Should I sell my CD player?

|'d say only keep the CDP if you are going to use it ... otherwise why keep it? 

Mind you I keep books I never read .... 

I think you've got three choices:

1) is to keep it - it matches and you have an emotional attachment to it, and use it sometimes.

2) is to replace it with something really cheap, like a Marantz/Pioneer etc disc spinner, and put the profit toward the next upgrade.

3) is to drop it entirely, and use the uServe.

I'd say to keep it, as transports don't get much better until you pay silly money, and I think the sound of it (even as a supposedly pure digital signal) is slightly more 'organic' than the digitally 'serve(re)d' files.

Just my 2 pence.

The question is how often are you likely to use it? We ran a CDX2 and HDX along side each other for about a year, both into nDAC/555PS. Thje CDX2 ended up pretty much ruling itself out as a necessity and went to a home that would better appreciate it. As with the US, the HDX can play CDs. In nearly three years we have not called upon it to do so. But it's nice to have.

Sell it - I no longer have a CD player apart from the drives in computers used only for ripping. Haven't missed it (CDS2/xps) for a nanosecond (oh the joy of not having to faff around with pucks!) and am totally happy streaming via my SU.

Harry's right,

Your Userve is, like my HDX, for emergency CD replay only, should all else fail, though all my rips are backed up, not only within the HDX, but also to a NAS drive, with mirrored hard drives.

Thinking about it, I've held onto my CDS3 for too long, and having just rebuilt the system, following a week with builders in, I haven't included the CD player.

Regards,

Dave.

I had a Sony 337esD that I was using as a transport. I loved that machine it was built like a tank and weighed a ton. Got rid of it as it was not being used (music all ripped to ALAC) and replacement lasers are like gold dust. Packed all the silver discs away and enjoyed my music.

My wife and daughters then complained about the missing racks and no CDP!! Bought a CA Azur 350C and use it as a transport to keep everyone happy. I even spin a disc occasionally! Nice to have if there is a problem with the Mac Mini.

The choice can only be your's.

Regards

Neil

We all have too much stuff.  We should keep only what we use and re-distribute what we don't use but others will.  I sold my CD player (Meridian) soon after I bought an HDX.  The guy who bought it seemed very happy and I have not missed it for a minute.

If we had got as far as a CDS3 the CDP would have likely stayed longer. It's just so, well, so CDS3! NDS would have done for it though and I hear some NDX users saying similar.

Please all flood the market at the same time with them at $0.99 or $100 buy it now w/ worldwide shipping - I'm a disabled guy in Australia without an income and I'd love to get a Naim CDP or DVD into my system! 

In all seriousness, there's something ritualistic about opening a CD case, letting the CD slide into the unit, and waiting a second for the laser to read the disc index, which I don't think is there with ripped audio, and I find the aggressive upsampling or NOS approaches that many DAC's take with digital material gives me a bad case of digitalis. I think you shouldn't sell it unless you're sure you'll never want to use it again, as there may be a cost involved in buying it back, and you'll never be sure it's as good if you buy someone else's unit.

If you're certain you need to sell it to be happier with your system overall, that's another matter.

I sold my CDS2/XPS last month. Did not miss it at all. Streaming with NDX/555PS is so much more convenient although ripping 800 CDs was really painful. I will be getting a NDS soon.

Portll,

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for so accurately summing up my feelings on this issue. Listening to music must, in my opinion, involve a certain tactile element. Otherwise we vegetate.

I am sure that we were all "there" with vinyl.  With cd's, honestly, I never got that same feeling.  I do not miss the ritual with cd's in the least, and more so, I do not miss the mess of having cd's strewn about and also the racks that would not look so good in my living room.

But that just shows that I'm a 'streamed music guy' now

Peter,

I sincerely respect your views, but I personally worry about this convenience thing. The question isn't whether streaming is more convenient than CD, but, is playing a CD inconvenient ? I actually enjoy playing cd's (see above !!).

When CD hit us in the early 80's, it was marketed as a more convenient way to play/listen to music. Now, streamed music is being marketed as a more convenient way to play/listen to music. Is our only aim in life to make things more convenient ? Is/was vinyl so inconvenient (many posters would say no). Is CD so inconvenient (I personally would say no).

Hmm, where are we going with this ?

Opening and playing a CD is not in the least inconvenient but forgetting the name of the thing you want to play and/or struggling to find it in piles of 1,000 or more CDs that may be spread all over the house is infuriating.  Having it all at your fingertips to scroll through is brilliant.  I rediscovered my music collection when I went digital - stuff that I'd forgotten I owned and would never otherwise have thought to play.  And if I want to avoid vegetating, I can dance. 

Memory loss and untidiness are therefore the reasons to change to streaming.

By the way, I can find any particular CD I want to play (albeit from a modest 700 CD collection) in a max. of 10 seconds. Is that too long and inconvenient ?

I have always thought that there is really no point in having multiple sources is a hi-fi system that do essentially the same thing. Back in the days of vinyl I didn't see any point in having a cassette deck - why would I buy cassettes when LP's sound better?  Likewise it seems pointless to me to run LP and CD or streaming sources in the same set-up. None of them can play music that the others can't - so what's the point? To my mind an additional source must offer music not available to the others, eg. a radio tuner.

So what music can you play with your CD player that you can't play with your streaming set-up? None, so what is it there for?

Peter 

So what music can you play with your streaming set-up that you can't play with your CD player?

None, so what is it there for?

Hi Bart,

Ooops, dilemma :-) 

Purely seen from a rational stance, I think Harry's advize is spot on .... 

I have endless admiration for those unaffected by memory loss and untidiness, particularly when coupled with the good sense to choose family members who always put things back in their place.  Regrettably I have had to adapt to my afflictions - but boy do I enjoy the result.

As to what I can play with my streaming set-up that I couldn't play with my CD player?  My vinyl collection, which I painstakingly converted to digital over a period of about a year.  To my ears (possibly decrepit) it sounds as good on my HDX as it does on my LP12, and it's now available as part of the same collection as my ripped CDs, and throughout the house (or indeed on my holidays, given that wherever I am I can log into my hard drive at home so long as I've got an internet connection).

I'm not, however, about to get rid of my LP12.  I enjoy the anachronism of owning such a thing and it's great fun to show it to young children who are fascinated by the needle and don't understand why you can't fast forward.  And I still buy second-hand vinyl that's unavailable in other forms (and immediatelly convert it to digital).

Absolutely! One should choose between the two. Whether or not streaming in its current form represents the future of hi-fi who can say? But CD replay most certainly does not. So I know which would stay in our house!

Peter

I'm with you there Peter . Just wanted to cheekily put forward the option of actually keeping the CD instead ! ...... the machine that would stay in MY house

Last year I replaced my cd s3 with a ns01 after a system rebuild and a terrible 2 weeks with only a diskman and a small ghettoblaster.

The ns01 was delivered at my house a friday night. At first I did not know the function of the 2 front buttons eject cd and shut down the ns01, so a few times I had to restart the unit because I had accidentally pressed the shot down button. At that time I really missed my s 3! as soon as I figured out what the funtion of the buttons were. I have not missed the s 3. I was really happy getting rid of the terrible top loaded mechanism that made it hard to stack disks on top of the s 3,  like I was used to on my x2.

Claus

Hmmm. Can I hear a real advantage of streaming from someone, instead of 'memory loss, untidiness and lacking the ability to stack CD's on top of the unit' ???

Erm, come to think of it, the CD mech takes up less than half the area of a s 3 top-plate, so leaving enough room for stacking CD's, no ?

Hi Bart -

Instead of selling your CD player, it might be worth seeing what trade-in value it has to to a Naim dealer.  My bet is you will get a better deal, given how rapidly prices of CDPs are dropping.  Of course, this assumes that there is some upgrade you may be considering!

ATB.

Hook

Hi Bart,

Yip's 2 cents... I bought a CD5XS a few months ago with the idea to play my 3,000+ cd's for as long as I could. And that what I do. I couldn't see myself packing all the cd's or sell them. And since I have the cds, why should I rip them? Also there are very good deals to be made in sh cd shops. More choice now... Cheaper.

All the music I buy online, I store in the NAS and stream from the SU or put it on a key. And the SQ is really interesting especially with Hi-Rez.

Best of both worlds. Happy Yip!