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I’m considering getting a half decent CD player - perhaps a Marantz CD6007.  Highly rated, decent DAC, looks good - what’s not to like.  My only speakers are my Sonos - Five / Play:5 in a fairly inaccessible location in the kitchen, Beam 2 / Sub / 2 x Symfonysk lights as my TV surround in the living room, and 1’s dotted around the house.

What’s the best way to connect the CD player?  Logically the answer is the Port, but I see people say a Five is “just as good” an option.  it’s just mines are high up and  not necessarily in the right room to listen or run a 3.5mm cable to!

At some point I’d perhaps consider Era 300’s for the living room, though (and this is tragic) the fact the Symfonisk’s are decent side lights is actually one of the draws to keeping the Symfonisks, and I’d need new lights to replace them, and have to figure out how to fit both Era’s and replacement lights on to very small tables.  As I said, tragic, first world, stupid problems! 🤣   

What do you think my best option is?  (and no, ripping isn’t it - I have no means to rip as I don’t have any other CD player, and… I don’t want to!  Or maybe I do, but in slower time, and retaining the ability to listen to the actual source CD)

And do I need any other kit??

(I’m unlikely to get a turntable as have no vinyl)  

 

A port would do it.  However, so would an Era 100 with the line-in dongle, at a far less price.

Note that analog input is disabled for speakers configured as surrounds.

I realize that there is some allure for handling physical media, but not for me.

Ripping is no longer the onerous project that it once was. There are metadata (artwork, artist, title, etc.) databases that do all the hard work. Basically, it’s drop-in a disc and click. In a few minutes the disc tray will open and you are ready for the next disc.

In the past, for large collections, I’ve lashed up a few computers and circulated between them feeding discs. I could rip about 30 discs per hour. I could probably top that now with faster computers. For a few discs, I’ll just stack the CD’s nearby and multitask the ripping process. It hardly impacts my workflow.

In terms of cost differential, compare the cost of a CD player plus whichever SONOS box you settle on with the cost of a USB based CD drive if you no longer have a computer with a drive. You would also need a NAS drive or memory stick, depending on your network. Or, you could just store files on a computer, but this is not my preference.

Note that analog input is disabled for speakers configured as surrounds.

I realize that there is some allure for handling physical media, but not for me.

Ripping is no longer the onerous project that it once was. There are metadata (artwork, artist, title, etc.) databases that do all the hard work. Basically, it’s drop-in a disc and click. In a few minutes the disc tray will open and you are ready for the next disc.

In the past, for large collections, I’ve lashed up a few computers and circulated between them feeding discs. I could rip about 30 discs per hour. I could probably top that now with faster computers. For a few discs, I’ll just stack the CD’s nearby and multitask the ripping process. It hardly impacts my workflow.

In terms of cost differential, compare the cost of a CD player plus whichever SONOS box you settle on with the cost of a USB based CD drive if you no longer have a computer with a drive. You would also need a NAS drive or memory stick, depending on your network. Or, you could just store files on a computer, but this is not my preference.

Oh. believe me, I completely get it.  I’ve got all of that, I’ve got probably 48tb of NAS space, over a tb of ripped music in various bitrates, Plex, (will have a look at Plexamp) and I might even have an old USB CD drive lying around if I can find it and if I don’t, I know they’re not expensive (though no in-built CD drives in any of my systems any more) if I want to rip anything I don’t already have.  

But my wife won’t use any of it.  Frankly, for her, there is nowt as simple as a CD player to play an album from start to finish.   

So 2 x Era 100s and a CD player ordered.  If only the dongle was in stock, eh?  Maybe I’ll swap out the Play 5s and use those with the CD player, and put the Eras in the kitchen.    

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