Couple of cd queries, model numbers later
 

On 20/01/2016 11:13, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Bob Latham wrote:
I'm sorry personally I don't agree. I think that in the home the CD
player is now obsolete. A small NAS holds my entire CD collection which
has been boxed up in the loft for years now, should get rid really.
Controlled by any modern mobile phone or tablet and no TV needed at all.
Far, far better in every way.

I've wondered about doing something like this.

However, the snags as I see them:-

It's not going to be as fast to get up and running as a CD player - from
switch on. Or you leave it running permanently?


Indeed. Mine takes about 30s to 'boot'. Once it's all up and running
material can be found in seconds using a smartphone or tablet.

Have you ripped the CDs raw - or used MP3 etc? Big difference in the
storage needed.


500GB, increasing by maybe 25GB a year. But I do of course accept this
will be an issue if you're short of money, and does need to be doubled
to allow for backups. £100 more than covers it for me - about 2,500
albums, 1600 artists, and 30,000 tracks (just checked).

Many computer based systems have less than perfect analogue outputs.


I wouldn't use a normal computer. I can't comment with any measure of
authority on the quality of the DACs in computers - beyond what I read
here and other sources. For me, it's also the hassle of the things
whirring away and in the most part needing a monitor and input devices.
I don't want any of that in the room I use to listen to music.

I use a Cambridge music server (NP30) and an outboard DAC. Seems to work
fine.


--
Cheers, Rob

Couple of cd queries, model numbers later
 

On 21/01/2016 22:03, Johnny B Good wrote:
On Thu, 21 Jan 2016 06:17:48 +0000, Bob Latham wrote:

In article ,
Johnny B Good wrote:

Ouch! or Yikes! How often do you upgrade or swap out failing disk
drives, I wonder?

I have 3 NAS boxes, one of them off site. The oldest is from 2010 and
none of them has ever given any indication of a problem with their hard
drive. Rightly or wrongly I use Western Digital REDS.

Rightly, imo, provided you've addressed the 8 second head unload timeout
issue (which the lack of failure of the oldest drive could imply except I
don't know whether this is simply because you're only spinning them for
just a few hours per day).

As long as you steer clear of the Seagate rubbish, you shouldn't suffer
too many problems especially if you check the SMART stats every other
week or so and don't *just* rely on smartmonctrl sending you an email
about imminent failure. :-)


I've read your posts on the unreliability of HDs, and (lack of) wisdom
in allowing systems to 'sleep'.

I'm afraid I simply don't follow a lot of what you say, and have relied
on buying what seem to be be decent brands - WD Reds for my last upgrade
a couple of years' back. I let the system sleep - basically because it's
not that accessible (in a cellar), is not used anything like 24/7 -
maybe 4 hours/day on average, and the electricity savings seem worthwhile.

I use the old disks (2TB WD-somethings I think, in the old NAS box) for
backup. I've not had a single failure - but then maybe I've been lucky.

--
Cheers, Rob

Couple of cd queries, model numbers later
 

No I'm darn sorf, in surrey.
I think in the past it was sometimes an adjustment on the pcb, but there
seem to be none on this unit. I suppose another machine might in the end be
the answer. the innards of these devices seem to be very empty these days,
Hardly high density pcbs though there is a fairly large mains transformer
which has started to buzz a little when on.
Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
Remember, if you don't like where I post
or what I say, you don't have to
read my posts! :-)
"RJH" wrote in message
...
More than happy to help with the part numbers, and indeed a lens cleaner -
if you're local! Sheffield . . .

On 19/01/2016 09:18, Brian Gaff wrote:
OK I have a not that old but out of warranty Marantz cd player which is
supposed to and did play cdrw disc.

However over a time its stopped doing this and now has issues on some,
mainly home made but some commercial, discs as well. This manifests
itself as hunting either at the start or when you manually move a track
u the listing. It hunts for a couple of seconds then gives up with an
error in the display window. Unfortunately you need to eject the disc to
get it to look again.
I was just wondering whether this is just some drift in servos or a
problem with the laser.
This model was in fact from what I have seen, also sold as Philips as
the controls are in the same basic places and just the styling and case
is different, ie the Philips looks flimsy.

The other one is a brand new panasonic el cheapo dvd player. for around
40 quid. As such it works fine, and can even apparently do clever stuff
with ram sticks.
The one snag is that when playing cds, it always ducks the sound where a
track marker is, so say, a live cd with no breaks but track makers to
help you find parts of the recording tends to sound like a lot of small
bits of live performance.
It also has an annoying habit of chopping of the last few seconds of mp3
tracks both on cd and on ram sticks.
Looks to me like it needs some kind of firmware fix, but would not know
if this is true or its just a botched up cd player glued onto a dvd
player. This would not really matter if it were not for the fact that
the actual sound of it playing cds is amazingly good compared to many
higher priced players.
As I say, no head for part numbers but can get them when a pair of eyes
comes along later on.
Brian



--
Cheers, Rob

Couple of cd queries, model numbers later
 

On 24/01/2016 10:19, Bob Latham wrote:
In article ,
RJH wrote:
On 20/01/2016 11:14, Bob Latham wrote:

While I'm very happy with Synology's hardware/software, that's one thing
I've not been able to fathom. I have to use other software (such as that
supplied with the Cambridge NP30 music server) to play gapless material.

I have four players in my house and none of them produces any "audible
gap" that isn't on the CD. I believe this is described as gapless
playback.


Which software/music server are you using?

MinimServer on a synology DS214+. The reason I don't use the on board
Synology software is that it adds its data inside yours. I found with all
the Apps that when they indexed the music or videos or photos, they placed
hidden directories inside your data.


Ah OK - I use the Synology Audio programme to do all of that, I think.
The lyrics overlay plugin is my latest toy - marvellous!

Minimserver doesn't add data to mine, it keeps its data to itself.


I can't see any extra files - the audio folders and files all look
untouched. But of course, it must store the databases somewhere.

Gapless playback is fine.


I access the tracks using the DS Audio iOS app, and an iPhone or iPad.
The only one that I can see that might be compatible with Minimserver is
XMBC - and I'm not a big fan. It'll also do my Roberts network radio -
but again, the Synology iOS app will tap into that and play back anything.

Which software/hardware do you use to access the tracks and play them?
As I say, the DS Audio application/NP30 is fine for me - except on the
matter of gapless playback.

The Cambridge software is just odd - falls short in virtually every respect.


--
Cheers, Rob

Couple of cd queries, model numbers later
 

On 24/01/2016 10:39, Brian-Gaff wrote:
No I'm darn sorf, in surrey.

Ah, never mind.

I think in the past it was sometimes an adjustment on the pcb, but there
seem to be none on this unit. I suppose another machine might in the end be
the answer. the innards of these devices seem to be very empty these days,
Hardly high density pcbs though there is a fairly large mains transformer
which has started to buzz a little when on.

I've got a quite expensive Harmon Kardon HD970 CD player with a facility
to use it as a DAC. But it has trouble with some discs nowadays. I
gather from a brief internet search that the simplest solution is to
swap out the mechanism.

I've never been that convinced by optical media - far from the 'perfect
forever' we were asked to believe.

--
Cheers, Rob

Couple of cd queries, model numbers later
 

On 24/01/2016 10:39, Brian-Gaff wrote:
No I'm darn sorf, in surrey.
I think in the past it was sometimes an adjustment on the pcb, but there
seem to be none on this unit. I suppose another machine might in the end be
the answer. the innards of these devices seem to be very empty these days,
Hardly high density pcbs though there is a fairly large mains transformer
which has started to buzz a little when on.

You can adjust it if you have a manual, an oscilloscope and the correct
test disc.
But the test disc will be unobtainable.

I got a nice Denon CD player for 20 quid from the British Heart Foundation
shop in Mitcham. Almost Surrey, very musical, plays home-made CDs, can't
complain.

The Marantz in the garage, on the other hand, stopped working last week.
I suspect it was sulking after my earlier comments. Warming it up didn't
help
but taking the cover off and blowing out a load of dust did.
That's very musical too, just like every other CD player since about 1990.

My first DVD player, an expensive Marantz, always missed the first half
second
or so of a CD track. I don't know what happened to it but it's long gone.

--
Eiron.

Couple of cd queries, model numbers later
 

In article ,
RJH wrote:

I've never been that convinced by optical media - far from the 'perfect
forever' we were asked to believe.

Is anything? Magnetic has a poor life too. Solid state too new to know for
sure.

Of all the media we have data on, ordinary film seems to survive well if
stored in reasonable conditions.

--
*Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Couple of cd queries, model numbers later
 

RJH wrote:


I've got a quite expensive Harmon Kardon HD970 CD player with a facility
to use it as a DAC. But it has trouble with some discs nowadays. I
gather from a brief internet search that the simplest solution is to
swap out the mechanism.

I've never been that convinced by optical media - far from the 'perfect
forever' we were asked to believe.


** The phrase "perfect sound forever" was used in relation to the release of the CD disk in 1982. Nobody suggested that CD players would have an indefinite life.

Nevertheless, I still have Sony CDP101 that was purchased in May 1983. It is the only CD player I ever bought and it still functions and tests perfectly.

I also have any number of CDs that are of similar age and they all play perfectly, same as the day they were made. Same is true for every CD I own.

Any shortcomings in sound quality from a CD is not the fault of the disk or the 16bit/ 44.1kHz PCM format - but rather the recording industry that still only gets it right on occasion.



..... Phil

Couple of cd queries, model numbers later
 

On Sun, 24 Jan 2016 09:48:15 +0000, RJH wrote:

On 21/01/2016 22:03, Johnny B Good wrote:
On Thu, 21 Jan 2016 06:17:48 +0000, Bob Latham wrote:

In article ,
Johnny B Good wrote:

Ouch! or Yikes! How often do you upgrade or swap out failing disk
drives, I wonder?

I have 3 NAS boxes, one of them off site. The oldest is from 2010 and
none of them has ever given any indication of a problem with their hard
drive. Rightly or wrongly I use Western Digital REDS.

As long as you steer clear of the Seagate rubbish, you shouldn't suffer
too many problems especially if you check the SMART stats every other
week or so and don't *just* rely on smartmonctrl sending you an email
about imminent failure. :-)

Yes, Seagate has had a terrible reputation in the last few years, due,
they claim, to a bad batch each of two particular models. Certainly,
I can confirm that I've had three 3TB Seagates go down in my NASs in
each of the last three years, and another replacement for the first of
these that was DOA.

By contrast, most other brands of HD seem to keep marching on.
Recently, I've had a WD HD in a PC go down, but it was 12 years old
and had been swapped between PCs often, and it died the last time it
was swapped, so, though obviously a nuisance, I deemed that an
entirely acceptable failure, even though I have another WD drive that
was purchased at the same time and with much the same history that,
touch wood, is still going.

My last purchase was a 3TB Toshiba, to replace the last Seagate that
died. Too early to speculate on its longevity or lack of it.

I'm afraid I simply don't follow a lot of what you say, and have relied
on buying what seem to be be decent brands - WD Reds for my last upgrade
a couple of years' back. I let the system sleep - basically because it's
not that accessible (in a cellar), is not used anything like 24/7 -
maybe 4 hours/day on average, and the electricity savings seem worthwhile.

Perfectly acceptable IMHO.

I use the old disks (2TB WD-somethings I think, in the old NAS box) for
backup. I've not had a single failure - but then maybe I've been lucky.

Yes, I've cleaned up the bad sectors on the last Seagate that just
died and am using it for offline backup of the online backup!
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Couple of cd queries, model numbers later
 

In article ,
Huge wrote:
On 2016-01-24, Phil Allison wrote:

[17 lines snipped]

Any shortcomings in sound quality from a CD is not the fault of the disk or the 16bit/ 44.1kHz PCM format - but rather the recording industry that still only gets it right on occasion.

*applause*


Yup. Standard test for this. Transfer *anything* you want properly to CD
format. Now try and tell the original from the copy in a properly
conducted test so you don't know which is which.

Only reason to go for a 'better' format is where processing is involved.
Absolutely no need for an end user medium.

--
*I brake for no apparent reason.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.