CD upgrade.

I would look away from ANY CD player and towards a DAC.

I mean ditch the spinning disc totally. Ripping your CDs in with DbPoweramp as FLAC (24/96 or higher), and playing through a DAC (with an iPad), will result in better sound. I am using a LINN Akurate DS with an iPad and 24/192 WAV files. You would be hard pressed to find a CD player under $10k that would beat this sound.

I have a LINN Akurate CD running 24/96 and 24/192 FLAC or WAV and I access my entire library from my iPad. The files were ripped off CDs that I owned, borrowed from friends or checked out from the library. I used DbPowermap (either free or stupid cheap, I forget), to rip the CDs in.

The fact you are missing Tomcy6 is that it is the playback that makes the difference. When you stream just data from a server (NAS) or your PC to the LINN DS unit, then let the DS do the clock and D to A work, you have a SIGNIFICANT advantage over almost any CD player made. It is not a subtle difference. The salesman at the dealer here in AZ are comparing the LINN Akurate DS to CD players at the $20k level.

Understand this: once you take out the entire spinning disc, jitter, laser, power supply, etc. that is in EVERY CD player, you have made a serious leap in sound quality.

For anyone wishing to reply...do not speak on the subject unless you have actually heard a DS in comparison. I do not mean an Olive unit either... or any unit playing off a laptop via USB or other connection - THIS IS NOT THE SAME THING.

A LINN Akurate DS I meant...

I bought the Akurate DS as demo ($5,500), normally $7,500 I think retail, the NAS w/ 3TB drive was about $350, the iPad was $350. Router is just a std. wireless router I already had setup. You do not even really "need" a separate NAS... you could put the music files on your main PC, however that PC would have to be on in order to access the music when you want to listen. That is why I wanted a "dedicated" NAS setup.

The dealer in AZ is L&M Home Entertainment.

And I agree that a person just wanting to "dabble" with a discless setup and someone not wanting to get rid of their CD collection yet should not drop a ton of coin into it. This setup of mine was to replace my CD player and CD collection of around 750 CD's.

Setup was done by my LINN dealer, but once I saw it done, it is not complicated.

No, just a fan. Go troll somewhere else, unless you have a comment about this subject.

I thought my Raysonic tube CD player was one of the best out there for the money...

No, I had the older CD-128 I think it was. Now, they have the CD-168. I paid under $2k for my CD-128 new, w/ warranty. Excellent player for the money.