Im soon to be a proud owner of a house and its finally time to be able to get my stereo out of storage.

Firstly I’m considering replacing my aging Marantz CD4000 which was occasionally temperamental before it went in to storage (which replaced a CD63se with a dodgy laser…). Not looking at mega money maybe a lower end NAD unit?

Secondly I’m toying with the idea of trying to use digital music through the stereo as I seem to have amassed quite a lot over the last three years of being transient! Im looking at either a docking station(?) thing and I assume some kind of DAC to plug my ipod in and / or something to connect my computer possibly.

The current set up is:

2 AR Cambridge A60’s modded in to pre/power and a power amp (Bought from this parish and still going strong)
one pair Moudaunt Short MS400 (1972)
one pair Moudaunt Short MS700 (1974)

Any recommendations? Ta.

I’d forget the CD player upgrade and spend the money on a music streamer instead. You’ll have to spend a bit of time ripping CDs, but then the end result will be better quality (comparable to a very high end CD player) and much more convenient. You can always keep the Marantz for spinning discs that you haven’t been bothered to rip.

Hmmm I hadn’t thought of that, I also was thought about it more as ‘i’ll play the mp3 / FLAC if I didn’t have a CD of it rather than going all digital.

There’s a bit of me that would still love a Jolida JD 100 Tube Reference CD Player or a Krell etc.

As above, I use a logitech squeezebox (bit old now) to pump MP3s/FLAC from my network storage into my stereo amp. The CD player (the same Marantz as yours!) is out of hibernation but hasn’t been used for >6months.
If you buy the right music streamer it’ll also do digital radio stations so you get more for your £££.

Can anyone recommend me one of these new fangled media streaming things then? I’ve never had anything to do with anything more advanced than plugging my Ipod in to my spare NAD amp in the kitchen using the headphone port which obviously sounds naff.

Echo the above definitely go digital buy a NAS and a streamer. I kind of went this route but I needed an amp so I bought a networked amp, although I looked at a two box amp/streamer combo too. Also if you use Spotify get something with spotify connect or buy one of these

Can anyone recommend me one of these new fangled media streaming things then? I’ve never had anything to do with anything more advanced than plugging my Ipod in to my spare NAD amp in the kitchen using the headphone port which obviously sounds naff.

Budget?

Well I had budgeted 250-300 for a cheaper end cd player so about that I guess but then I haven’t bought any Hifi gear for 5-10 years so I dont really know what you get for your money these days.

I went all digital about 3 years ago and got myself a Denon RCD-N7 which they seem to have replaced with the N8 now…..it worked like a dream.

All my stuff is in iTunes so AirPlay is what I need, although it also does streaming from basically anything.

Think it was £400 new but you can get them on EBay alot cheaper – especially if you don’t need speakers.

Just replaced it with a Naim Mu-So as an early pressie for me which really is the dogs danglies.

Sonos connect with a digital connection to the amp or a DAC if you’re feeling all fancy. CDs ripped to flac. Perfect.

I’m going to get a NAD D3020 when SWMBO has finished Christmas spending…

I want to keep using the AR Cambridge A60’s which sound wonderful when paired with the MS speakers, hoeever being ‘vintage’ it doesn’t have digital inputs so I assume I’ll either require a media steaming widget and a DAC or one with a built in DAC?

Well I had budgeted 250-300 for a cheaper end cd player so about that I guess but then I haven’t bought any Hifi gear for 5-10 years so I dont really know what you get for your money these days.

When I was looking at a standalone streamer I almost pushed the button on the Pioneer N50K, it’s a couple of years old now (I see they’ve just introduced a new model the N50A) but nothings really changed that much, was £500 you can pick them up for £350ish, from memory I think the internal DAC is very well regarded too although you need to plug it into the network as wireless isn’t included ootb.

This is slightly lower end but has everything you need

Second-hand or ex-dem refurbished NAIM.