Question

Which CD player with radio (ideally bluetooth as well) to connect to Sonos system

  • 14 November 2016
  • 15 replies
  • 2528 views

Hey, I want to connect a CD player with radio into a PLAY 5 2nd Gen (line-in)- which player to get??
Ideally would have bluetooth, should come without speakers, and amp function not needed as connecting to Sonos system.
Does not have to be top tier machine.
Thoughts?
Thanks,
Brian

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15 replies

Main thought, why? Rip your cds, play them on Sonos directly, listen to internet radio directly. I can't see the point of buying Sonos if you're just going to use other gear for doing everything Sonos already does.
Absolutely 100% with @The LHC. What are you thinking about!? It would be irresponsible for anyone on here to recommend that you buy any CD player.
Peace! I get you. I have just bought 4 speakers (2 Play 5s and 2 Play 1s) and am new to Sonos, in the last 2 weeks, have not had time to fully review all functions.
20 year old equipment retired to make way for Sonos. I have a lot of old CDs, and very limited free time to rip 100's of CDs.
OK!! But it doesn't take that long. Do a few a day while you are doing something else on your PC. In the meantime, take a subscription to a streaming service like Google Play Music, and you may lose your desire to rip those CDs anyway. (Although unless you go for lossless streaming like Deezer Elite, you may prefer the audio quality of lossless rips.... if you can really hear the difference.)

In terms of control and convenience, it is so much easier to use Sonos with music files than with physical CDs and a line-in.

If you do go for ripping, consider spending the money for the CD player on a NAS drive instead, to store the music.

There are also ripping services, which will rip your entire collection, and that might be worth checking out.
very limited free time to rip 100's of CDs.
The 80/20 rule is your friend; over 80% of the time, you listen to less than 20% of your CDs. Start the ripping project with that 20%, and then review, based on a better understanding of all Sonos can do, the need to rip the rest.
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I think it is rather negative to dismiss anyone's desire to continue to use CDs or radio, just because Sonos can do it all as ripped tracks.

Sonos create devices with line-ins/outs so that it can be an all encompassing system, and there have been issues with internet (Tunein) radio not working consistently on Sonos, especially with BBC stations in the UK.

Some people still enjoy the thrill of holding a CD or a vinyl album, and being able to read the notes or lyrics, without having to stare at a computer screen.

My system allows me to link to radios record player, CD player, and iPods- it is a matter of choice, but I am not going to be throwing my CDs, radio or vinyl out.
I think it is rather negative to dismiss anyone's desire to continue to use CDs or radio, just because Sonos can do it all as ripped tracks.

It isn't meant to come across that way; many of us are simply sharing our experience of Sonos and how quickly it has obsoleted our CD players - even expensive ones - and CDs. This might be useful input for someone contemplating buying a new CD player while new to Sonos. If it isn't, it is easily ignored:-)
And internet reliability issues don't affect CDs ripped to a NAS.
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I think it is rather negative to dismiss anyone's desire to continue to use CDs or radio, just because Sonos can do it all as ripped tracks.

It isn't meant to come across that way; many of us are simply sharing our experience of Sonos and how quickly it has obsoleted our CD players - even expensive ones - and CDs. This might be useful input for someone contemplating buying a new CD player while new to Sonos. If it isn't, it is easily ignored:-)
And internet reliability issues don't affect CDs ripped to a NAS.


Apologies if my comment came across as a bit aggressive- most definitely not my intention.

But I just felt it worth sharing my experience, where Sonos has re-invigorated my desire to fully integrate all parts of my system, and has such increased my use of CDs, rather than reduced that use.

Wifi reliability would effect any music if the reliability of the wifi signal is poor- I live in an area where wifi reliability is poor, so regularly have issues with internet radio, and drop outs of sound.

My post is easily ignore 🙂
There's room on here for different views. My first post was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but sometimes the tone gets lost. I do think that in this case the OP was new to Sonos, and in danger of going down what was probably the wrong route for him.

Wifi reliability would effect any music if the reliability of the wifi signal is poor- I live in an area where wifi reliability is poor, so regularly have issues with internet radio, and drop outs of sound.

A response more for the OP/general future audience benefit: The quoted is a very good reason to have a local NAS that CDs are ripped to before storage/disposal, because storing them on cloud based services will not be a good idea in such a situation.
And Wifi has two parts to it - the internet signal that comes to the home, and the network that distributes it wirelessly in the home. Sonos can work with a local NAS without the first being reliable, but needs the latter to be so unless one can run ethernet wires in the home to each Sonos unit present. But one does not have to depend on any external service provider to obtain a reliable wireless distribution of the signal inside the home, unless the home itself is constructed in a way that is a challenge to WiFi signal propagation.
has such increased my use of CDs, rather than reduced that use.

And in direct response, while I understand the attraction of being able to handle the CD and read the liner notes, my experience is just the opposite. Or more correctly, it is the same as yours, but is so because I no longer use CDs, only their ripped content, and here is why:
In my case the 80/20 rule worked very powerfully when I used CDs - indeed over half my collection may not have seen use for years! Simply because there were so many CDs, that it was easy for these to physically stay out reach and out of circulation.
Once I had finished the process of ripping all of them to a NAS - about 1500 CDs - it was easy to access any of these effortlessly. One way that I use their content now is to make playlists of these by genre. Once the playlist is loaded, and random shuffle is selected, over time, every CD will be automatically played if, as I do, the loaded playlist is never deleted. I merely use the start/stop button every day on the playlist.
By the way, my ripping project started some years before I bought into Sonos - for having access to the CD content on my iPod, so it wasn't a one time major effort to be done just because Sonos came into the home.
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I think there are two types if Sonos user (there maybe more): 1) those that purchased Sonos to allow them to play music in ever room and 2)those who want to have that facility plus the need or desire to have CDs and vinyl replaced and fully convert to digital and streamed sourced.

So, just for balance, I thought it worthwhile making the OP aware of the first as an option, as I didn't think it clear from their post what their direction of travel was going to be.
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has such increased my use of CDs, rather than reduced that use.

And in direct response, while I understand the attraction of being able to handle the CD and read the liner notes, my experience is just the opposite. Or more correctly, it is the same as yours, but is so because I no longer use CDs, only their ripped content, and here is why:
In my case the 80/20 rule worked very powerfully when I used CDs - indeed over half my collection may not have seen use for years! Simply because there were so many CDs, that it was easy for these to physically stay out reach and out of circulation.
Once I had finished the process of ripping all of them to a NAS - about 1500 CDs - it was easy to access any of these effortlessly. One way that I use their content now is to make playlists of these by genre. Once the playlist is loaded, and random shuffle is selected, over time, every CD will be automatically played if, as I do, the loaded playlist is never deleted. I merely use the start/stop button every day on the playlist.
By the way, my ripping project started some years before I bought into Sonos - for having access to the CD content on my iPod, so it wasn't a one time major effort to be done just because Sonos came into the home.


Kumar,

Fully understand what you are saying.- I too have ripped the vast majority of my CDs, originally to iTunes, and now also accessed by Sonos. And, I have hundreds of playlists that are regularly run and enjoyed. Like you, this has been a project that I have been involved in for any years prior to Sonos.

But equally, that doesn't mean I am going to get rid of my collection of CD or vinyl because, as a collector, I want a physical manifestation of the music, especially for some of the major artists that I like. It's far more important to me to have a CD or vinyl album of my favourite artists, that it is to have that as a digital track.

My pleasure is more in playing the physical, that there is also the added flexibility of playing the digital for convenience.

As ever, there is never a one size fits all approach.
as a collector, I want a physical manifestation of the music, especially for some of the major artists that I like. It's far more important to me to have a CD or vinyl album of my favourite artists, that it is to have that as a digital track.

No argument with that; I behave in the same way with my extensive collection of movies/TV shows, and I am sure that this says that neither of us can ever pass as millenials!
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Yes, I think you have it there!!!