, but can you explain that a bit for my info? I had assumed that the CD part just does the job of reading the disc reliably and converting it into a digital signal, and then it would flow through the same DAC as streaming would.
I used to have a Naim CDS2 and it was the fussiest CD player I have ever used in terms of skipping and refusing to play discs so there is not necessarily a linear relationship between player price and disc reading capability. There will be some people who will argue that an expensive transport makes a difference to the sound but I suspect you would need a very revealing system for this to be an issue.
As you say, you just need something that reads a disc reliably and converts it into a digital signal. If you think about the bit density of Blu Ray, the transport must be pretty good to cope with this task.
You have to remember the Uniti 2 is an entry level integrated product, so none of its sections (CD reader, streamer/transport, DAC, pre amp, power amp) are going to be the best. Like all all-in-one products, there are compromises in the design and components used, especially at entry level.
The Uniti 2 is primarily a streamer that has a CD thown in. IMV the CD is weaker than the streamer section, and I heard this clearly when I owned one.
Ok. So probably what I should do is try to get a home demo of a Nova playing from stuff I know ripped to FLAC, with the intention being to drive it with a cheap and cheerful CD player with a digital output.
Looks like secondhand Novas are around £2700 on eBay, though there are different model numbers which may be relevant. That’s affordable (especially if I then sell the Uniti2 after). Though I can’t really get a home demo and then buy secondhand elsewhere.
Agree Nigel, when I had a uniti (first version) streaming definitely sounded better than CD ergo I made the jump to streaming.
Gary
That ought to be something I could compare, e.g. rip a CD to FLAC and then compare the sound of that vs the same CD playing on the Uniti2?
If you aren’t bothered about streaming why not look out for a used CDX2 and Supernait 2. A used CDX2 goes for relatively little money these days and is an excellent player.
You could do this in stages, get the CD player first and use with the Uniti and then get the amplifier next.
You may have to be a little patient but it would make a very fine 2 box system, far better than a Nova.
If you need a streamer for internet radio or Spotify then get an inexpensive streamer, Yamaha do one for just over £100 which would do the job. In the future if a better streamer appeals then out goes the CDX2 and in comes an NDX2.
That’s assuming the same thing that Nigel and Farthings are saying, which is that the Uniti2 can do a better job streaming that it can with the digital result of its built-in player?
I don’t understand why that would be, but I’m not arguing against it. @NigelB, @Farthings-cat would you expect that difference to apply to the Uniti2 streaming from ripped FLAC (rather than online)?