CD player - not repairable confirmed - what to do next

[rmcin626]

No suggestions on which Streamer to choose?

[Stratmangler]

Doubt it, I had BT Broadband for years and before that 02 and Sky, rarely an issue with any of them although I've now moved to Virgin cable because BT speeds were/are pish for a modern home but it still worked.

When I had a BT line I had cause to call them out to fix it on at least 7 or 8 occasions.

The pole from which the service was fed is in the open on a hillside, and when there was a combination of heavy rain and high wind water used to get blown up into the connection box on the pole, which in turn would get across the connections and have current passed through it, and over the course of a few such incidents there would be a noticeable build up off copper sulphate sludge, which would make for a poor and noisy line connection, which in turn would cause my broadband service to fail.

When the pole was installed some dopey sod didn't think of sticking the connection box on the opposite side to the windward side.
It didn't help that my line was on pair 20, which is closest to the aperture at the bottom of the connection box.

The annoying thing is that when I reported the problem, each time I was told it would be 7-10 days before an engineer could turn up.
When one eventually did turn up (first time round), the engineer traced it back to the pole, but not before replacing the dropwire between the pole and the house. It was only when terminating the new cable that he found the copper sulphate sludge over the screw terminals and the bare wire ends of the original dropwire - he brought what he'd found down to show me.

From then on I always made sure that I was around whenever I had a BT engineer coming to fix the fault, told them where the problem was likely to be, and saved them a whole load time fault finding.
Except for the last time, when the guy decided to ignore my advice, and managed to extend a 5 minute job into a couple of hours, first of all cutting my neighbour's service off, then giving me the neighbour's line - it was fucking hilarious NOT! Anyway, once he'd managed to get the line service back into the appropriate dwellings, the line noise issue was still on mine, so he got the big ladder off the top of the van, got on his PPE, went up the pole, and found exactly what I'd told him he'd find, repaired it in the manner I'd told him it would need repairing in, and bingo, problem was gone.
The BT Engineer was gone bloody quick too, after I'd given him a flea in the ear. Two hours wasted, and he could have been done and on his way in five bloody minutes

[Stratmangler]

From the same source as what? You've only got to look on the DR Database to see that many re-issues have a far lower DR. It maybe that the streaming service offers the less compressed mastering but there's no guarantee of that, and if their version of the album is one that has been dynamically compressed then you've no option. I'm not talking about lossy or lossless here, that's a different thing altogether. But you know that.

You're on about something else altogether.

Pick a current album on Spotify.
Buy the CD of the same in the supermarket, or on Amazon.
They will be from the same master.

[Macca]

You're on about something else altogether.

Pick an album on Spotify.
Buy the CD of the same in the supermarket, or on Amazon.
They will likely as not be from the same master.

Because the cd in Tesco or Amazon is the latest version. If I'm buying a cd I try to get the original release from the 1980s. Okay, that's not always possible but that's the only way to have control over what mastering you are listening to.

[twotone]

No suggestions on which Streamer to choose?

Aurilac or that node thing seems to be the weapons of choice these days but I'm using an old Denon streamer which cost me £199 about four years ago and it is brilliant but I don't stream from any of the music services.

I also stream from my MacBook Pro (doing that right now) and my iPhone.

There's also that other thing (innous zen) that rips and stores your CDs and has a Dac onboard too but I think it's about £1000 looks good though.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Innuos-Mini...GSCNR1J4G64R91

[Stratmangler]

Because the cd in Tesco or Amazon is the latest version

Correct!
Now the other year I bought an album by John Patitucci



It came out in 2015.
The mastering on Spotify and on the CD is one and the same.
On Spotify is has been subject to lossy encoding.
On Spotify it sounds very good, but the CD, and the lossless rip I actually play, sound noticeably better.

The remainder of your post speaks volumes about your music listening habits.
Granted, you mention the issue of dynamic compression, but that's a side issue.
What if the OP doesn't listen to music from the 1980s?

[rmcin626]

A lot of my vinyl is from the 70’s and 80’s, the cds are from the last 30 years at the moment I downloaded from Apple Music play through my MacBook Pro to my dac and amp.

[mikmas]

No suggestions on which Streamer to choose?

The Innuous Zen Mini gets a good press recently ... available new at around £700
https://blog.audiot.co.uk/blog/2016/...d-music-server

There is also the Brennan B2 which for some reason I keep getting popups for:
https://www.brennan.co.uk
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brennan-B2-...rds=brennan+b2

It's basically a Raspberry Pi based ripper and streamer with built in HDD - cost less than Innuous but no idea about dependability

I think you can use both for CD playing as well ....

Personally I just use my Mac Mini with a DAC

[willbewill]

Because the cd in Tesco or Amazon is the latest version. If I'm buying a cd I try to get the original release from the 1980s. Okay, that's not always possible but that's the only way to have control over what mastering you are listening to.

I have 4 versions of Sgt Peppers on my Vortexbox:

Original 1967 - ripped from CD
2009 remaster - ripped from CD
50th Anniversary - ripped from CD
50th Anniversary, deluxe Hi-Res

they all sound different, I tend to play the 1967 (because I know it best) and the deluxe (because it is very different)

[rmcin626]

The Innuous Zen Mini gets a good press recently ... available new at around £700
https://blog.audiot.co.uk/blog/2016/...d-music-server

There is also the Brennan B2 which for some reason I keep getting popups for:
https://www.brennan.co.uk
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brennan-B2-...rds=brennan+b2

It's basically a Raspberry Pi based ripper and streamer with built in HDD - cost less than Innuous but no idea about dependability

I think you can use both for CD playing as well ....

Personally I just use my Mac Mini with a DAC

The Zen mini was my list to look at