Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice

Anybody have any experience with an external/USB CD drive? I've got a couple of CD-only releases that I'd like to be able to rip and add to my digital collection. Right now my only CD player is on my Xbox, and my laptop doesn't have a disc drive. Not looking to spend too much.
 
BjorgenFjorgen said:
Anybody have any experience with an external/USB CD drive? I've got a couple of CD-only releases that I'd like to be able to rip and add to my digital collection. Right now my only CD player is on my Xbox, and my laptop doesn't have a disc drive. Not looking to spend too much.
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Whenever I need a CD drive I buy one from Apple, do what I need to do, then return it within 2 weeks.

EDIT: Since y'all're laughing at my post, I should point out that I'm 100% serious. Apple's return policy is awesome, and they don't give two shits if you open something and use it for 2 weeks then return it, as long as you don't do it over and over again to the point where it's obvious you're just leasing a new product from them for free. Hell, I've even done this with computers while mine was with the genius bar being repaired!
 
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BjorgenFjorgen said:
Anybody have any experience with an external/USB CD drive? I've got a couple of CD-only releases that I'd like to be able to rip and add to my digital collection. Right now my only CD player is on my Xbox, and my laptop doesn't have a disc drive. Not looking to spend too much.
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I bought this a couple of years ago for my iMac. I just wanted something cheap and reliable since I'd only use it to rip my existing CD collection (I've ripped around 500 albums and still going strong). I use XLD to rip to FLAC. The drive's not the fastest or the quietest, but it's small and reliable.

 
BjorgenFjorgen said:
Anybody have any experience with an external/USB CD drive? I've got a couple of CD-only releases that I'd like to be able to rip and add to my digital collection. Right now my only CD player is on my Xbox, and my laptop doesn't have a disc drive. Not looking to spend too much.
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I bought one from Amazon to plug into my windows laptop for around $20, just to try it out, and its good enough for now. I have the laptop into a Schitt Modi. This is my digital solution until I get a dedicated streamer.
 
Would appreciate some thoughts/recommendations on an integrated amp setup.

I'm trying to figure out how to do a multi-room setup off my vinyl rig but I'd prefer to keep the speakers in the turntable room wired and the second room wireless (not a feasible, non-destructive way to run wires unfortunately). So a stereo A/B setup, one wired, the other wireless.

Not driving anything heavy duty in my turntable room -- just a pair of Wharfedale Diamond 225s. Wouldn't mind leaving some capacity to upgrade those later. The second room is a small kitchen/dining room so the wireless speakers would be wall-mounted. (Any wireless speaker recs that have some good bottom-end are appreciated as well, trying to avoid Sonos.)

Any recommendations are appreciated, including alternatives to setting this up differently than I've outlined (bluetooth transmitters, etc). Budget is $1,500 with some flexibility. Can be analog if that matters.
 
dropsonde said:
Would appreciate some thoughts/recommendations on an integrated amp setup.

I'm trying to figure out how to do a multi-room setup off my vinyl rig but I'd prefer to keep the speakers in the turntable room wired and the second room wireless (not a feasible, non-destructive way to run wires unfortunately). So a stereo A/B setup, one wired, the other wireless.

Not driving anything heavy duty in my turntable room -- just a pair of Wharfedale Diamond 225s. Wouldn't mind leaving some capacity to upgrade those later. The second room is a small kitchen/dining room so the wireless speakers would be wall-mounted. (Any wireless speaker recs that have some good bottom-end are appreciated as well, trying to avoid Sonos.)

Any recommendations are appreciated, including alternatives to setting this up differently than I've outlined (bluetooth transmitters, etc). Budget is $1,500 with some flexibility. Can be analog if that matters.
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You could connect the tape out of your amplifier to a sonos connect and have a sonos speaker in the second room. It would require your amplifier to be on to send the turntable wirelessly to room 2.

The other option would be to have a phono stage with 2 outputs. One goes to your amp for room a and the other goes to the sonos connect for room b, that way only the tt and phono stage would need to be on for room b to get tt audio. You can also connect the out on the sonos connect to a spare input on your amp to use it as a zone for streaming and the like.

EDIT: Sorry I didn't notice that you said avoiding Sonos :oops:. In terms of this kind of thing their system really is the most bulletproof and just works. I have my reservations about digitising analogue audio but thats a different discussion lol.
 
I appreciate the thoughts. My reluctance to Sonos is that the Connect would need an Ethernet connection, correct? Unfortunately I'm not Internet hardwired in my turntable room.
 
dropsonde said:
I appreciate the thoughts. My reluctance to Sonos is that the Connect would need an Ethernet connection, correct? Unfortunately I'm not Internet hardwired in my turntable room.
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The Sonos products had a firmware update about 2 years ago and can now create their mesh network wirelessly. I only have the playbase and 2 play 1’s for 5.0 tv sound but they are operating fine wirelessly because, like you, my tv isn’t near the router which is in the hallway. The only issue there would be if your home network had any speed issues at the turntable
 
HEOS is a thing with Denon and Marantz receivers. That is their wireless solution (amongst some other features). I can’t speak for it I just know it exists.
 
Joe Mac said:
The Sonos products had a firmware update about 2 years ago and can now create their mesh network wirelessly.
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Aha, didn't know that. Shouldn't have any speed issues at the turntable so this may be viable.

How do your Ones sound -- do they have any balls?
 
debianlinux said:
HEOS is a thing with Denon and Marantz receivers. That is their wireless solution (amongst some other features). I can’t speak for it I just know it exists.
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Thanks, good to know. Wouldn't work with my current amp (which I should have specified is a NAD D3020v2) but good to learn of that system.
 
dropsonde said:
Aha, didn't know that. Shouldn't have any speed issues at the turntable so this may be viable.

How do your Ones sound -- do they have any balls?
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i use them solely for tv so they don't really need that as they are satellite rears. The playbase has enough bass for films in an apartment where I don’t want to piss off my neighbours! My suspicion would be no, there is not much to them. That said I am a devout anti-sub for music anyway and prefer my bass natural, if the recording booms it does, if it doesn’t it doesn’t...

What i will say is that I am a fan of testing things before I buy. Lots of dealers and electronics shops sell Sonos, go down to one and try out the 1, 3 and 5 and see if they do it for you.
 
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Joe Mac said:
That said I a devout anti-sub for music anyway and prefer my bass natural, if the recording booms it does, if it doesn’t it doesn’t...
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I'm with you on subs for music.

Any recs for phono stages with two outputs that would be a noticeable upgrade over the internal MM stage in my NAD amp?
 
dropsonde said:
I'm with you on subs for music.

Any recs for phono stages with two outputs that would be a noticeable upgrade over the internal MM stage in my NAD amp?
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Id say any good phono stage will be an upgrade on the one built into the NAD. If I remember right they are quite small little amps, not much space for a decent stage. As for one with two unbalanced outs I’m not sure. Mine has two outs but one is balanced so that’d be no good to you. @HiFi Guy any recommendation?
 
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