CD player or media streamer?

[gazzah]

I'm torn between three choices: getting a Marantz CD6004, getting some kind of media streamer, or sticking with what I already have.

What I have is a couple of 'universal' players (a Panasonic HDD/BluRay/DVD player, and a Pioneer DV-610 multiregion DVD/SACD/CD player) as well as an AppleTV 2nd gen. The AppleTV and BluRay go into a Marantz NR-1501 av amp with Tannoy Mercury speakers, and the DV-610 feeds both the NR1501 and an Elekit TU-879S with 6L6G tubes into Monitor Audio BR2 speakers.

I'm unhappy with the universal players as CD players because their response time is poor (slow to start up, slow to recognize discs), they have no headphone out, and I suspect the audio quality may not be so great (comments anyone?).

I have about 400 CDs.

So I started looking at pure CD players, and narrowed it down to a Denon DCD-755SE or a Marantz CD6004. I auditioned the two today, and the Marantz had the better dynamic range. Both have the ability to take an input via USB from an iPod or iPad, which would be a bonus.

But the trend these days seems to be away from physical CDs, toward streaming devices like the Squeezebox.

I kind of already have this ability, since I can stream from iTunes (mostly ripped in 'iTunes Plus, ie 256kbps AAC) to the AppleTV, using the Marantz NR1501 as DAC and amp.

So my dilemma (trilemma?) is this: should I, in this day and age, buy a pure CD player like the Marantz? Or should I try to find a nice DAC for the AppleTV, or a Squeezebox, so I can feed my iTunes tracks into the tube amp? Or should I just stick with what I have?

Your advice, opinions, comments, etc are eagerly sought.

 

[jonnythan]

I see absolutely no reason to go back to dealing with CDs. Get a DAC for the AppleTV.

 

[bikemig]

I'm largely with Jonny on this (and by the way, go Saints) but I keep toying with the idea of buying a CD player as a reference point for my system. I haven't done it yet, though. Once you've digitized your CD collection, you'll never want to go back. The SB Touch sounds great from its analog outputs, and it does bit perfect as well as hi res (the Apple TV upsamples to 48Khz and is not bit perfect, the SB Touch is and supports up to 24/96). Get a SB Touch, forget about the apple TV for music, and go Saints.

 

[sholling]

Use a media streamer. I'm not a Pod-person so I'm not all that up on the AppleTV but you should be able to rip your CD collection to Apple Lossless. While your at it I'd make a second lightly compressed copy for your iPod/iPhone. That way you have full CD quality at home plus you have your entire music library on tap for the portable. One bit of extra advice - think through your filing system and naming convention before you start ripping.

As long as your AppleTV has a digital connection with your receiver I wouldn't bother with an external DAC because the DACs in modern receivers are pretty good. Instead I'd put that money into a redundant storage solution. Trust me you will not be a happy camper when your hard drive dies after investing a hundred hours or so in ripping CDs. At the very least figure out a way to backup on a regular basis or better yet RAID plus backups.

 

[bikemig]

I agree with Sholling about the importance of backups and having two copies (one lossless, the other in a lossy format). I make a 320 kpbs copy for my ipod and stream lossless in the house. By the way, there is no reason not to use apple lossless at this point since it has become open source: Apple's lossless ALAC goes open source, it's like FLAC for iPods -- Engadget. And ALAC works with iTunes, Flac doesn't.

 

[gazzah]

Thanks for all your comments above. There seem to be a lot of votes for the Squeezebox. What do you think of the hi-fi brand network players like the Marantz NA7004 or the Denon DNP-720SE?

Also, I'm kind of surprised bikemig was the only one of four posters to give any kind of support for the idea of a pure CD player. Anyone out there? Or has the world moved on?

For the time being, I'm putting the CD purchase on hold while I look into networked media thingies. I'll also have a look at re-ripping to lossless.

Cheers.

 

[jonnythan]

I don't see any advantages to a Squeezebox besides not having to have the TV on to use it.

 

[psbfan9]

You may want to have a look at some of the Olive products. I have no experience with them, but they get good reviews.

OLIVE | SAVE THE SOUND

 

[gazzah]

jonnythan - You're probably right about there not being much advantage for me in the SB. Personally, some potential advantages of the Squeezebox might be the ability to use a NAS drive, the analogue audio outputs. On the other hand, the AppleTV can handle all my iTunes content (videos, podcasts).
On your point about having to have the TV on to use it, I've found that I can use the Remote app on my iPad or iPod to navigate tracks quite successfully without having to turn the TV on, so that's not so much of an issue for me. That strengthens your argument that the SB may not represent much of an advantage.
To make up for the lack of an analog out and a headphone jack, I'm now thinking I may get a DAC with a headphone out to connect the AppleTV to my tube amp.

psbfan9 - Thanks for your suggestion. Yes, the Olive series looks very nice, but even the 'budget' model is outside my price range I'm afraid.

 

[djreef]

psbfan9 - Thanks for your suggestion. Yes, the Olive series looks very nice, but even the 'budget' model is outside my price range I'm afraid.

WERD. Plus they'll have to cross the 2 TB threshold, and completely work out the bugs before I would consider them. Either that, or create a product that can be daisy chained with like for expansion down the road.

DJ