Compact Disc revisited

[simon]

"
1. My guess is that I won´t hear any difference.
2. But as long as the music sound agreeable to my ears that doesn´t matter."

 

For 1: Don't "give up" in advance please
There are differences in the sound of each component !
(Otherwise there might be one or two models only ...)
For 2: This is certainly more important !

[Hofnar]

"
1. My guess is that I won´t hear any difference.

 

For 1: Don't "give up" in advance please
There are differences in the sound of each component !
(Otherwise there might be one or two models only ...)

I haven´t yet critially compared my two new made in China CD players but I have listened to the Thinkya - via the DAC in my Nobsound AV-525 - and it sounds perfectly OK. 80 USD for a CD player with optical (Toslink) out and bluetooth.

[RR1957]

My go for this year is a Philips CD100.
Still to be found, yet not cheap and need an overhaul.
But also a design classic.
Great machine (for me) to have too.

[CJG in Wolfsburg]

As long as the laser diode is still OK…

[RR1957]

As long as the laser diode is still OK…

Of course.
All the models I know (owned by others) are working fine after overhaul.

[CJG in Wolfsburg]

I wonder how a Quad 66 CD would look alongside the 33 preamp? Could it be a good visual (and sonic) match?

[RR1957]

I wonder how a Quad 66 CD would look alongside the 33 preamp? Could it be a good visual (and sonic) match?

That looks a good one indeed, but not a design classics.
Sorry I am absolutely crazy about that, but I like design
classics which were revolutionary in the world of design.
Sometimes small, sometimes big and sometimes not.
 

[Hofnar]

... I like design classics which were revolutionary in the world of design.

Hmmm... The only bit of hifi kit I currently own that, for those in the know, can be called a design classic is (are) my Unamco T-1 turntable(s). It´s. by far, the best looking turntable I´ve ever seen. I also like my Q Acoustics Concept 20 speakers in piano bblack finish but they are not old enough to be considered classics. Also my Advance Acoustic X-i60 amplifier is predestined to become a design classic. Now, back to the CD:s...

[CheapVinyl]

CD is now where vinyl was 10 or 15 years ago; I'm picking them up for 50 pence a time at car boots.
As the bulk of my collection is CD I invested in a decent player and yes, whilst it sounds different to the same album on my Lenco, I can't always work out which one I prefer. That could be down to mastering of course, early CDs could be very thin.
Either way, cheap second hand CDs just means more music for me.

[RR1957]

Hmmm... The only bit of hifi kit I currently own that, for those in the know, can be called a design classic is (are) my Unamco T-1 turntable(s). It´s. by far, the best looking turntable I´ve ever seen. I also like my Q Acoustics Concept 20 speakers in piano bblack finish but they are not old enough to be considered classics. Also my Advance Acoustic X-i60 amplifier is predestined to become a design classic. Now, back to the CD:s...

Hmmm…that is not what I did mean but you ‘ordered’ (joke too) not to continue about this subject.
I worked for 40 years in architecture ( inside and outside ) and one thing is clear:
Liking something or finding something beautiful ( or ugly ) is not an argument.
If a person likes the stuff he owns will not say they will become design classics.
I like design stuff that have proved to be classics for a (rather long) time. And I make my choices
of course. They have a (long) story with them too. That is also nice with it.
In the Philips cd100 I do not like it or find it beautiful: I want it for the obvious reasons.
In this it is a classic. And of course also it is a good cd player. Very good sound production.
If one talk about cd’s (revisited) you also talk about the players.
Have a nice day. I leave it by this.

[Hofnar]

Hmmm…that is not what I did mean but you ‘ordered’ (joke too) not to continue about this subject.
I worked for 40 years in architecture ( inside and outside ) and one thing is clear:
Liking something or finding something beautiful ( or ugly ) is not an argument.
If a person likes the stuff he owns will not say they will become design classics. I like design
stuff that have proved to be classics for a (rather long) time. And I make my choices of course.
They tell a (long) story too. That is also nice with it.
In the Philips cd100 I do not like it or find it beautiful: I want it for the obvious reasons.
In this it is a classic. And of course also it is a good cd player. Very good sound production.
If one talk about cd’s (revisited) you also talk about the players.
Have a nice day. I leave it by this.

I didn´t mean to kick you out of the thread, just tried to keep it within the intended subject. Feel free to leave but feel equally free to keep participating. As for design - classic or not - that is a subject well worth discussing. s o I sincerely hope that by "it" you mean what constitutes a design classic and discussing that subject in this thread. Shall you or I start a thread about hifi design?

[JohnG]

I'm listening to CD regularly in the Car and have it used in the HiFi System as a means to use less the Cartridge, hence less Stylus Wear.
When the the CD and Vinyl Sources are used together, if one format is allowed to run on for a period of time, it is happily kept, I no longer have a preference towards either of the formats as an end sound.

I do lean towards Vinyl for the learning about mechanical interfaces that are a whole world of ideas and successes and failures to extract the betterment of an Analogue Source.

In relation to being cheap to acquire, I was at a Local Authorities Tip recently and witnessed the best part of 3 Black Bin Liners full of CD's being flung into a Skip. When a bag ripped and I see the contents, I nearly turned into my alter ego 'The Skip Rat' at the sight of such bling    

[flood2]

I have an old Discman but it was easier to order this new one. It doesn´t operate on battery but that´s OK since I prefer to sit down when listening to music. It shall be interesting to compare it to the SMSL PL100 when both are connected to external DAC:s. My guess is that I won´t hear any difference. But as long as the music sound agreeable to my ears that doesn´t matter. I still believe that my hearing is good and if it´s not it´s still my hearing (and my belief).

Modern DACs are essentially immune to input jitter so the Discman will be pretty much indistinguishable - I have an Apogee Big Ben reference clock which can be used as a format converter and uses DDS to reclock the input data. The first thing I did when I bought it decades ago was to test that very concept and was surprised how indistinguishable the Discman was from my reference transport.

For convenience, I still like putting on an optical disc when the disc is within easy reach, but as I have so many CDs which are stored  (the majority of my CDs have been ripped into WAV and FLAC files) I typically rely on accessing a NAS to listen to the music rather than spending hours searching boxes and streaming the file through an Oppo universal player. 

[rfgumby]

It’s tough to admit on LH, but I listen to CD more than vinyl in my big rig. 

  The consistency of sonics on good recordings is very appealing and to be brutally honest, my system is fine tuned for digital a little more than analog.  I live in a colder climate, and the physics of analog playback has more variables with temperature changes as well, so warming up the suspensions on speakers and suspensions on cartridges increase warm up time.

And my digital front end was fine tuned to each other with a lot of time and commitment.   I easily have that amount of time into building analog, but it’s spread across multiple table/arm/cart combinations.

Crazy subject.   “Hi, I’m Scott, and I listen to digital as much as analog”.   “Hi Scott”.

[flood2]

It’s tough to admit on LH, but I listen to CD more than vinyl in my big rig. 

  The consistency of sonics on good recordings is very appealing and to be brutally honest, my system is fine tuned for digital a little more than analog.  I live in a colder climate, and the physics of analog playback has more variables with temperature changes as well, so warming up the suspensions on speakers and suspensions on cartridges increase warm up time.

And my digital front end was fine tuned to each other with a lot of time and commitment.   I easily have that amount of time into building analog, but it’s spread across multiple table/arm/cart combinations.

Crazy subject.   “Hi, I’m Scott, and I listen to digital as much as analog”.   “Hi Scott”.

I think you'll find that more people than you think join you with similar listening habits and preferences Scott! Since the 80s when most recordings became digital in origin and particularly these days, listening to a new release on vinyl is just a more difficult way to listen to a CD unless the decision was taken (mainly with pop material) to compress the hell out of the material to make it loud. In general for the classical and jazz material I usually listen to, CD/SACD is the sensible option for me in terms of worry free enjoyment of the music.

This fad of "all-analogue" is just nonsense in my opinion and many of the reissues (for which the master tape has had to be necessarily degraded in playback for the reissue) are missing out on the vital option of the Plangent process to remove wow and flutter from the original recording which is something that can only happen with a digital step. To me that is a real "Value add" step that I feel justifies a premium reissue price if it means I can get closer to the original performance. Taking the Impex Getz/Gilberto reissue as an example, they freely admit that the master tape has degraded and that for your >USD100 you are going to get dropouts which means that if you had a good original copy of the vinyl or early CD reissue, you are going to be hearing a less degraded version which calls into question what the point of those super expensive "all-analgoue" reissues really is.
So I'm all for digital media if the mastering has been done with care because it can fix a multitude of problems and get us closer to the original performance and maximal enjoyment of the music.