CD Transport

For occasional use I'd look for a 2nd hand  Sony ES player - built like a tank. 

In over three years with no CD player I've never missed the ability to play CDs. I'd do nothing and see how you get on - why have a box lying around that will rarely if ever be used?

A few years ago I considered a little dot cd transport to plug into my dac but, as Nigel says, I have never missed the ability to play a cd and it is easy enough to rip anything new.  I wouldn't bother until you find you have a need

Which gives me the chance to say..... don't be in a rush!!!

But if you do decide to buy a disc spinner I can recommend OPPO. You may actually find its DAC actually matches the one in ND5XS

NAD  C516BEE, it's around $300.00 US dollars, and worth every penny.

Agree with Adams recommendation , they receive high praise from my dealer, and good value for money

I use Oppo 105 in my living room set-up. It's primarily used for playing back movies, but also for surround sound audio playback via its analogue putputs. Makes for a fine digital transport too when connected to my nDAC.

Generally a superb machine at a reasonable price.

When I bought a Unitiserve, I just got used to the idea that when I inserted a CD I wanted to play, there would be a 3 or 4 minute delay before I could listen to it. After that, it's stored on the hard drive, so is instantly accessible. I can't imagine why I'd want to buy a CD player that cost the same as my streamer just to play the odd CDs that I haven't ripped yet.

ChrisSU posted:

When I bought a Unitiserve, I just got used to the idea that when I inserted a CD I wanted to play, there would be a 3 or 4 minute delay before I could listen to it. After that, it's stored on the hard drive, so is instantly accessible. I can't imagine why I'd want to buy a CD player that cost the same as my streamer just to play the odd CDs that I haven't ripped yet.

Chris makes a complelling point here. It is increasing difficult to justify owning, let alone buying a CD player, if all music is ripped properly and a quality streamer is available. There are of course  lunatics like me.... 

ChrisSU posted:

When I bought a Unitiserve, I just got used to the idea that when I inserted a CD I wanted to play, there would be a 3 or 4 minute delay before I could listen to it. After that, it's stored on the hard drive, so is instantly accessible. I can't imagine why I'd want to buy a CD player that cost the same as my streamer just to play the odd CDs that I haven't ripped yet.

Spot on. I spent a bit of time ripping my more commonly used cd's and the less used ones just got ripped as I wanted to listen to them. I will never own another CD player 

Life would be incomplete without a CD player, just as it would without wine.

Roger

Thanks for all the posts --- food for thought. I guess it's either holding the horses or Oppo when upgrading the Bluray player. (Would like a new Bluray player but not really necessary.) I also thought about UnitiServe -- would expect a few good deals in the new year. But, to be honest, I am a bit put off by reliability issues. Some threads here suggest that UnitiServe is not the most reliable Naim product, and that some spent significant amounts of time in the Salisbury hospital...

Does your existing BluRay player have an optical output?  If so, for the occasional (and it will be very occasional ) disk, use that as a CD player (all BD players can play CDs).

I've done this and used it three times in 18 months.  The quality definitely isn't as good as the ND5 XS via UPnP, but it's not that bad, and you don't need another separate box.  If you really need the quality, then rip the disk and play it from the NAS - typically it'll rip at about 20x speed, so it doesn't take that long for the odd disk.

Timo posted:

 I also thought about UnitiServe -- would expect a few good deals in the new year. But, to be honest, I am a bit put off by reliability issues. Some threads here suggest that UnitiServe is not the most reliable Naim product, and that some spent significant amounts of time in the Salisbury hospital...

You could say, that UnitiServe is not the most reliable one... Conceptually it's quite brilliant, but ultimately it was let down by the technology available at the time. It's spiritual successor - Uniti Core - should be addressing those issues.

A slightly tongue-in-cheek thread on the UnitiServe can be found here:

https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...erves-society?page=1

Exactly -- this is one of the threads that made me wonder whether a UnitiServe would cost too much of my sanity...

N.B. Please take this a pure humour.

Well, then just look at the people who have one!  

Huge posted:

N.B. Please take this a pure humour.

Well, then just look at the people who have one!  

Every time someone dares to pose a question about a CD player the streaming mafia emerge in force.  The OP has a streamer he just wants the ability to spin a CD sometimes.  It doesn't make him a Neanderthal.      

Huge posted:

N.B. Please take this a pure humour.

Well, then just look at the people who have one!  

And start a tread to complain about it just go get a Qnap!!! ��

Timo posted:

Thanks for all the posts --- food for thought. I guess it's either holding the horses or Oppo when upgrading the Bluray player. (Would like a new Bluray player but not really necessary.) I also thought about UnitiServe -- would expect a few good deals in the new year. But, to be honest, I am a bit put off by reliability issues. Some threads here suggest that UnitiServe is not the most reliable Naim product, and that some spent significant amounts of time in the Salisbury hospital...

I guess you might be looking at a Core by then, being cheaper, with user-swappable hard drives, and possibly better reliability than it's predecessor. Not that my US has given me any trouble.

Yours,

A. Capone

I wonder whether advocates of streaming over cd's sometimes miss an important point; for me it's not about speed but process. Often I select a cd but in the few seconds from taking it out and walking to the player, the anticipation triggers something I'd rather play and I change my mind. Instant access would deprive me of this added enjoyment.

n'est ce pas?

Emre posted:

Huge posted:

N.B. Please take this a pure humour.

Well, then just look at the people who have one!  

And start a tread to complain about it just go get a Qnap!!! ��

Did exactly that it was a fun thread, but also genuinly helpful to a lot of people with UnitiServe problems.

A similar q was recently posed on pfm, but luckily the streaming mafia () were down the pub.

I too have an ND5XS and its DAC/audio section is definitely more neutral to these ears than those of the CD5XS or even CDX2, so I now use a Cyrus transport into it - about a third of the cost of a Unitiserve and as accurate; a simple server can, er, serve into the streamer.

Works great anyway. Only obvious missing is HDCD but of course they can be ripped - if I can be bothered.

Salmon Dave posted:

A similar q was recently posed on pfm, but luckily the streaming mafia () were down the pub.
...

You start using the ND5 as a streamer or we'll leave a dead CD head unit in you bed.