Almonds
Active Member
Hey!
So, I just came from goodwill where I picked up a CD player for $5.
The backstory is this:
About a year ago my wife and I bought a new iMac and realized it didn't have a CD player in it. We bought a smart TV 2 years ago, so we got rid of the DVD player. She bought a new mini cooper a year ago and it didn't come with a CD player. We were sitting around a friend's house listening to some music, and he said "Oh you like this? I'll burn you a CD" and it was then that we realized we had no CD players at all!
So, since then I had been bitten by the audio bug and have been having fun getting into vintage audio. I've been streaming from spotify and tidal and my own uncompressed digital collection. I've been using an airport express to stream, and read that it streamed CD quality and I've been happy with the quality.
Fast forward to today, I got home and threw on this crap sony DVD/CD player for $5 and instantly realized it was better quality than streaming. Mainly the imaging got more 3D and the highs are way more detailed.
So, now my question is: If I get a better quality CD player, will I notice another improvement?
And if so, what's a good CD player that I can find for maybe $50 or less that is considered audiophile grade? i don't need it to look good or have any features. I just want to enjoy the higher quality audio for when I'm doing critical listening.
Then... the next topic is, now I realize I probably need a high quality DAC for my digital files.
So, I just came from goodwill where I picked up a CD player for $5.
The backstory is this:
About a year ago my wife and I bought a new iMac and realized it didn't have a CD player in it. We bought a smart TV 2 years ago, so we got rid of the DVD player. She bought a new mini cooper a year ago and it didn't come with a CD player. We were sitting around a friend's house listening to some music, and he said "Oh you like this? I'll burn you a CD" and it was then that we realized we had no CD players at all!
So, since then I had been bitten by the audio bug and have been having fun getting into vintage audio. I've been streaming from spotify and tidal and my own uncompressed digital collection. I've been using an airport express to stream, and read that it streamed CD quality and I've been happy with the quality.
Fast forward to today, I got home and threw on this crap sony DVD/CD player for $5 and instantly realized it was better quality than streaming. Mainly the imaging got more 3D and the highs are way more detailed.
So, now my question is: If I get a better quality CD player, will I notice another improvement?
And if so, what's a good CD player that I can find for maybe $50 or less that is considered audiophile grade? i don't need it to look good or have any features. I just want to enjoy the higher quality audio for when I'm doing critical listening.
Then... the next topic is, now I realize I probably need a high quality DAC for my digital files.