[mcatterall10@hotmail.com]

I have endless cd’s sitting in boxes taking up space and I miss listening to all that carefully curated varied music. With everything available on streaming I find myself listening ironically to a much smaller range of music as I put on what comes into my head so I get stuck in a rut. Is it worth attaching a cd player to my 28s/theatre (other than for nostalgia)? Would sound quality be better/worse? I’m using Deezer for most streaming, have high speed internet and will soon get round to hard wiring the speakers to the internet. Sound quality is paramount for me. Time for a cd revival or time for a bonfire?

[Ianc2]

I am in the same position , but having sold the Oppo bluray I now have no way of even playing CDs, other than using the Macs in the music room and having sound on the network .
As those things eat electricity , and I’m allways forgetting to turn off , so recently I’ve been looking at a naim core .
As well as b&o , we have a couple of naim streaming speakers in the house so I’m sure it would be easy to link to them .
Not sure how to integrate it to b&o , or even if I should ….
It is a combined server and ripper/player , and once I’ve ripped all mine it will simply be an overpriced storage device as it’s much easier to stream than play a cd ….

I think a few hours ripping CDs in the music room and using a cheaper network storage device could be a better option , but I’ve yet to look into the software needed to run the library & if the Mac’s would need to be permantly on to use that software .
Hopefully the naim and b&o apps or Apple Music could access the library from phone/ipad .

[YannChris]

I was also in the same case and solved the problem as follows:

• Use of a NAS as dedicated multimedia storage (QNAP TS-251), the music library is managed in the NAS with the built-in softwares.
• Ripping all my cds to the NAS in FLAC format (using dBpoweramp software),
• Digitizing my LPs (using an USB soundcard and Audacity),
• First added Core to my setup as player,
• Then changed the Core for a Wiim Pro Plus with digital connexion to my beolabs.

As my Beolabs are pre-Mozart ones, the Wiim app on a phone/tablet gives acess to music, streaming services (a plus vs Core as I use Qobuz) and net radios. Only downside: volume control is done in the B&O App.

As BL28s have digital inputs and built-in renderer, you could have full control through the B&O app.

Kind regards,

Yann

[Mark]

I have a large CD collection of great variety dating back to the mid 1980’s. I still buy CDs and rip them into my iTunes library and listen to them from there, I rarely listen to them on my Oppo player anymore.

The matter of sound quality differences is highly controversial, but I don’t think it really matters much because we tend to adapt to what we have if we are enjoying it. Is CD better than a streamed version, would the music sound better coming from Beolab 50’s over my 18’s and 19? I very much enjoy my music on my Theatre/18’s/19 so in the end that’s all that matters.

While I have a huge variety of music, there is a lot I don’t listen to (much) anymore, I tend to favor my newer favorites.

I have a Beogram 8002 connected to my Theatre, I don’t use it that often because it does take more work to find an album, clean it, play a side, flip it over, clean it, and play the other side, but I do enjoy that on occasion, especially if I have someone over. If you have the capability to connect your CD player, you may not use it often but there may be occasions that you do enjoy it.

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