What's Spinning

How’s the CD player working out for ya?
You know I was really reluctant to buy one, I didn't have a ton of CDs, but honestly, the more I pushed the "Quality over Quantity" mantra, the more it seemed to make sense. Make no mistake, I'll take vinyl over a CD, IF IT'S PRESSED WELL. I think with my system being were it is, my expectation of what it can produce is showing the "weakest" link, the actual album and it gets frustrating.

In answer to your question though, lol, I love it. It sounds great, I'm told that even a CD player has a burn in window so we'll see. I mentioned this before, but If I'm going to buy a "Place holder" until the vinyl comes out, or a quality pressing comes out, I would rather pick up the CD for literally a couple bucks than the album. On top of that, there are albums I really don't want to spend even $15 on, but if it's something I want, I know I can get it for next to nothing on CD.

I love my vinyl rig and when I sit down to "Listen" to music it's always on that, but for the price I paid and the long term savings, and having an option to poor pressings, I'm really happy I pulled the trigger on it. Plus, I'm still a fan of physical media, so there's that too :)
 
Did not know that :)

Beyond some fancy Japanese SHM-SACDs which tend to be single layer SACDs the vast majority are dual layer with a CD layer that can be read by conventional CD players. Unless you’re buying on the secondary market or getting a good deal it isn’t necessarily the best option for someone with just a CD player, they tend to be a fair bit more expensive that standard CD editions where the option to purchase both exists.
 
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Beyond some fancy Japanese SHM-SACDs which tend to be single layer SACDs the vast majority are dual layer with a CD layer that can be read by conventional CD players. Unless you’re buying on the secondary market or getting a good deal though it isn’t necessarily the best option for someone with just a CD player, they tend to be a fair bit more expensive that standard CD editions where the option to purchase both exists.
Ya, I wanted to avoid the SACD temptation all together, it would have derailed my overall "budget" conscious approach to adding CD player, lol
 
Ya, I wanted to avoid the SACD temptation all together, it would have derailed my overall "budget" conscious approach to adding CD player, lol

Yeah, I get that, the CD player I’ve had for 16 years now just so happens to be an SACD/CD player, more by accident than design back then. To be honest they’re broadly speaking not really a thing, beyond the few that were done commercially back in the early to mid 00s it’s mostly just Audiophile labels and Japanese imports, hence me having 20ish out of 650ish CDs/SACDs. I do like having the option though and the ones I have sound awesome, particularly the AP ones and the classical ones.
 
Yeah, I get that, the CD player I’ve had for 16 years now just so happens to be an SACD/CD player, more by accident than design back then. To be honest they’re broadly speaking not really a thing, beyond the few that were done commercially back in the early to mid 00s it’s mostly just Audiophile labels and Japanese imports, hence me having 20ish out of 650ish CDs/SACDs. I do like having the option though and the ones I have sound awesome, particularly the AP ones and the classical ones.
I think I would be more open to pushing the Transport/DAC avenue IF this DAC experiment works out, meaning if I find myself using it enough to warrant going into the higher end DACs, almost went with an MHDT Atlantis Tube DAC, but I'll gamble on the $450 DAC first ;)
 
I think I would be more open to pushing the Transport/DAC avenue IF this DAC experiment works out, meaning if I find myself using it enough to warrant going into the higher end DACs, almost went with an MHDT Atlantis Tube DAC, but I'll gamble on the $450 DAC first ;)

Honestly because DRM for SACDs is such a mess I’m only using the DAC end of my PS Audio for CDs, the player, like 99.99999%, won’t output DSD as DoP over optical. So I’m using the players internal DAC over RCAs to the analogue preamp bit of my PS Audio for the SACDs and outputting using optical to the DAC end of my PS Audio for CDs. The only way around it is to get a transport that will output the SACD layer too over i2s but they’re expensive and each brand tends to have their own proprietary method, the PS Audio transport was £6k and it’s replacement will likely be more again...

To upgrade for them I’m best looking at a better SACD player with a better internal DAC and to forget about using a dual transport/DAC approach entirely!
 
Is this the first time you’ve been able spin all your 2020 favourites?
Yes! I'm still waiting on Sawayama to get here, but I was excited to finally be able to spin Future Nostalgia and Heaven to a Tortured Mind, and thankfully all the pressings sound great. I've been working through stacks of fresh grabs of the past few months I'm getting to spin for the first time mixed with whatever I'm itching to listen to at the moment. I forgot how much I loved spinning records 🤗
 
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