Going back to CDs - hi-fi player, kids’ bedroom ideas and storage?

CDs are Hipster now.

EDIT: That wasn't a very helpful response, was it? I'm actually interested in this topic. Streaming just seems to serve up my favourites that I used to own on CDs for a low, low, price of a tenner a month. Every month. For eternity.

I'd consider looking on local FB selling pages or on ebay for people getting rid of these types of systems. They always seem to be coming up for sale and they have very little value now, so you can get some real bargains.

Earlier this week, I saw one on our local FB selling page - a Sony Micro system with CD Player, DAB radio & speakers for £35.

Places like Argos, Currys etc. still sell all-in-one Hi-Fi systems & I suppose you might get BT connectivity & a USB port on those kinds of systems that you wouldn't get on an older 2nd hand unit.

Richer Sounds have some Denon/Marantz options which might be better quality if you are happy to pay a bit more.
They also have these all-in-one boxes made by Pure, which look pretty neat.

Pure Classic C-D6 (Coffee Black) | CD/Bluetooth/DAB+/FM Radio System | Richer Sounds

As above local FB Marketplace groups is the place to pick up some bargains - and many people give old all-in-one Hi-Fi's away.

If you want new, Currys have budget options...

https://www.currys.co.uk/tv-and-audio/speakers-and-hi-fi-systems/speakers/flat-panel-hifis_hifi-separates_traditional-hifis

Some of us never left them!

For a compact solution, the Denon Ceol N10 or N11 (or the almost identical Marantz MCR612) is hard to beat. Surprisingly good sound plus streaming if you need it, especially from a NAS. Easy to set up and mine has been faultless for the last 3 years or so.

For a nice system, when my 25 year old Cambridge Audio CD player finally broke last year I bought a secondhand Marantz CD player for £50 on ebay - its a CD6000 OSE and it was almost unused!

This I tend to play into an external dac/pre amp then into an amp. Currently using an SMSL dac which was about £150,  a douk audio tube based EQ and a Fosi ZA3 amp and the sound is quite incredible considering the whole lot was well under £500!

There are loads out there but prices are going up as more and more people are doing what you are doing.

If you go new then the denon midi systems are an excellent starting point.  I have one, its very good. I got mine with the bundled speakers but you can get it unit only and choose your own.

I run a record deck through it as well so you could in future get a turntable (it will need a pre amp, but it wont cost a fortune)

But basically anything in the best buy area is going to be lovely and last years and years

edit what winston said

The CD player is the easy bit, where do you want the sound to come out of?

E.g. with Sonos you could connect the CD Player to a Sonos Connect. You can even use a Raspberry Pi to create an internet radio station (accessible on only your wifi). You play back your CDs on this "station" https://github.com/maxvfischer/sonos-streaming

EDIT: in theory, the internet radio station concept shouldn't just be limited to playback on Sonos. Anything that can connect to the streaming server can play back the CD stream.

EDIT 2: I had the idea of ripping all of our CDs, and capturing their barcodes. Then to playback a CD you simply scan the barcode... stops the CDs wearing out

I'd recommend a second hand little Denon mini system e.g. rcd m39dab, I picked one up for about £70 with speakers. It also allows input so you could hook up a streamer (WIIM Mini) to it

Oh and get a Sub if you can, makes a big difference on smaller systems played a lower volumes

“The CD player is the easy bit, where do you want the sound to come out of?”

We have a Sonos Connect amp (hidden in an old radiogram which I put some balanced mode radiator drivers and ported enclosures into) and three Sonos One’s around the house. The kids have some Bluetooth speakers and old locked-down phones.

I’m not very good at software and digital tech but I run an amp and speaker company so turning line level electricity into audible sound is less of a problem (although our lowest power amp is 200W/ch…)

IKEA will have a storage solution. I use Kallax for my records. Maybe something like GNEDBY

I'd imagine that there are loads of 2nd hand bargains around for cd players / systems so that's where I'd probably look first.

Oh and get a Sub if you can

I think the OP makes them!

Lol! yes, I'd posted that before he said he made amps!

Rather than streaming, why not rip the cds to a hard disk and play the files off that, of which there are many solutions available. Or is it the physical media you like? Anyway, something else to consider.

100% with you OP, streaming is great but when corporate consolidation inevitably leaves us with just few massive providers and they no longer have to compete for users I'm fairly convinced we'll be seeing £100+ a month subscriptions for ad-free access to music or TV, a bit like how satellite TV used to be megabucks in the 80's and 90's when SKY was the only game in town.

My 'home office' set up is an Denon mini with a set of old B&W Solid bookshelf speakers and a much younger Q Acoustics Subwoofer, adding the sub made a whole world of difference.

As for 'going back' to CD's, some of us never left 🙂

These are whole load of Ikea GNEDBY's for reference.

We’re getting really sick of streaming life here.

Why?

IKEA will have a storage solution.

Billy.

Tangent CD player and amplifier from Richer Sounds. Not cheap but sound is decent. Suitably tiny. Or a used Denon.

https://www.richersounds.com/search.php?search_query=tangent&page=1&limits=12&sort=RELEVANCE

so the kids can discover music themselves

By forcing them to listen to your personal music collection? 😉

Isn‘t NAD so well known in UK?I was dreaming of a used c715D until I found out that it’s receiver only gets DAB and not DAB+ channels.

Changed to a nice compact YAMAHA MCR-N560D. Second hand for around 100€ and doing it’s job pretty well since 4 years (with Canton loudspeaker system): CD, Radio incl Internet Radio, USB -in and Spotify etc

Another that never left CDs. For storage, I made the decision to get rid of all the jewel cases and use DJ boxes with plastic sleeves that hold the CD and associated artwork. I've got DJ boxes holding about 2000 CDs. Saved a shed load of space.

TiRed

Full Member

Tangent CD player and amplifier from Richer Sounds. Not cheap but sound is decent. Suitably tiny.

I don't have the cd player but I have that amp... It's a great little amp to be fair.. And the sound quality is very good.

Also has a pre out of you decide to add a sub.

Has wireless but I just use it wired to my pc and TV

"I’ve got DJ boxes holding about 2000 CDs. Saved a shed load of space."

Be careful with those. I did that many years ago and when I went back to play them some of the plastic sleeves had reacted with the graphics on the CDs and bonded together. Specifically the CDs that had coloured pictures on them rather than the standard silver ones with writing. Had to chuck out a load of good CDs as I couldn't get them apart

Rather than streaming, why not rip the cds to a hard disk and play the files off that, of which there are many solutions available

This would be my approach. Put a NAS in a closet with all the CDs ripped to that, use something like Plex Media Server to serve them up to a tablet or laptop

I just use all three options - vinyl, CDs and streaming - they all have their place.

...but not cassettes - they were only of use in a car! 🙂

Yep Billy from Ikea here for CD/DVD/Blu-Ray storage. Probably need to get some more TBH. I like CD's apart from the fact that someone in my past has decided to not put the CD back in the case it came from but a different CD case. Results in a reverse trawl through the CD's to get the one you want.

They're mostly in order now but still a couple of rogue ones out there.

someone in my past has decided to not put the CD back in the case it came from but a different CD case.

I got an involuntary twitch in my left eye just reading that.

“ Or is it the physical media you like? ”

A big part of it is trying to stop interfacing through screens, especially on phones, for so much of our life.

A big part of it is trying to stop interfacing through screens

"Alexa, play some music."

“Alexa, play some music.”

And not wanting anything voice controlled.

And, to be honest, struggling to find the mental space to remember the music we want to listen to - compared to standing in front of our CD collection and scanning past the titles until inspiration strikes.

A big part of it is trying to stop interfacing through screens,

What if the screen just displayed little pictures that worked like buttons?

I just bought one of Denons CD dab players. What a fab little unit. One I bought has inputs for other players (minidisc!) - but also has Internet radio, dab and NAS connectivity. And you can control it from your phone if you so desire 🙂 Love it.

Bunch of em here

https://www.richersounds.com/search.php?search_query=denon%20dab&page=1&limits=12&sort=RELEVANCE

And not wanting anything voice controlled.

So basically, you just want things to be more awkward.

And, to be honest, struggling to find the mental space to remember the music we want to listen to – compared to standing in front of our CD collection and scanning past the titles until inspiration strikes.

I did this with cassettes. I had a drawer with like 200 albums in it. By the end the only purpose it served was as a catalogue, I'd open the drawer for inspiration, think "oh, I've not listened to [that] in ages" then go fire up Spotify to play it. Today I have Spotify playlists of "Alan's CDs" and "Alan's Cassettes." My tapes are all in landfill and most of my CDs are in a mate's attic.

“So basically, you just want things to be more awkward.”

We want things to be less “I want everything right here, right now” because I think its screwing up our brains, especially those with more plastic younger brains.

If anyone is struggling to understand my logic, it’s a bit like e-bikes vs normal bikes.

So basically, you just want things to be more awkward.

Not as awkward as you're being here though 😉

If anyone is struggling to understand my logic

I think I get it. It's more satisfying for me to rummage through my CDs than staring at Spotify waiting for inspiration.

Thread hijack, but is there a quick way of ripping CDs to MP3? Using Windows media player was taking 10-15 mins per CD for me, I started ripping my CD collection that lives in the loft but it soon got tiresome enough that I couldn't be bothered finishing the job.

Yes - dbPoweramp software. You get 2 weeks free then its about £60

I don't recommend EAC (Exact Audio Copy) unless you really like fiddling about with settings and it takes longer anyway.

We want things to be less “I want everything right here, right now” because I think its screwing up our brains, especially those with more plastic younger brains.

There is a little irony in saying this on an internet forum [winky emoji].

I think you might well be fighting a losing battle with the kids but God loves a trier!

And, to be honest, struggling to find the mental space to remember the music we want to listen to – compared to standing in front of our CD collection and scanning past the titles until inspiration strikes.

this absoluely. i absolutely hate spotify and their shitty playlists and scrolling on teh phone to get inspiration is just not the same.

i`ve recently just put 150cds in my van (as its the only working cd player) and its been absolutely amazing revisiting all teh albums i loved but forget about/probably arnt on spotify.
blue meanies/helios creed/GGFH/monsula/bosstones etc. happy days! (although i did try and listed to some Aphex twin after a long day when picking up kids abut that was a bit much!)

I've another 300 sat on a shelf to explore when i've gone through this lot haha!

gonna buy me one of them small CD/DAB things.

And not wanting anything voice controlled.

So basically, you just want things to be more awkward

I've ditched our Alexa because voice control is so awkward. Brain to finger to press a button/screen is much less cognitively complicated.

Media monkey for ripping CDs. All of mine are ripped lossless (as well as MP3) and a network drive for streaming, but I still like to play the physical CDs now and again. I've not had the bonding issue described above and it has been about 10 years since I DJ boxed my CDs.

I actually bought a CD last week! Must be the first time in 15 years. I’d been to see Memorials and bought their new album at the gig direct from Verity. It’s a great album, recommended.

my CD player (a TEAC mini system with DAB / FM / CD) is in the loft. Do I have to do anything special when I bring it down? E.g let it acclimatise in the house before switching it on?

Thread hijack, but is there a quick way of ripping CDs to MP3?

Just download the MP3 files from BitTorrent. You've paid the artist, someone else has volunteered to do the work for you.

Always used CDex

this absoluely. i absolutely hate spotify and their shitty playlists and scrolling on teh phone to get inspiration is just not the same.

I've discovered far more new music and artists through Spotify suggestions than I ever would without it and I don't even explore the rabbit holes as much as I should.

But then I don't often have the patience to sit through entire song after song on an album to decide if I like it or not.

Different strokes I suppose

I just picked up a nice Denon amp and Tannoy speakers on Gumtree for £130, a little present for my daughter along with a turntable come Christmas. I'm listening to CD's just now.

Today I have Spotify playlists of “Alan’s CDs” and “Alan’s Cassettes.”

Not sure everything I have will be on Spotify, but that's a simple but fine idea for carrying around one's collection when out and about.

I’ve discovered far more new music and artists through Spotify suggestions than I ever would without it

+1. Still nice to have the interaction with physical media now and again, so I totally get the OPs desire.

We are currently living in a golden age of online media availability where we can listen to or watch almost any piece of content we fancy for free or for a very reasonable subscription.

This was only made possible due to the threat of piracy, Bittorrent Napster etc, forcing the large media organisations to offer a reasonably inexpensive, convenient official alternative.

At that time most people also had large collections of physical media to fall back on.

As the Internet matures and the IP owners get better at cracking down on piracy, we will soon be in a position where most people own almost no physical media or the equipment to play it and are completely reliant on paying a subscription to access the art that enriches thier lives.

Spotify Premium is 11.99 a month currently, that is very reasonable.

I have zero faith that it will stay that way once it or a similar service becomes the only game in town.

Not to mention the recent boom in artists selling out their back catalogue for mega bucks to investment companies - I can't see that ending well for the streaming consumer when the investors demand a return.

So, OP, I get you.

About a decade ago I had a ÑAS and Sonos but moved house and had no internet for a month. I dug out my Denon mini hi-fi cd player thing and decided I much preferred the physicality of selecting and changing cd’s (and listening to whole albums!) as opposed to setting up week long playlists and autorepeating…

Never looked back.

I replaced the Denon with a Marantz (CR611 or something?) and that lets me stream Apple Music (through my ipad or iPhone via Bluetooth, it probably allows direct streaming but you know, when I want) but mostly I play cd’s. Because I have boxes of the things (30 years worth I’d guess). And because sometimes I want to play a specific version of a track). Marantz noticably better sound quality (and bluetooth!) but twice the price so understandable.

But that is a mini-hifi set up with bookshelf speakers (15 yo Missions). Had Tannoys for the denon.

If you were on the Black Isle/local I’d lend you the denon/tannoys 😀

If it wasn’t such a pfaff I’d post a photo. But then you’d see all the k-pop merch and dismiss my opinion…

Streaming killed the mix CD (for dance music and the like)

So the Denon DM41 DAB desperatebicycle linked to is the updated version of mine (DM39 or 40 perhaps?).

It now has bluetooth so would give the same functionality of my Marantz CR job. £250 (and some speakers) well worth the punt I’d say. Doesn’t take up too much space either (well the unit, speakers always require some form of real estate…)

When you do fancy streaming (on the odd occasion, you know to try something new out before buying the cd, or its not available on cd yet like the new Rosie, Lisa or the Illit ‘comeback’ fer instance 😀 ) its so much better through proper speakers (IMHO).

I also understand the desire to do this.

Some time ago I ripped about 1000 or so CDs to a NAS and played from there all over the house.

Then got a more serious hifi in my office space and decided I wanted the CDs out.

Also got a turntable so went really mad.

Now, I still use Amazon music and play music through Wiim devices that streams from the NAS, but at least the CDs and LPs are on display. Although I do control the audio in general through an ipad on my desk, not my phone. Maybe there is a similar thought process going on to the OP in some basic level.

That said, our granddaughter loves coming in, choosing a CD and putting it in the player for a quick dance  - which is worth the trouble alone.

And I love my e-bike.

It now has bluetooth

I've looked at a couple of reviews and even on the Denon website and it doesn't state what codec, just 'Bluetooth', so I'm guessing it's just a basic one. If that matters to you

Not sure everything I have will be on Spotify, but that’s a simple but fine idea for carrying around one’s collection when out and about.

The CDs unavailable via Spotify I kept. Excluding singles it's one shelf of a Billy bookcase, something like 30-35 discs I suppose, down from half a wallful.

Streaming killed the mix CD (for dance music and the like)

Every cloud, I suppose. 🙂

For smaller rooms those little Denon units are just fantastic, my one is ancient but still just keeps on trucking.

It's not a patch on the Naim XS/Linn big system I run my vinyl through but thats a whole other level of faff and expense.

I ripped all our CD’s to FLAC a few years back, put them on an external drive and installed PlexAmp on our home PC, mainly because I had quite a few niche and mix CD’s, not available on the streaming services.
It’s great, as there are Plex client apps for almost any device and we can stream from anywhere in the world. You can always buy a streamer/DAC component for hifi, if you want to go down that route too.
For us, it’s the best of both worlds, being able to browse our music collection in much the same way we would if it was physically on display, but also has the benefit of being able to arrange and sort in a different ways for browsing, and create playlist by mood etc, which is difficult to do with physical CD’s.

In part I get this as there is a more tactile experience in the artwork and presentation of a CD, some artists made a real effort. And because of the investment in a physical item there was always the full, dedicated first play. The search for something and rediscovering something else on the shelf (unless you put them in alphabetical order like my dad).

However the collection hasn't really moved on since 2010 when streaming brought more choice right now for less than a CD a month. So now it lives in storage.

Back to the OP, have a small system with CD, DAB tuner and aux for music player in my kids room, an Onkyo off freecycle similar to the Denon and Marantz mentioned above with some small bookshelf speakers for a tenner off Marketplace.

In our main room we have a Yamaha CD tuner network player to still play the 100 or so favourite CD's that didn't go into storage. Rarely used though, just some friends self published music.

Although I do control the audio in general through an ipad on my desk, not my phone

I've just bought a £100 8" tablet to solely sit on my desk. Stuck a quad lock mount on and it sits nicely next to my monitor on a stand.

Only apps I have on the home screen are Tidal and Spotify to use the connect controls.

Something I've noticed (and confirmed on the Spotify website) is that you can't control the audio quality to your streaming device through connect - high/very high etc are greyed out and it defaults to Automatic, so I have no idea what quality is going to my Active speakers

There is a workaround where I open Spotify on the computer and maximise settings, send it to the speakers via analogue, shrink that and still use the tablet for control. That means I'm using the PC DAC rather than the speakers though but that's probably a small difference

Tidal is fine, can use that to set to Max/FLAC through the connect app

There is more to this shit than just the tactile experience, for me I just can’t get my head around the interfaces properly (and when I do they go and ****ing change it up).

I actually find the way Sonos and Apple Music ‘organise’ things to be counterintuitive and messes with my brain. Instead of expanding my choice it actually affects my choice. I know that might sound a little crazy but I probably have executive dysfunction issues (i need periods of hyperfocus to get to grips with things sometimes).

And then there is the issue of the non-logical organisation of albums/tracks that whatever the system algorhythm decides to put it. For me the classic(al) examples are 4 organs (a Steve Reich composition). The album isn’t called 4 organs and its by the Kronos Quartet (I’d ‘group’ the cds together regardless, i.e. by composer…). Similar issues with trying to find Arvo Part albums… how the **** am I supposed to remember the ‘artist’ when its an Eastern European conductor and ensemble that I didn’t really take note of when adding it to the library).

And then there is the case of you add a specific album to your library but when you play it back its a different version from the one you’re expecting (and the icon it shows is completely unknown - the US version PerhaPs?).

Or there’s a version of 5446 is my number by Toots that I prefer (off a Don Letts Trojan comp iirc) but I can’t find it in the library…. I can Put my hand on that specific cd immediately…

Sonos messed with my mind, I just couldn’t use it so I junked it (and I have tried to give the speakers away but people keep giving me them back!

CDs gave ‘control’ back pure and simple.

Ands as for discovering new music I’ve actually found more via the likes of Gee Derrick (via IG) and Amoeba’s What’s in my bag (on YouTube) than any rec from a streaming app… When I Play music, its what I want to hear, I need that choice (and why I can’t listen to the radio) 🙂

Re. Voice activated, no way! You don’t need a tinfoil hat to not want to feather Bozos’ nest (and the data/whatever intrusions). And someone else already observed, pressing a button isn’t really that hard. It’s not convenience, its just being lazy… <upside down smiley imojo here Please> 😀

apologies for the random P’s but lower case ones active the ****ing STW video for some reason…

I have no idea what quality is going to my Active speakers

If you can't tell the difference then it doesn't matter.

If you can’t tell the difference then it doesn’t matter.

Well....

The difference between Tidal and Spotify is clear to hear

And I THINK the analogue fed version of Spotify sounds better than the non adjustable WiFi version, but it could just be the placebo effect.

You're right, it matters not too much - if I want my music to sound the best I use Tidal, but, you know....

I have a Denon DM41 DAB and I am very pleased with it

there was a question earlier about the Bluetooth codec

this is from the manual:

This unit supports the following Bluetooth profiles.

A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) :
When a Bluetooth device that supports this standard is connected,monaural and stereo sound data can be streamed at a high quality.

AVRCP (Audio/Video Remote Control Profile) :When a Bluetooth device that supports this standard is connected, the Bluetooth device can be operated from this unit

I don’t know enough about this to know if this is better than “basic”

Left it too long to edit the above:

Anyhow, further on in the manual it says that it uses Bluetooth 4.0 and the codecs are AAC and SBC and the supported profiles are A2DP 1.3 AVRCP  1.5

Just had the realisation that as tech advances people will have fewer and fewer tangible artefacts from their past, CDs, DVDs, photos, books, newspapers. Ok maybe that means less junk, but you're not going to find a dusty old Spotify playlist in your loft.

“Alexa, play some music.”

And not wanting anything voice controlled.

And, to be honest, struggling to find the mental space to remember the music we want to listen to – compared to standing in front of our CD collection and scanning past the titles until inspiration strikes.

Having sat listening to friends trying to get bloody Alexa to actually do anything approaching what they were asking it to do, and desperately trying not to smirk out loud, I refuse to use  any voice control, no matter how smart it’s supposed to be! I’ve got thousands of tracks in my Apple Music library on my phone, downloaded as albums, with a fair number of singles and EP’s, and instead of standing staring at racks of CD’s, all I do is scroll down the list of artists and pick whatever takes my fancy or inspiration. I don’t stream, as such, and generally I listen through headphones so I don’t disturb next door.

My headphones are passive cabled Røde NTH-100 studio cans, with a Fiio KA5 DAC plugged into my iPhone. Everything on there is Lossless as well.
I’m seriously considering getting a pair of HomePods just to have the option of not using my cans, my aged audio system is having more and more issues, so that would be a cheaper option, and my iPad is now over six years old, so I’m hoping to get a new iPad with 2Tb of storage, so that will be my music source and I can plug my ‘phones into that instead of the phone.

And while Siri is allegedly getting a lot smarter with the new AI/LLM capabilities, there’s “struggling to find the mental space to remember the music we want to listen to”, which is why I like being able to lay on my couch while scrolling down through a list of artists names or album covers “until inspiration strikes”!

Just had the realisation that as tech advances people will have fewer and fewer tangible artefacts from their past, CDs, DVDs, photos, books, newspapers. Ok maybe that means less junk, but you’re not going to find a dusty old Spotify playlist in your loft.

We will all mourn the death of nostalgia.

Just had the realisation that as tech advances people will have fewer and fewer tangible artefacts from their past, CDs, DVDs, photos, books, newspapers. Ok maybe that means less junk, but you’re not going to find a dusty old Spotify playlist in your loft.

Absolutely.

I had kept my CD collection mainly from inertia, but now I'm playing it again I'm appreciating it as part of my life. And I don't want to be tied to one streaming service or have to create multiple playlists.

Streaming killed the mix CD (for dance music and the like)

Good point. It's all Soundcloud or Youtube now, for me.