I don’t mess with CDs at all, but that thing is really cute. I’d add it to my setup just to have the option.
I use my Sony BluRay SACD, DvdAudio player with the coax digital out as my CD player. I figure if it can track and decode a BluRay it can track a CD.
If you’re receiving a digital audio signal from whatever CD player you are using, you’re going to be hard pressed to hear any audible difference at all. Don’t fall for snake oil.
I think the more high end the dac/amp/speakers/cables you have the less this is true.
Now with the speakers I have today you might be right.
Optical output means it’s not really being decoded by a DAC. It’s just sending digital data. The decoding then happens at the DAC or in the amp/receiver. In other words, the data coming out of this should be just as good as any other data, no matter how expensive the player. That’s what digital is. It’s ones and zeros. If it gets there intact, it’s either all there or none of it is.
I’ve always found it amusing an original PS1 has better sound output for CD’s than a lot of Hi-Fi cd players that cost 2-3 times as much at the time.
Does the PS1 have toslink out?
Quick Google and apparently SCPH-1001 has got top end RCA, and TOSLINK mods are common.
Why wouldn’t you just use a decent external computer disc drive to rip high quality files and play those from a solid state flac? There’s nothing really sexy about playing a cd, but it is nice to have an original file source to pull from.
That’s not what I want to do, I’d like to play physical discs. And I want my son to have some great albums to play at home and discover them in a way that’s different than the frenzy of streaming.
the CD player is more or less a “solved problem” these days, so as long as it has a digital output and is actually outputting 44.1khz (or an integer multiple) not 48 or anything weird it should be bit perfect and a decent DAC will give you the same output as a high end CD player. The only differences between physical players tend to be minor things like physical noise (that’s a big one! cheap players are loud), speed of seek/start, degraded/scratched/burned disk readability etc.
Personally I use an older budget DVD player as a CD player, it has a coaxial output and connects to my receiver digitally. it’s only downside is it is physically loud, as opposed to the last CD player I had that was completely silent, but it was an overbuilt, heavy Krell unit.