[Sparky191]

I see lots of people still enquire about PCDP's. Since the only thing going for them is you can play an actual CD in them, capacity, SQ, and convience are all bettered by MP3 players. What is the attraction?

 

[dead of night]

I feel that PCDPs sound better.

 

[gloco]

They're cheap and for people on limited budgets, they work just fine.

 

[Old Pa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sparky191 I see lots of people still enquire about PCDP's. Since the only thing going for them is you can play an actual CD in them, capacity, SQ, and convience are all bettered by MP3 players. What is the attraction?

Availability with manufacturer's warranty, compatability with legacy CD collections, familiarity, cost, and sound quality v. MP3.

 

[TAF94]

IMO pcdps sound much better also. Uncommpressed music doesn't feel like I"m missing anything - to me. It seems more convienient to put in a cd that's right beside me and because I don't want every cd I have taking up space on an mp3 player.

 

[Super King]

Dirt, dirt cheap nowadays. Even a lot of the cheap ones now can play Mp3 CD's as well as standard audio CD's. Insane battery life as well.

 

[nph134]

CDs are also great if you can't be bothered fiddling about on your computer with ripping/bitrates etc.

After ripping my entire collection of cds at 192 before iPods were even around then again at 256 then again at 320 when decided I could here the reduced quality after getting some hd650s.......I have now decided I can't be bothered anymore so if I'm travelling I take a few cds and a PCDP/amp with me, if I'm on the move I just use a little radio so can listen to news while walking to work etc and don't worry about SQ as there is so much background noise anyway. If I'm at home I just like to use my hi-fi seperates system and enjoy actually browsing real CDs. Guess it's like books....I love reading but only with a real book in my hand.

Ah I also found when I had gigs and gigs of music on ipods etc I just wasn't listening to half my music as I always ended up spending more time deciding what to listen to than actually listening hehe! Something nice about actually handling CDs and makes it easier to choose what to listen to AND without fiddling about on computer you have best quality possible straight away with no effort.

Ah yeh and when I realised my ipod batteries lasted a TENTH of the time of my PCDP I though bah to the ipod.

 

[Sparky191]

Whats a legacy CD and whats not compatible with them?

Since most of the modern PCDP's have antishock buffers, its all being compressed isn't it? So your not really listening to the uncompressed CD at all. Personally my own panasonic PCDP SQ is very poor compared to my Zen or shuffle.

I take the points about the battery life, and also the desire to avoid a computer. Good enough reasons on their own.

 

[nph134]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sparky191 Since most of the modern PCDP's have antishock buffers, its all being compressed isn't it? So your not really listening to the uncompressed CD at all.

CD anti-skip technologies generally work by storing a portion of CD audio in a digital memory cache built into the portable player. As the laser reads the CD audio, it stores the music in cache memory before you hear it. This provides audio buffering in the event of an abrupt bump or other force that causes the CD to skip. During this buffering time, the CD laser can re-read the error portion of the disc so that the listener does not experience any interruption in their audio. The amount of buffering time stored varies by CD player models, but a general rule is that the larger the cache memory size, the less likely a CD player is to skip.

Still it's true that many portable CD players offer poorer sound quality than say a similarly priced hi-fi seperate CD player. Just because the electronics and mechanics are optimised for size first and quality second. I've read of several tests on PCDPs showing roll off at 16kHz rather than the quoted 20kHz and also noise in each channel from the other channel at around -50,-60dB and this can vary a lot from player to player probably. Whereas the differences between most hi-fi seperate CD players is far less even when comparing cheap and expensive ones...most have good flat responses up to 20kHz and most have noise from other channel etc down past -90dB. If size isn't an issue there is more ease and flexibility in the designing.

At the end of the day you don't buy ANY portable device if you are interested ONLY in SQ.

 

[nph134]

bah multi post. internet going nuts

 

[Old Pa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sparky191 Whats a legacy CD and whats not compatible with them?

I said legacy cd collection, not legacy cd. A legacy cd collection would be one already in existence and possession, in my case in existence and possession for two decades before the ipod reared its ugly little head.

BTW, some level of compression exists in virtually all recordings and a good quality PCDP with anti-skip will always sound better than a 128 MP3.

 

[aaroncort]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sparky191 I see lots of people still enquire about PCDP's. Since the only thing going for them is you can play an actual CD in them, capacity, SQ, and convience are all bettered by MP3 players. What is the attraction?

you;re right in that most modern CD players are more or less garbage. However there are a couple that have an optical output that turns off the skip portection. Then you can use a portable DAC and amp for really good portable sound. I too really don't care too much about portable sound and settle for an MP3 player encoded at 320kbps LAME through a line out and amped.

 

[zChan]

Able to listen to my bought CDs on the train ride home.

 

[nickd75]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nph134 After ripping my entire collection of cds at 192 before iPods were even around then again at 256 then again at 320 when decided I could here the reduced quality after getting some hd650s.......I have now decided I can't be bothered anymore so if I'm travelling I take a few cds and a PCDP/amp with me.

Surely the solution is to rip everything to .wav on an external HDD, then compress as and when required? With the price/ GB of HDD now, it's a definite option.
Personally I like that fact that I have the potential to listen to anything at all in my CD collection, rather than having to think about what in particular to take with me. If I have to choose CDs, I end up limiting myself to my favourite 30 or so.... Plus carrying the CDs themselves is a right pain in the balls.

Nick

 

[KJ_Palmer]

I just bought a couple of CDs at lunchtime. As soon as I get home I'm going to listen to them on my D-NE900. Eventually they'll end up in Sonicstage and then on to the HD5 and/or minidisc. But whenever I want to listen to the original album, read the cover notes etc., I'll do the same. It'll always sound better than a copy (I dont rip to Wav/PCM) on the (other) portables.