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CD in 2024

I never warmed to CD so never stopped buying and listening to vinyl. It's always sounded amazing and still does :)

I love the vinyl replay rituals and have never minded surface noise, so CD held little allure to me anyway. I have passed my weird world view onto my kids (well young adults now), two of whom collect vinyls and have their own TT systems.

I only recently (in the last few months) finally got a digital system (streamer) that means I am now equally happy to play digital or vinyl.

I threw away almost all my CDs years ago after ripping them, but prefer to play via streaming so the NAS is pretty well unused.

However, distorted nostalgia is making me wonder about adding CD to my system. Anyone got a recommendation for CDP that will appeal to an analogue addict? Or am I a lost cause?
 
springwood64 said:
I never warmed to CD so never stopped buying and listening to vinyl. It's always sounded amazing and still does :)

I love the vinyl replay rituals and have never minded surface noise, so CD held little allure to me anyway. I have passed my weird world view onto my kids (well young adults now), two of whom collect vinyls and have their own TT systems.

I only recently (in the last few months) finally got a digital system (streamer) that means I am now equally happy to play digital or vinyl.

I threw away almost all my CDs years ago after ripping them, but prefer to play via streaming so the NAS is pretty well unused.

However, distorted nostalgia is making me wonder about adding CD to my system. Anyone got a recommendation for CDP that will appeal to an analogue addict? Or am I a lost cause?
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Rega Apollo R or Rotel vintage players.
 
I do still have a CD player of some sort in most of my systems but seem to go through periods where I play CD's a fair bit, then other periods where I don't play them at all. At the moment I'm using them a fair bit in a couple of my systems.
 
springwood64 said:
Anyone got a recommendation for CDP that will appeal to an analogue addict? Or am I a lost cause?
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You should get plenty of replies on here to that question.

Depends how much you want to spend but I find the Denon DCD 860 or 835 (800 series seem to be the good ones) very sweet players. They sound less digital than my record player.

Getting on towards 30 years old.
Just make sure the seller can fully vouch for it.
No skipping or such like.

You can usually find quite a few on the 'bay for the price of a couple of rounds of beer.
 
Minio said:
You should get plenty of replies on here to that question.

Depends how much you want to spend but I find the Denon DCD 860 or 835 (800 series seem to be the good ones) very sweet players. They sound less digital than my record player.

Getting on towards 30 years old.
Just make sure the seller can fully vouch for it.
No skipping or such like.

You can usually find quite a few on the 'bay for the price of a couple of rounds of beer.
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Those older Denons are nice. I bought my son an amp and I got a nice Denon 3 headed Cassette player for very little. Nice things.
 
springwood64 said:
However, distorted nostalgia is making me wonder about adding CD to my system. Anyone got a recommendation for CDP that will appeal to an analogue addict? Or am I a lost cause?
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The roksan blak has an analogue sound, it doesn’t sound like a c.d player to my ears. That’s why we bought one.
I also have an old Rotel rcd-855 that is pleasing enough - a lot cheaper as well!

The main point being that c.d. players can sound quite different to each other, try as many as possible. Richer Sounds will demo a few to you if you have a branch nearby.
 
lencotweaker said:
I've been somewhat intensely focused on records and their replay over the last 30 years, and obsessively so in the last 10 years but I've found myself taking a break over the last few weeks in favour of CD! Despite me being a massive vinyl snob (its borderline insane the amount of record players and associated paraphernalia I have here), I've recently started to notice again the huge wall full of CD's I accumulated over the years. I've started listening to them again, even started buying again, and there are some absolutely gems to be had! I'm secretly enjoying them too. Theres real joy going on.

So here are a few observations that led to this:

- new records are stupid expensive and it galls me as a vinyl lifer who's bought records every week for over 30 years. Now that the vinyl revival in full swing, the marketing departments and rip off merchants are in overdrive I suppose I'm just getting properly tired of it all. And let's not even talk about new pressing quality.

-used vinyl is hit and miss. Ebay is a crapshoot. Discogs is only marginally better. In any case, what to even to buy? I've probably got most of the 'reasonably priced' back catalogue I really wanted already. The stuff I didn't get back in the day, especially from the 90's, is now insanely expensive.

-streaming. I have a pretty high end, Roon based, multi-room, streaming set up... and I never use it. I dunno, its either tiresome because it needs an update every single time I rarely use it or its broken and needs me to put my old 80's/90's geeky computer sleuth head back on, or the choice is just plain overwhelming. I only tend to use it if I'm aware of something new or intriguing and I want a quick listen before buying a physical copy.

-over the last couple of years I've been frequenting the charity shop CD sections. In between the seemingly endless Il Divo, Frank Sinatra, Robbie Williams and Dido CD's, there are some really great discs to be had for a quid a pop. 3 for a quid in some cases! I thought the quid I paid for 'World Party - Egyptology' yesterday was a proper little nugget of gold. Oh, and quite laughable armful's of classical CD's to be had. There is so much classical on those shelves I just limit it to major label discs and you just can't go wrong.

-CD's on eBay can also be stupid cheap. Most of the stuff I've bought over the last month or so is not even on streaming services, or on vinyl. The morning delivery from the postman is getting embarrassing!

So there it is, I'm being sucked back into a format I never really fell for in the first place and now I'm thinking about CD replay hardware again for the first time in over 10 years. What I have is sounding really good anyway, an old Denon DVD2900 as transport through Luxman DA-06 DAC on one system and a Naim CDX2 in the home office, but what does top class CD replay look like in 2024 if I wanted to get the best out of this format?

Its a bit of a Saturday night wine fuelled ramble but what say you? CD's in 2024?
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Honestly, I think you already have two very decent CD sources there. I have a Denon DVD A1XVa here which is the “balls to the wall” battleship big brother of your Denon and it’s right up there through its inbuilt DAC, I should imagine your Denon via the Luxman DAC is very nice.

And your Naim, I have its little brother, the CD5x, it just gets on with making music, nice machine… I’d quite like to try a CDX2 at some point.

I also have a Linn Ikemi which is a stunning machine… I think CD piqued with the players from this era. It was still the dominant format by a long way at the time and these were very premium players competing in a pretty busy and competitive market.
 
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linnfomaniac83 said:
I also have a Linn Ikemi which is a stunning machine… I think CD piqued with the players from this era.
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Agree but partially as I also had one. It’s an interesting example of a cd that is better like transport than full player. Audio Note 4.1x is much better as a complete machine though.
 
Massive cd collection...check.
Even more massive LP collection...check.
Large minidisc collection...check.
Medium size pre recorded cassette tape collection...check.
A few 10.5 inch reel tapes and a machine to play them on...check
I rip from youtube, convert to mp3 and play in the car off a memory stick...
Anywhere else I get "stop that racket!"
I'll get me coat !
 
Most new players (that don't cost an arm and a leg) use cheap drive mechanisms/lasers that won't have impressive longevity and the old machines that were built like battleships with CDM-1/BU-1 type mechanisms are now 30+ years old and most likely in need of some expertise to get running close to new again.
 
I played vinyl and CD from 1985 til about 6 years ago. I’ve tried streaming but just didn’t take to it; I like a physical collection. As others have said, CDs can be bought new and used cheaply. I spend all my ‘pocket money’ :) on CDs; the 2nd shelf in the photo, showing new purchases to be played, is a permanent thing!
 
springwood64 said:
two of whom collect vinyls
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Oh dear! Floor-coverings forever. :)
madmike said:
Massive cd collection...check.
Even more massive LP collection...check.
Large minidisc collection...check.
Medium size pre recorded cassette tape collection...check.
A few 10.5 inch reel tapes and a machine to play them on..
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I s'pose you have to justify your moniker. You forgot the 8 track, though !:D

Chip sets, multi-bit, one-bit, drawer-loading, top-loading etc. There've been so many design aspects to players and their sonic signatures. However, the valved (in the DAC I guess) CDPs are considered a class apart in presentation if not in pure s.q. I was a latecomer to CD (2001) with 2 box Meridian followed by the single G08. Both very good, esp. the G08, but that 2 box Lector which came along afterwards was sth else! Had to go to the 4 box but as in all things hifi, the law of diminishing returns sets in. However.........
 
Mike Reed said:
Oh dear! Floor-coverings forever. :)

I s'pose you have to justify your moniker. You forgot the 8 track, though !:D

Chip sets, multi-bit, one-bit, drawer-loading, top-loading etc. There've been so many design aspects to players and their sonic signatures. However, the valved (in the DAC I guess) CDPs are considered a class apart in presentation if not in pure s.q. I was a latecomer to CD (2001) with 2 box Meridian followed by the single G08. Both very good, esp. the G08, but that 2 box Lector which came along afterwards was sth else! Had to go to the 4 box but as in all things hifi, the law of diminishing returns sets in. However.........
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I admit to having been tempted once or twice....
 
As to the OP I have 2 Alpha cdps, a 7 se and an 8, and I still but cds when I see good ones.
 
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Robert said:
provenance of files on streaming services can sometimes be questionable.
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This is a definite downside of streaming. It's almost impossible to listen to the original digital release versions of most music from the 80's and 90's. If it's ever been remastered etc then that is the version that'll be available on streaming, to the exclusion of the older versions.
 
halvis said:
I had a Meridian 507 which I thought sounded OK, but when I tried Roon last year, Roon won and was improved again when fed through a Chord Mojo 2.

The LP12 sounds different and very enjoyable, plus looks lovely - all thanks to the OP ;-). So I still buy records, but I get the point, it's expensive and not always VFM.

I did buy a CD last week though and it does seem a shame to just rip it.

I would be interested to learn if a £1000 CD player today is much better than a £2000 CD player from 20 years ago now. I get the feeling they are only the price they are today because they are made in much smaller numbers. Although, that Rotel TD11 tribute looks stupid value if it sounds OK.
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A thousand pounds back in the early 90's for a Meridian was a lot of money for a CD player . That's four thousand in today's money . As for whether thing sound better ; I really don't know . There's a lot of different chip sets used : multibit , bit stream , resistor ladder ........ They sound different , but even the same chip is vastly different in sound if there's a good implementation . My Naim CDX2 doesn't sound as weighty or engaging as the older CDX , but I think they're both the same R-R chip .
 
I absolutely love my CD collection. I feel like the OP. It used to be fun to go crate digging at thrift stores and flea markets. Now everyone thinks they are sitting on a gold mine. CDs can be had for about a dollar. On the right system sound amazing .
 
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