Couldn’t find this conversation in the forum although I’m sure it’s been had…
I love my Roon Nucleus, use it all the time.
I have to 400 disc changers that are basically full - both mechanically failed a long time ago. Even though I’ve exclusively used Roon or Vinyl for the past 5+ years - I’m contemplating buying a new transport and at very least keeping my favorite physical media.
Am I simply clinging on to the olden days, or like Vinyl, is there value in keeping my favorite CD’s?
Just looking for personal opinions…
Maybe I’m old school, as well as body, but I keep my Cd’s and still purchase/rip new ones. Mostly boxed up for now with only SACD’s out for playback. I could not do without my music disc player that is also my movie disc player. We have power backup for the property but can’t control what happens with the internet. When the internet is down I still have the disc’s.
At the risk of beating a dead horse (this topic has been discussed many times), depending on where you are you may be required to maintain a physical copy of your ripped CDs to comply with copyright requirements. I believe that is the case in the US. Don’t know about everywhere. I know many folks have donated their ripped collection or sold the CDs on once they’re ripped. Technically this is illegal.
I have all my physical disks cd/ SACD but tend to play the rips via Roon. I tend to play more vinyl than either of these though.
Same in U.K. You are supposed to delete files if you sell the disks.
How this could ever be policed is another thing though.
Yes, imho. The sound is all about the mastering. And what you get on streaming services is only the latest and usually hot mastered versions. So, if you have a version you like the sound of then you should keep it because you cannot trust the version on streaming services to keep being the same.
Thanks for the input - I picked up an MCD350, I’ll try it with Digital Outputs, the Built in DAC and compare it to the Nucleus… I have 700 CD’s can’t hurt to try!
Those Sony CDP-CX450 400-CD Mega Changers look amazing. How does the McIntosh compare soundwise?
1 Like
AceRimmer
(Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!)
9
Not CD but…
Most of the Steven Wilson remastered DVD-A I have of King Crimson, Porcupine Tree, Jethro Tull etc are some of the finest recordings I have ever heard and I seriously doubt can ever be supplanted by any streaming effort.
Keepers!
I have yet to try the McIntosh… I’ll know tonight tomorrow.
The CDP-CX450’s were an awesome concept, I loved them as a way to store 400 cd’s, with the ability to link up to 3 machines! I had two. The issue was twofold 1)As time went on the belts that drive the carousel stopped working - because the players had been discontinued you could no longer buy the belts. I did find an alternate belt and jerry-rigged a solution. My unsolvable issue was the laser head, my players were old and the head stopped tracking properly so the CD’s would skip.
Shame about the CX450’s. I’ve seen a few on ebay for not much. Do they have a coax digital out? At the second-hand prices I have seen they make lot of sense to me if you still have a CD collection. Onkyo and other Japanese companies seem to have done mega-changers at the time. All discontinued now. I have 3 CD players I use regularly but nothing like these mega-changers.
They had analog RCA in and out, to link two machines, a control cable, so one could be master, and others the slave… then an Optical out, but you could not use Optical if you were linking 2 or 3 units.
As I mentioned I was able to rebuild the belts once, but I gave up when the laser stopped tracking. There is a Youtube video on how to fix it, but its a enormous process… I wasn’t willing to go down that path again - they’re simply too old!
OK, I can confirm the MCD-350 sounds significantly better than my old players, however I can also confirm it doesn’t sound much different than my Roon Nucleus
I’ve went ahead and bought myself a Cambridge Audio CXC. Most of the time I’m listening to the uncompressed FLAC rips that I’ve made of my CD’s. But I do enjoy flipping in a shiny silver disc every now and again.
And it sounds really good connected to my Cambridge Audio CXNv2. I’m not throwing away my CD’s which I have collected over a 20+ year period. Even though it’s been quite awhile since I’ve bought one.
Prefer handling CDs Vs scrolling streaming services
Lossless should mean no difference in quality.
I miss my CD collection for the thumbing through them, selecting a pile of albums, opening the CD draw and pressing play. I use to listen to some albums a good 3 or 4 times. Fully appreciating the artists work.
Steaming services on there own don’t really do it for me. Roon gives me the CD feeling to a certain degree.
SQ, I have a few CDs now and to my ears I cannot hear a difference in either the streamed version or the CD, using unfortunately my PC CD drive but with the same USB DAC and headphones. Poor CD drive maybe.
I’m streaming a lot, but enjoy playing my cd’s and sacd’s better. Especially because of their SQ by playing through my PS Audio PWST transport and dac. Interlinks also come into play, so it may become a rabit hole…
Just give both a try playing at equal SQ level.
I have about 2500 physical CDs and copied to a HD. (mostly Classical). My goal used to be to have 10,000. With Qobuz, Roon, etc….Why bother? A good DAC is key. IMHO.
Torben_Rick
(Torben - A Dane living in Hamburg - Roon Lifer)
20
I have a very big collection of CDs One (1).
I only bought it because it is not available on streaming or download.
Did pay 60 EURO for it But it was the price worth it.
One (1).
But it was the price worth it.