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Audiophiles (amateur) - Need advice

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I, Coño
Joined
May 21, 2020
Member Number
858
Messages
517
I'm no high-end audiophreak.

I've had a system that has served all of my audio needs for the last 25+ years. All of this is from 1999.

Specs:

  • CD player: Technics MASH SL-PD647 CD carousel player.
  • Amp+: Yamaha AX-596
  • Speakers: Paradigm Reference Studio 100s (these things can play Vivaldi at such a high fidelity it blacks out cell coverage for 5 sq.mi. :hot:

So: my CD player shit the bed. I liked it, had a 5 CD carousel, you could load 4 CDs while one was playing, program the shit out of it, had memory for selections sets, etc, etc, etc.

I can't find much out there to replace it.

What are people with 100, 1000s of CDs doing these days?
 
Buy an old CD jukebox for the nostalgia and put your CDs in there, get an I tunes subscription and an MP3 player. Rip the CD's that you can't find on Itunes to MP3. Plug MP3 player into AMP or get a bluetooth head unit. Crutchfield even has plug and play bluetooth kits for most factory head units.

Profit.
 
KarlVP said:
Buy an old CD jukebox for the nostalgia and put your CDs in there, get an I tunes subscription and an MP3 player. Rip the CD's that you can't find on Itunes to MP3. Plug MP3 player into AMP or get a bluetooth head unit. Crutchfield even has plug and play bluetooth kits for most factory head units.

Profit.
Click to expand...
Audiophile and MP3 aren't compatible. Even in my truck with all the wind noise I can tell you what is lossless vs mp3 or amazon/itunes. The stereo is worth as much if not more than the truck though.



Rip your CD's to FLAK or another lossless format. You will need big hard drives.
 
vetteboy79 said:
I'd probably just get another one in that case.

www.ebay.com

TESTED Technics SL-PD647 5-Disc Carousel CD-Changer with MASH, Made in Japan | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for TESTED Technics SL-PD647 5-Disc Carousel CD-Changer with MASH, Made in Japan at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
Click to expand...

Not a bad find, I found others. Cheap price, shipping cost to me is more than he's asking for the used component. :shaking:
 
Chevy_man said:
Audiophile and MP3 aren't compatible. Even in my truck with all the wind noise I can tell you what is lossless vs mp3 or amazon/itunes. The stereo is worth as much if not more than the truck though.



Rip your CD's to FLAK or another lossless format. You will need big hard drives.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I figured.

Someone educate me how I can pipe music on backed storage through my stereo system. Selecting WHAT I want to play without having to fuck with playlists.

See where I'm going with this? And no, cell phones are not an option, FFS.
 
I ripped all 700+ discs to my HD in Windows Media lossless format years ago.
 
Icono said:
And no, cell phones are not an option, FFS.
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Phones are shit for audio quality anyway. Unless you have one that will do digital direct and something good to convert it.
 
bdkw1 said:
Phones are shit for audio quality anyway. Unless you have one that will do digital direct and something good to convert it.
Click to expand...

No kidding? Last time I went to test drive a WRX, one of the things the sales dude said (he was actually OK), was how the sound system rocked. I looked around, and asked him where the USB was for loading songs, and how much storage the audio system had. He looked at me blankly, and said, "Oh, you play them from your phone".

Lol, no.
 
Roc Doc said:
I bought an LG V30 for it's DAC. Yeah, I'm a soundnerd like that.
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Dang, I thought maybe you had some insight for sound low-lifes like me.

Don't people play or blast anything through household stereos anymore?

If not CDs, what interface devices to their Amp are they using (if digital rips, etc)?
 
I ripped all My CD's to FLAC

I put stuff on a USB drive for the car and the garage.
 
foobar2000 on the pc connected to my receiver
 
Icono said:
Dang, I thought maybe you had some insight for sound low-lifes like me.

Don't people play or blast anything through household stereos anymore?

If not CDs, what interface devices to their Amp are they using (if digital rips, etc)?
Click to expand...
I do.

NHT 2.5I speakers Backed by Yamaha MX series components with an MX400 amp.
 
Icono said:
Dang, I thought maybe you had some insight for sound low-lifes like me.

Don't people play or blast anything through household stereos anymore?

If not CDs, what interface devices to their Amp are they using (if digital rips, etc)?
Click to expand...
OK, like others have said rip them to a computer with Foobar 2000, iTunes, JRiver Media Center (what I use), or other such media software. They'll end up in folders on your computer, one folder per artist and sub-folders for each album. Then you'll need a way to play them back through your stereo, I send the selected music to a Project S2 DAC and then on to an old Denon 5.1 receiver which I use to send the 100hz up to my Elac Unifi speakers and the line level L&R output to a pair of Klipsch 10" subs, so it's a 2.2 system, this in an office the size of a small bedroom.

In the main room I have a Yamaha RX-A850 doing 5.1 surround sound for the TV and using it's Musicast feature send music (via 802.11 on my LAN) to powered speakers on the patio and in the master bathroom. Musicast is super simple to use, and is controlled via an app on your phone. You can play music that is stored on NAS, Sirius XM, Pandora, etc., and again it's super simple to make work, I was pleasantly surprised.

In the garage I have a cheap tablet that has JRiver on it, and all the music is stored on a 512gb SD card, USB out to a CEntrance DAC into a DBX Driverack + feeding a 4 channel professional amp, again for a 2.2 system. It can play way louder than my neighbors would appreciate.

The truck and 4Runner each get a 512k compact thumbdrive, but in the truck I had to convert the lossless files to highest rate mp3, because it wouldn't read the FLAC or m4a files, and with .wav or such the metadata was all fucky. The 4Runner has a cheap Kenwood head unit and it will read whatever, so it's kind of a disappointment that a 2015 truck with the optional Alpine system has that limitation, but it's not horrible, just not as good as it could be.

Streaming services like Tidal or Qobuz is what a lot of people are doing now. It will make your head spin to look at all the streaming options.
 
Thanks for input!

Ripping stuff is not a problem. Getting it there is what I'm looking into. I'll look into Project S2 DAC.
 
Icono said:
Thanks for input!

Ripping stuff is not a problem. Getting it there is what I'm looking into. I'll look into Project S2 DAC.
Click to expand...
The S2 takes it's USB power (5v) from the computer, but if you just want to run it off a USB drive, then you'll need to use the external power supply. I will also accept digital inputs via coax or toslink, so you could use it with a CD player as an upgrade over the internal DAC in the CD player. It's a pretty amazing little box for sure.
 
Fishbone333 said:
Where you located? I have a Panasonic 6 disc changer you can have for free.
Click to expand...

Thanks, appreciate the offer.

I sourced one locally for $50 that'll hold me over until I sort out the new stuff.
 
Icono said:
What are people with 100, 1000s of CDs doing these days?
Click to expand...
Put them in storage and purchase a subscription to Pandora or Spotify. Trust me. Until a year ago I was still buying CD'd then copying them onto my computer as MP3's. Last March I decided to give Pandora a shot and have not played music any other way since.
 
Eric said:
Put them in storage and purchase a subscription to Pandora or Spotify. Trust me. Until a year ago I was still buying CD'd then copying them onto my computer as MP3's. Last March I decided to give Pandora a shot and have not played music any other way since.
Click to expand...
It's not better sound quality, but it sure is more convenient.

(and honestly, I don't know many people who live a lifestyle with guns, grinders, industrial equipment and vehicles with questionable exhaust, that can still hear he nuanced the difference between a streamed and the better formats)
 
You can just use HDMI from your computer to an AVR with a good DAC to drive your speakers.
 
I like old school stuff and still spin CDs regularly in Pioneer 6 disk changers. I have about 4 of them and I pick them up whenever I see someone selling them. Older stereo stuff is super cheap these days. Best to find the stuff early 90s vintage that was still made in Japan vs. Indonesia, China, etc.

I did score an old school 2 channel Receiver a couple years ago, but it's actually new. Outlaw RR2160. Look them up. It's a 2 channel receiver with gobs of power, none of the surround crap, and has inputs for everything modern. I'm running Polk Audio towers with it that do a good job of rattling the windows and are crystal clear in doing so.

Equalizers are something else that are hardly made anymore that I'll snap up used ones when I find them.
 
D-Rat said:
I like old school stuff and still spin CDs regularly in Pioneer 6 disk changers. I have about 4 of them and I pick them up whenever I see someone selling them. Older stereo stuff is super cheap these days. Best to find the stuff early 90s vintage that was still made in Japan vs. Indonesia, China, etc.

I did score an old school 2 channel Receiver a couple years ago, but it's actually new. Outlaw RR2160. Look them up. It's a 2 channel receiver with gobs of power, none of the surround crap, and has inputs for everything modern. I'm running Polk Audio towers with it that do a good job of rattling the windows and are crystal clear in doing so.

Equalizers are something else that are hardly made anymore that I'll snap up used ones when I find them.
Click to expand...
NOT AROUND HERE.

Pioneer TX-7800 is going for $200

Any of the 70's and 80's receivers that are worth a shit are dollars.

the 90's shit is cheap I guess.
 
D-Rat said:
I like old school stuff
Click to expand...
LOL, Nothing in my truck stereo is newer than 1988. Except the speakers.

Sony CDX-R88
Audio control EQQ
Harmon Kardon CX01
Nakamichi PA-300, PA-350
 
D-Rat said:
I like old school stuff and still spin CDs regularly in Pioneer 6 disk changers. I have about 4 of them and I pick them up whenever I see someone selling them. Older stereo stuff is super cheap these days. Best to find the stuff early 90s vintage that was still made in Japan vs. Indonesia, China, etc.

I did score an old school 2 channel Receiver a couple years ago, but it's actually new. Outlaw RR2160. Look them up. It's a 2 channel receiver with gobs of power, none of the surround crap, and has inputs for everything modern. I'm running Polk Audio towers with it that do a good job of rattling the windows and are crystal clear in doing so.

Equalizers are something else that are hardly made anymore that I'll snap up used ones when I find them.
Click to expand...
RR2150 or 2160?

I was looking real hard at the 2160 when it came out at $799 but they jacked it to $999 not long after that and I've been looking in other directions now.

I have an brand new DBX 1231 dual channel 31 band EQ that I'd make you a swinging deal on if you're interested.
 
I got the RR2160 right before the price hike. Does that DBX EQ still use RCA cables? I'm sitting on 3 or 4 good vintage EQs already.....
 
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