[Bubblejuice]

- I completely "get" your desire for the all-in-one box - its very simple and its very easy to use. That said, you will still probably want a headphone amplifier down-chain from it, just for the sake of guaranteeing compatibility and functionality with whatever cans you have. Especially if you go the DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-ray player route, because very few of those will have headphone jacks built-in. There's tons of options here, if you don't already own such an amplifier.

 
Thank for your your input! I definitely agree with most of what you mentioned. In terms of an all-in-one. I'm not really looking for anything all in one, I'm just looking for a CD player that will play the files well. But since apparently there so much difference in "sound signature" between different headphone amps and dacs and what not, I wanted to know if a generally decent CD player would be enough for casual listening if I wanted something similar to a lossless track. 
 
With that in mind, I do have an JDSlabs O2 amp that I use for my LCDs. I also have a Dragonfly Red for other stuff and I use my Scarlett 2i2 DAC between my computer and my O2 amp. For my LCDs, if the CD player doesn't have enough power, I'll just use the O2.
 
The CD player I have at the moment does have a headphone jack, and a lot of different features. It says it's a "mini hi-fi" system from TEAC. It's maybe 10-15 years old I'd say as the design is somewhat modern. But I've been curious to know if what I'm hearing from this CD player is appreciably less impressive than what I would hear from a new $200 CD player, or a lossless file from my PC (assuming similar peripherals like my O2 amp). 
 
Also, there's something about CDs and having a dedicated music only device with limitations that makes me enjoy the music more. I don't know why, but that's why even though my PC is perfect for everything I need, I'd still rather listen with a CD player.
 

And yes, lossless rips will be 1:1 with whatever is coming off the disc, excepting if there's lots of errors (e.g. you bought used discs that have been used as hockey pucks). High bitrate lossy (e.g. 320k+ WMA/ m4a, mp3, etc) is also generally acceptably transparent, if you need to worry about space. 

 
This is actually exactly the type of answer I was looking for for one of my questions. Thank you! I bought my CDs used but they are in good shape. I didn't put a CD drive in my PC when I built it, but an external one is not expensive if necessary.

 

[obobskivich]

Thank for your your input! I definitely agree with most of what you mentioned. In terms of an all-in-one. I'm not really looking for anything all in one, I'm just looking for a CD player that will play the files well. But since apparently there so much difference in "sound signature" between different headphone amps and dacs and what not, I wanted to know if a generally decent CD player would be enough for casual listening if I wanted something similar to a lossless track. 

Maybe "all in one" was a bad word choice (I guess there's a negative stigma associated with it - blame printers), but I think you get what I as getting at.

I'd disagree with "so much difference in sound signature between amps and dacs and what not" - differences between DACs (and other digital sources, to include a CD player or DVD player or whatever) are generally VERY small (as in "can go unnoticed, especially if not obsessively doing a direct comparison in a non-level-matched/controlled environment"), and ditto for amplifiers, beyond differences in how the amplifier's output capabilities ++ output impedance interact with a given load (e.g. if you have a reactive load, frequency response is going to change in response to output impedance, and there is no "right" or "true" answer there). None of this is magic, but there's plenty of marketing schlock out there that tries to turn it into some sort of quasi-voodoo-spiritualism (nonsense like "damping factor" or "high current drive" or whatever else; that guy from Schiit actually just did a blog post about this recently that I found quite refreshing), usually with the goal of separating you from a few thousand dollars.

With that in mind, I do have an JDSlabs O2 amp that I use for my LCDs. I also have a Dragonfly Red for other stuff and I use my Scarlett 2i2 DAC between my computer and my O2 amp. For my LCDs, if the CD player doesn't have enough power, I'll just use the O2.

I haven't actually owned any of those products so I can't speak to functionality, but my understanding is the Dragonfly and the 2i2 could basically be interchangeable with the PC as a source for the O2, and the Dragonfly can also serve as a headphone amplifier in its own right. The O2 is the only one (that I'm aware of) that can just connect to an analog source, like a CD player or a DAC's outputs or whatever, but you only need one for connecting up to a CD player (or DVD player, or whatever), and frankly I'd probably just plan to use the O2 with whatever player machine to minimize headaches - if you end up with a machine that's got a headphone jack you may try it just to see how it works, but I wouldn't hold that as a requirement to buy a player, especially when there's so many good DVD/BD/HD-DVD players out there that don't have headphone jacks on them, but are otherwise more than competent enough for what you want.

The CD player I have at the moment does have a headphone jack, and a lot of different features. It says it's a "mini hi-fi" system from TEAC. It's maybe 10-15 years old I'd say as the design is somewhat modern. But I've been curious to know if what I'm hearing from this CD player is appreciably less impressive than what I would hear from a new $200 CD player, or a lossless file from my PC (assuming similar peripherals like my O2 amp). 

"I want to spend more money to answer the question of will I hear more?" - yay marketing!

Not trying to be snide or rude there, just its a very common trope and we can thank the endless barrage of marketing that we're subjected to for creating that kind of "insecurity" about equipment that we own. If it sounds good to you as-is, why futz with it?

Alternatively, it wouldn't be hard *at all* to do a comparison for your own satisfaction - just rip something to your PC into a lossless (and while we're there, why not grab a lossy encode too!) and see what you think. My honest guess is that you'll find more difference between lossy/lossless encoding, especially as you get into more aggressive lossy encoding (e.g. 128k vs 320k) than you will between any two CD players or similar, unless you've somehow significantly changed what is powering the headphones (see up wrt power output ++ output impedance).

Here's a comparison video on YouTube that can give you some idea on lossy/lossless:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53tdYmJuUmM


You can probably find a lot more information about your current player if you can locate the model # on it and plug that into a search engine.

Also, there's something about CDs and having a dedicated music only device with limitations that makes me enjoy the music more. I don't know why, but that's why even though my PC is perfect for everything I need, I'd still rather listen with a CD player.

I get it. No worries there.

This is actually exactly the type of answer I was looking for for one of my questions. Thank you! I bought my CDs used but they are in good shape. I didn't put a CD drive in my PC when I built it, but an external one is not expensive if necessary.

Call me old-fashioned, but I still can't get my head around this idea that we're somehow "post-removable media" - bottom line is those CDs are probably offering higher quality than anything you can stream/download (especially at reasonable prices, and no worries about "data usage" or anything like that either), and ripping them is pretty straightforward. I'd say absolutely get a DVD drive (heck, splurge, get a DVD/RW drive) and rip the stuff - even if you listen from a stand-alone player you've at least got the data backed up in the event you scratch up a disc by accident, or if you want to burn a CD to take in the car or similar.

 

[ririeiman]

   
Thank for your your input! I definitely agree with most of what you mentioned. In terms of an all-in-one. I'm not really looking for anything all in one, I'm just looking for a CD player that will play the files well. But since apparently there so much difference in "sound signature" between different headphone amps and dacs and what not, I wanted to know if a generally decent CD player would be enough for casual listening if I wanted something similar to a lossless track. 
 
With that in mind, I do have an JDSlabs O2 amp that I use for my LCDs. I also have a Dragonfly Red for other stuff and I use my Scarlett 2i2 DAC between my computer and my O2 amp. For my LCDs, if the CD player doesn't have enough power, I'll just use the O2.
 
The CD player I have at the moment does have a headphone jack, and a lot of different features. It says it's a "mini hi-fi" system from TEAC. It's maybe 10-15 years old I'd say as the design is somewhat modern. But I've been curious to know if what I'm hearing from this CD player is appreciably less impressive than what I would hear from a new $200 CD player, or a lossless file from my PC (assuming similar peripherals like my O2 amp). 
 
Also, there's something about CDs and having a dedicated music only device with limitations that makes me enjoy the music more. I don't know why, but that's why even though my PC is perfect for everything I need, I'd still rather listen with a CD player.
 
 
This is actually exactly the type of answer I was looking for for one of my questions. Thank you! I bought my CDs used but they are in good shape. I didn't put a CD drive in my PC when I built it, but an external one is not expensive if necessary.

Use this to copy n compare . 
http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/index.php/overview/basic-technology/extraction-technology/

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Just to be another data point (and go ahead and flame me for disagreeing): I've had generally good luck with CD players of all stripes, going all the way back to players from the mid-1980s. Newer stuff has a tendency to be awfully cheap, regardless of what it says on the outside of the box, but more broadly - every brand, every product line, etc has a certain % of failures and one or two people's anecdotal experiences (one way or another) are not a fair indictment of "all [whatever]."

No, I'm not looking for a fight. Just reason.

 

The thing is though for those who have had the problems enumerated here it's hard for such people to recommend using them. I can't speak for everyone in the same situation, but in my case it's a lot less that I'm still licking my burns over those episodes, but what if I enthusiastically recommend optical disc players to anybody and they suffer the same, and I failed to even mention what happened with my players, it's kind of a dick move.

 

It's kind of like if we had internet forums in the 1970s, someone goes into a car forum and asks what first nice car they should buy, and a lot of people go, "JAGUAR DUDE!" Then they come back angry about how they spend more time fixing it than driving it.

 

Overall though the usefulness about the car analogy is that if you have good product support the only problem is shipping it to and fro if you don't have the dealer with an in-house authorized tech within reasonable driving distance. And it has to be a good dealer too, given my C520 experience (plus my SCD-595, to which Sony service centers - which were all over this city - just up and said, "meh, we don't stock this laser thingy").

 

All that said of course if one is more comfortable swapping CDs than browsing a storage drive cheap video players are the best bet, particularly with headphone systems that aren't shaking the room with soundwaves (much less bass) for their lightweight build to be a problem (or conversely, for Wadia's tanks to even be needed - speaking of which, they've stopped making these).