Blu-ray hooked up to Tv and hifi plays Blu-Rays, Dvds and Cds
It'll need to be the right way round and suspended from the floor....
😉
Has anyone mentioned yet that the way CDs are mastered these days means that they all sound rubbish anyway?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war
What sort of cableing?
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When only the best will do.
MtbRoutes - MemberHas anyone mentioned yet that the way CDs are mastered these days means that they all sound rubbish anyway?
Agree on this! Who cares if its 24 bit or 16 when you chuck away 80% of the dynamic range anyway.
I wouldn't go for a hifi cd player nowadays - go the computer and/or squeezebox route with a decent DAC - like the Benchmark or maybe the Lavry Black, which I understand is sweeter sounding.
No fans in my PC and, once I add an SSD, nothing moving either 🙂
Assuming that vinyl isn't your thing, I have recently discovered that something like this [url= http://www.linn.co.uk/majik_ds-i ]majik[/url] or this [url= http://www.brennan.co.uk/ ]brennan[/url] is the future. An external HD with your ripped-CDs, or (God forbid) mp3s on it and a dedicated DAC amplifier combo.
Who cares if its 24 bit or 16 when you chuck away 80% of the dynamic range anyway.
like cutting to an LP then...
, or (God forbid)
Unlikely...
Lets not start about modern mastering. As properly mastered sounds great but badly mastered, played, recorded is what sounds rubbish
CD player! I gave up on CDs ages ago and have just bought a new turntable.
cinnamon_girl
One of life's pleasures is loafing on the sofa, admiring speakers, glass in hand, and [s]CD case[/s] record sleeve in other, checking out the words/musicians etc.
There, fixed it for you.
Elfinsafety - Member
Ooh dear.
Here [s]we[/s] [b][i]I[/i][/b] go....
(Settles in for the long haul)
FIFY 😉
We are still manufacturing plenty of CD players so there's clearly still a market out there. There is a lot to be said for the NAS and streaming DAC approach though. This means you can tuck your NAS out of the way somewhere and only have the front end in the lounge.
This is probably the way I'll have to go, since impending baby means space is at a premium, and I've about 1300 CDs. Already had to move about 500 records into the loft 🙁 I'm just waiting for us to design a front end that's better than my current player.
If you want something to sound as good as an LP12, it isn't going to be cheap 😉 DAC technology has really come on in the last decade though.
WRT ripping, storage is so cheap these days you might as well rip to native WAV format if you go the NAS route. I've been told that the ripping process is very important, itunes and wmp being cited as particularly poor. Smoething like Exact Audio Copy will do the trick.
richpenny - which mfr do you work for? Please don't tell me it's Woppit's favorite addiction...! 😉
New house will have a room where the hifi will live away from the lounge (essentially a spare bedroom) and CDs, LPs (Tapes - yes!) will live with it.
I like the idea of streaming it, though - I'm certainly spoiled by the near-instant access nature of my ipod.
So, then, can someone please explain all this squeezebox/NAS/SSD etc terminology? I know I'm out of touch with hifi, but I've never been in touch with all that stuff..!
It is only an "Old Goldring MM and a Basik" so it should be easy to better that. And we don't know what MM stage is on the amp either.
But it may be that he likes the compressed sound and lack of channel separation from his turntable, which is understandable, and so it will be difficult to match this from a CD player.
There was a box from the HiFi World guys (maybe called a Frankenstien?) that bleed the channels together to reduce the separation and make a CD player sound more like a turntable.
[url= https://www.ripcaster.co.uk/ ]look here[/url]
for squeezebox type stuff and some guidance.
richpenny does work for Naim I think - before that he was on the forum as poorpenny...
TurnerGuy - MemberWho cares if its 24 bit or 16 when you chuck away 80% of the dynamic range anyway.
like cutting to an LP then...
Yes indeedy, vinyl having equivalent dynamic range to 11 bit digital IIRC.
ourmaninthenorth - Member
richpenny - which mfr do you work for? Please don't tell me it's Woppit's favorite addiction...!
I'll do it for him, then. 😈
tunerguy - leave off. It beats current CDP (original Arcam Alpha 7) hands down in the most important consideration - emotional connection with music.
TBH, I love hi fidelity, but I don't favour it over artistic accomplishment.
Cheers for squeezebox links.
richpenny does work for Naim I think - before that he was on the forum as poorpenny...
Richpenny is my naim 😉 Working in hifi will never make you rich unless, like Victor Kiam, you bought the company. Took a 20% pay cut to come and work here cos I loves it so. That was from pro audio, where people truly are overpaid and undertalented 😉
Richpenny is my naim
When you started did you do that thing where you have to build a component from scratch?
My rec would be a fanless ITX mini PC with a solid state drive running J River Media Centre and hooked up your choice of dac
I'll do it for him, then.
You're Mick Parry and I claim my £5. 😀
My rec would be a fanless ITX mini PC with a solid state drive running J River Media Centre
Not all of us on STW are IT guys, you know..!
Translation please. 🙂
ourmaninthenorth - MemberI'll do it for him, then.
You're Mick Parry and I claim my £5.
😆 😆 😆
Jokes don't get get much more "in" than that.
Would you like to play with my gun?
I run a minimac into my Naim Supernait - moved away form CD's about 5 years ago and would never go back - Vinyl will always sound awesome, but high resolution FLAC/WAV is up there with it - amazing results & better than CD.
ourmaninthenorth - you are welcome to drop me an email, I have been down this route extensively and tried many options into a proper hifi and have learn a lot and have setup a few friends who are very happy too! ericemel at yahoo dot com
Mick Parry is a software construct developed as an enforcer on the Naim Forum, similar to the Agents from the Matrix films:)
Did do that matthew, worked in wiring for about a month. Built most of my system at home too.
OMITN, ericmel has posted an example of what plenty of people use, I've a Mac mini at home and it is indeed silent, you could run the O/P of that into a decent DAC. Can you use an ipod touch as a remote for itunes ericmel?
You can use an ipod/ipad as a remote for itunes (win/Mac) or with some faffing Foobar (win). Also as a remote for spotify.
any reason why a pc + output is the preferred option to an ipod with an appropriately flash dock? it seems the average album with flac is 400mb, so the classic would hold 400 of them. Granted if you have more than 400 albums it might be an issue, if you had to have them all lossless. If you encoded at 320kb/s mp3 you'd probably get around 1500 on there..
5lab - this can actually work well (obviously no flac support - but alac is ok). One of the draw back is the lack of remote and flexibility it can't play internet radio or spotify (except ipod touch). I have heard an ipod though a £2k dac and no one could say it sounded bad in the slightest.
But as always, spend more and get better results, albeit diminishing returns (BIG TIME) - but additional flexibility. too.
Jokes don't get get much more "in" than that.
Mick Parry is a software construct
So it's true. I used to lurk there around 10 years ago when I was flirting with the idea of naiming myself. Then I realised that the whole upgrade path would make me mentally ill (as well as bankrupt) so I withdrew.... 😉
ericemel - I'll drop you a mail. Am not rushing into all of this, but getting an understanding of how I get from A, through B to C, would be ace. Cheers.
Then I realised that the whole upgrade path would make me mentally ill
What? Bang! Wibble.
Pooooooot poooooot
I bought one of these recently during their VATback scheme-
http://www.sony.co.uk/product/mfi-ipod-hi-fi/cmt-mx750ni
Internet radio/DAB/iPod/USB/WiFi/audio in and of course my first CD player for about 5 years 😀
I bought one of these recently during their VATback scheme
I thought we were wanting to better his LP12, not go backwards...
Arcam Alpha 7 is a bit old now and DACs have come a long way - just make sure that you get one with good jitter rejection (is that possible) or provide it with a precisely clocked output.
I have an Echo Indigo laptop soundcard that would show that Arcam a clean set of heels, for about £100.
I thought my old Micromega Leader was decent (better than a Marantz CD72SE and Quad CDP at demo time anyway) and it was used in the LS3/5a room at the 2000 HFN show at Heathrow to very good results. Then I put a upsampling/reclocking box and DAC on it and it was a fair bit better, and then I compared it to the Indigo card - to which it lost 🙁
RichPenny - Member
I've been told that the ripping process is very important, itunes and wmp being cited as particularly poor. Smoething like Exact Audio Copy will do the trick
I can't really understand why this would be. Every other piece of software I have is capable of reading (even fairly scratched) CDs 'bit perfectly'. The evidence of this is seems to be that those CDs contain files and software that would not work if they contained errors.
Can someone please enlighten me?
p.s. I have recently sold my old CD transport in favour of a NAS/streaming solution, so no I personally wouldn't bother buying a CD player these days.
Q:
If I play a CD in my Mac, linked up to my amp, will I achieve the same sound quality as I do in my CD player?
Its actually nearly impossible to copy an Audio cd bit perfect as they contain so many errors. The red bok specification allows for upto something like 200 errors per second and these must be correctable (C1 or C2 level) errors.
So it really is down to the ripping CD-rom drive and the ripping software to how errors are dealt with, some are better than others.
We use Plextor Premium CD drives which allow a high level of error correction they also let you do a full error check on a disc.
djglover - it is possible yes. You tend to get better results ripping your CD to the hard drive first.
Also depends on CD player you are comparing it to and audio harware used in the Mac.
djglover - unlikely with the stock audio hardware on the mac, but certainly possible with a decent offboard dac. The m-audio stuff is a well priced solution.
I can't really understand why this would be. Every other piece of software I have is capable of reading (even fairly scratched) CDs 'bit perfectly'. The evidence of this is seems to be that those CDs contain files and software that would not work if they contained errors.
I asked the same question. I was told that specialist s/w uses error correction, checksum etc to get more accurate audio data. Specifically told that wmp and itunes use no or minimal error correction in order to get quicker results. When copying data or files the drive can obviously just re-read until it gets a valid result.
Did do that matthew, worked in wiring for about a month. Built most of my system at home too.
Very impressed. Having seen inside a few of the boxes it must be nerve wracking. One slip with the soldering iron and it's all over.
I run a Uniti and UnitiQute in my house both running off a Netgear NAS with Raid-1 2x2TB drives. All music on there is ripped as lossless WAV files using DBPowerAmp and my goodness it was a major step up from iTunes where it was getting served from before. Thankfully my house is all wired so i just have a decent switch and the Naim gear is plugged in - works on WiFi but can smash the router a bit too hard. NAS also lets us do backups and stuff. One Uniti runs through some REGA Rs5's and the other is going through some old missions just now but i am assesing my options. I loke music to be nice and clear and high quality. 😆
