CD upgrade.

Thanks the the replies, guys. Audiofreak, any suggestions on dac? Can any cd player be used that has an optical output be used as a dac? I have in storage an old marantz cd 63 ki. i recall from my days of using it, it would even read the most scratched cd without problems, something the droplet doesnt do if the cd is sufficiently scratched. i suppose the marantz would have its limitations in this regard too. would a dac be able to play computer audio ( mp3, flac) with the sound quality a high quality cd player? i want something really good sounding that i can use for a few years. Anyone have further suggest for a really nice sounding cd player> Thank you.

Audio freak, thanks for the pointers, and thank you tomcy6.i appreciate the responses. And thanks to others too.

is the linn akurate ds very expensive? my budget is around 3k pounds ( British pounds).

During research i came across a product - Olive music servers.
anyone have experience with this kind of product? their claims are very high.

it does seem cd might be phasing out in years to come.

Thanks.

I just read that Olive claims 250 times the resolution of cd!
How can this be possible when surely there is no music file with 250 times the data that is present on a commercial cd let alone a flac or mp3, direct or burnt to an audio cdr? am i missing something here? Seems like high claim that has no truth in it whatsoever , designed to make sales? am i wrong?
Thank you kindly

Hi. no problem. Consider closed. Thank you for all those that contributed and provided some useful pointers.

Thank you, tomcy6 for the response. it is very much appreciated. I actually prefer cd playback. Would a transport and separate dac be a good idea? i dont want to actually stop spinning discs at this point. am i right in thinking the dac would serve me when i actually take the step to computer audio so would withstand that change in the future? Any ideas on a really good dac? perhaps i could use my droplet or marantz as a transport for the time being? i was looking into dacs a while ago and came across a benchmark in a shop. i could not for one moment imagine why it has the reputation it has. it sounded very ordinary, like a upper budget cd player. Any 3k ( pounds) dacs that can really deliver? Thank you.

Thank you, Tomcy6. yes, i did research the AMR 77 and the Esoteric xo3 se,a Marantz flagship model and others. I appreciate that no one can pinpoint how a particular player will sound with my kit. However , i really appreciate the pointers.

Thank you all.

Hi all, thanks for all the useful information. I very much appreaciate all the pointers and have been investigating options suggested.
Anyone able to recommend cd players with digital input that i could investigate further? Ive been considering the Gamut cd3, but it appears that player does not have input. During my research , i came accross a product by a Korean company- Stello-. It has good reviews but it seems reviews are rarely bad for any product. the player i came accross has digital input so can be used with a laptop and has good build quality ( according to review i read). Anyone have anything to say about stollo cd players? Sorry for all the enquiries and appreciate the responses. Thank you kindly.

Audiofreak32. which model is that, please. is that the cd 22, the one with a separate power supply? Thank you.

Hi all. Do any of you know about the AMR 77 cd player. While seraching the net i came across a preowned one at 3.5k pounds. Is this near what its worth? Would this be a substantial upgrade to my Droplet player, or just slightly better? I dont really pay much attention to professional reviews.

It has XLR outputs but is not balanced.

I understand these are now about five years old now? Anyone comment on the reliability of a player this age. I have a musical fidelity a3 in a second system and that still works perfectly after 10 years of use. However there is hardly anything inside it!

Thank you.

Chayro. i too thought it was a bit on the harsh side, but thats ok, no offence taken.

I too have been on the audio journey and have experienced some costly mistakes. My largest being the trashing of a 3 month pass x350 power amp because i did not understand subwoofer connections, destroying a 3k subwoofer to in the process to just makes things even worse. A 2k pounds mod to a cd player that was returned dead and the modder didnt want to know. Endless cd upgrades . ive sold on so much mid fi , next to nothing literally and even given some away, but thats fine as im glad that some teenagers/ young men somewhere thinks its the best kit in the world. I did too, when i had a technics cd player that cost 80 pounds, many years ago!

ive gone down that expensive journey and if anyone wanted to learn from my mistakes, im more than willing to guide.
To ask a few comparisons and views is surely not
unreasonable and clearly products differ in performance. it is not possible to hear every single product and in order to create a shortlist, views are helpful. If anyone wanted to know how Zingali speakers sound, i could tell them and could make a cross reference to speakers such as mid priced Monitor Audio, because i have both in my home. Now that comparison would be useful to somebody going from mid fi to more serious speakers.

Im very grateful for every suggestion here and actually investigated the first response, which was yours, fully. I have looked into each and every product mentioned by all the very helpful posters here.

Thank you kindly