[Beagle]

Jeez, no wonder everybody's headphones sound awful..

 

[ford2]

There are CDP's and there are CDP's,a PC CDP would rate as one of the worst.

 

[robm321]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beagle /img/forum/go_quote.gif Jeez, no wonder everybody's headphones sound awful..

X2 LOL What a refreshing post!

 

[runswithaliens]

The ability to have songs from multiple "albums" play back in random mode has always been a feature I love. When the first 6-pack CD players came on the market I jumped on that. Then later the amazing 100 disk CD jukebox. The only problem was the noise these systems made when switching disks between songs.

I recall many occasions where these players seemed to defy the laws of "randomness" by playing groups of songs in a row that fit perfectly together... the gods worked through the electrons influencing the random generator was my theory at the time.

So now on the computer to be able to have so much music available to be randomized and categorized and mixed together is definitely the way to go for me.

Although there are times when I really miss playing albums on the turntable. It seemed like the 20 or so minutes per side was the perfect amount of time to sit down and concentrate on the music - then a nice little intermission while you flipped the record, cleaned the grooves and then gently placed the needle back down. Really almost a ritual of respect for the recordings. Also miss the larger size and nature of the artwork of the album covers and inserts. It was a much more tactile experience.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LingLing1337 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I take it you didn't vote, "I only listen to analogue" is still at 0

Nope.

Digital can sound terrific. Same with vinyl. Or reel or FM tuners.

It's a crime to listen to one source at the exclusion of the others.

 

[atothex]

Computers are infinitely more convenient and sound just as good. No contest.

 

[John Willett]

CD for commercial stuff.

PC or the Nagra VI for 24/96 originals.

 

[GuyDebord]

Actually many people including me believe that Hard Drives are the best transport yet, I didnt change for the convenience but for the quality. Hard Drives eliminate the optical reading which needs an ultra high end transport to be without flaws, they transmit a bit perfect(no errors, or jitter or anything like that) data stream which is then converted to analogue, basically making the D/A conversion the most critical component in the digital chain, as any cheap HD is able to transmit perfection.

This is also the reason I favor network streamers over computers and soundcards. A network streamer is always decoupled from the cheap mechanics of a computer (really bad power supply and non-audio grade digital section) and its only purpose is to convert the packeted data that is transmitted via ethernet or wifi into digital ones and zeros that are then streamed to the DA conversion phase.

I still prefer analogue, but for digital HD transport has brutally killed the CD transport, but many still dont know.....

 

[runswithaliens]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuyDebord /img/forum/go_quote.gif ... but for digital HD transport has brutally killed the CD transport, but many still dont know.....

That is assuming the digital copy is error free - apparently not a given from what I have been reading lately, especially if that digital copy was ripped from a CD without proper error checking etc. for example, see this guide to ripping

 

[krmathis]

Computer it is for me...

Actually HI have not had a standalone CD player for 8-10 years.

I like the ability to have "all" my music at my fingertips, easily available and manageable. Sound quality should be on par as well, when using a high quality DAC.

 

[Beagle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif It's a crime to listen to one source at the exclusion of the others.

Agreed. Otherwise, how can you tell what's what and how can you tell what your equipment is telling you?

Quote:

Originally Posted by majurglery /img/forum/go_quote.gif hard drives and computer based audio is much easier to find and organize all the music that you own, especially if you have a lot of music.

And microwaves are much more convienient for cooking food. You can do your $20 steak in that. Why bother with stoves, ovens and grills?

Wow. I'm shocked at how little sound quality and musicality matters to people. We are living in an 'instant gratification' world now, a lazy society. Nothing requires any effort or provides any anticipation. Sad.

 

[paaj]

HardDisk setups have surpassed CD in ease of use, but probably not in sound quality (should be the same) and ease of mind (ASIO stuff on PC)

 

[TopPop]

Every CD I buy gets ripped onto an external HDD with EAC, and the .WAV files are copied onto my music PC for headphone use. Two copies of each uncompressed album made, and the CD goes straight into a storage box underneath my bed.

I'll tell you one thing: I listen to music much more often this way then when I had a dedicated CD player!

Also, since my music PC has had its dedicated computery nipples tweaked and twisted in every which way (à la cics), it sounds better than the Rotel CDP I used to have.

 

[Ham Sandwich]

HD and computer playback still has some technical issues in proper ripping and proper playback of all CDs. Particularly CDs that have pre-emphasis or music in the pre-gap area of track 1.

If a CD has music before track 1 offically starts, most rippers will lose that part. This can happen on some live CDs that have crowd noise or an introduction before track 1 officially starts. Some studio CDs have music before the official start of track 1 also.

Pre-emphasis is another problem. If you have classical CDs you likely have some that have pre-emphasis. How do you properly handle that when ripping and then playing the files back on a computer? It's messy. On a proper CD player the CD player does the proper de-emphasis when playing back the CD. That doesn't happen when you play it back on a computer. Messy.

Yes, HD playback is very convenient. It also has some technical issues that many people don't get right when they rip their CDs.

I've switched to computer playback for the convenience. I have also discovered that I have ripped some CDs incorrectly due to the above issues.

CD playback in a regular CD player is easier to get right.

 

[Gamerphile]

The only reason I have disk drives at all is that especially in the movie and music industry people are so slow moving to new media that we still haven't moved to a general non-physical media yet. So I have them to record onto my collections HDD in FLAC or what not as far as possible. I use PMP's, cellphones and other computers to deliver PCM streams when ever possible optical to my DAC. Due to the nature of line of work I use bluetooth devices on the go and are heavily pushing for a lossless implementation system for BT 3.0 - that in my view is the last steep to completely eliminate much of the old problems with cheap analog outputs on cellphones and PMP's and cables at home. Now a low latency lossless wireless solution would then be the next step adding gaming and live usage. Then we just need to size it all down to really low powered stuff so all we draw is power for the amp and add a solar panel and we are off to unlimited enjoyment