Blu-ray player for use as a CD transport?

[Maxf]

I'm putting a system together and think it would be nice to keep the box count down a bit - I was thinking of buying a BD player to use for films (obviously) and also as a CD transport to plug into a DAC. This would save me the cost of a new CD player and keep the boxes in check.

So... I'm struggling to find which BD player would be best. Obviously I need a digital out and a very stable drive/transport mechanism.

Any ideas?

It's a shame the Denon BD-transport doesnt have a digital out as well as HDMI or that would have been ideal.

[mackie1]

Oppo BDP-83 seems to be the player of choice. It plays SACD and DVD-A too.

[Maxf]

That looks perfect! They don't seem to sell it in the UK though - any ideas where I can get one?

[OldSkoolRS]

You can get one from here...I keep debating it myself, but I'm looking for a secondhand Arcam AV9 Preamp/processor. I'm not sure the Oppo would be the ideal companion as the Arcam is simply a high quality 7.1 analogue input with legacy digital inputs for DTS and Dolby Ditigal.

Must do some more reading up of the Oppo manual...

Note that you need to buy this dearer version as the £509 model only plays USA BluRays, this version will play ANY region DVDs and BluRays for £589:

http://www.crtprojectors.co.uk/region_free_bpd-83....

Edited by OldSkoolRS on Friday 22 January 18:54

[Saintjsmythe]

Don't get it. 90% of blu ray players have digital and hdmi output. Just pick one in your price range. An entry level panasonic bd60 would be fine or for better picture try an entry level denon.

[OldSkoolRS]

Actually the HD picture quality is likely to be little different between a basic Panny BD player and a high end Denon or whatever player. The difference is how well the player upscales DVD, how it sounds via analogue outputs for SACD, DVD-A and CD and more contentiosuly whether the internal decoding output via analogue outputs into a quality multi channel preprocessor sounds better than a HDMI into a 'bells and whistles' AV amp ( my money is on the former FWIW). By all means buy a more basic BD player, but don't expect it to sound good with music especially with CDs (I did and it doesn't).

[Saintjsmythe]

If the audio information is sent out through the digital outputs to a dac, who cares if it sounds crap through the analogue outputs? Most out board dacs will better internal ones this side of a £2k bluray player. Purely as a cd/bluray disc spinner get the cheap panasonic.

[mackie1]

I got the impression the OP had a reasonable amount of money to play with. For £500 there is no better than the Oppo.

[Maxf]

Saintjsmythe said:

If the audio information is sent out through the digital outputs to a dac, who cares if it sounds crap through the analogue outputs? Most out board dacs will better internal ones this side of a £2k bluray player. Purely as a cd/bluray disc spinner get the cheap panasonic.

Don't we have to worry about jitter introduced by the transport though (transport mech)? I want the best possible signal going to the DAC, hence want the most stable transport.

You are right though, I don't care about the analogue out though - it will be HDMI for movies and digital for 2.0.

What I don't want to do is spend good money on the DAC and then not feed it the best signal possible. The Oppo is actually the cheapest and most versatile option so far, which is nice as well!

[Saintjsmythe]

hmmmm...would there be any jitter output data available to compare these players? Hifichoice used to go into detail but not read the mag for a while.

[JustinP1]

Maxf said:

Saintjsmythe said:

If the audio information is sent out through the digital outputs to a dac, who cares if it sounds crap through the analogue outputs? Most out board dacs will better internal ones this side of a £2k bluray player. Purely as a cd/bluray disc spinner get the cheap panasonic.

Don't we have to worry about jitter introduced by the transport though (transport mech)? I want the best possible signal going to the DAC, hence want the most stable transport.

You are right though, I don't care about the analogue out though - it will be HDMI for movies and digital for 2.0.

What I don't want to do is spend good money on the DAC and then not feed it the best signal possible. The Oppo is actually the cheapest and most versatile option so far, which is nice as well!

The Oppo will do a decent job at getting the data off a CD - just use the outboard DAC.

If you wanted to take any mechanical issues out of the CD reading process, thinking out of the box, just use the Oppo for viewing and get a box with a hard drive and an optical digital out for listening to CDs after you have ripped them. Much more convenient.

[Maxf]

JustinP1 said:

The Oppo will do a decent job at getting the data off a CD - just use the outboard DAC.

If you wanted to take any mechanical issues out of the CD reading process, thinking out of the box, just use the Oppo for viewing and get a box with a hard drive and an optical digital out for listening to CDs after you have ripped them. Much more convenient.

I thought about the ripping thing but, frankly, I don't have the patience. I've got something silly like 1200 cds - to rip them would take an age and I'd probably find out that I'd been doing it wrong and it wasn't optimal quality. My mac would probably melt!

I must be coming across as some kind of uber hi-fi geek or super nerd - I'm really not. I tend to 'find' problems which mean upgrading and losing a ton of cash to solve a fault, which really isnt anything like a real fault or problem - maybe it's a bit of an OCD thing. What I want to do here is to get this set up right first time to avoid any upgrade excuses in the medium term after I spend the money. I'm a bloody salesman's dream. For example, I bought some HD650 headphones LAST WEEK and am already looking at a pair of HD800s. OCD Idiot chasing rainbows.

[JustinP1]

Maxf said:

JustinP1 said:

The Oppo will do a decent job at getting the data off a CD - just use the outboard DAC.

If you wanted to take any mechanical issues out of the CD reading process, thinking out of the box, just use the Oppo for viewing and get a box with a hard drive and an optical digital out for listening to CDs after you have ripped them. Much more convenient.

I thought about the ripping thing but, frankly, I don't have the patience. I've got something silly like 1200 cds - to rip them would take an age and I'd probably find out that I'd been doing it wrong and it wasn't optimal quality. My mac would probably melt!

I must be coming across as some kind of uber hi-fi geek or super nerd - I'm really not. I tend to 'find' problems which mean upgrading and losing a ton of cash to solve a fault, which really isnt anything like a real fault or problem - maybe it's a bit of an OCD thing. What I want to do here is to get this set up right first time to avoid any upgrade excuses in the medium term after I spend the money. I'm a bloody salesman's dream. For example, I bought some HD650 headphones LAST WEEK and am already looking at a pair of HD800s. OCD Idiot chasing rainbows.

I can't believe that you have a Mac and you haven't considered using iTunes and Frontrow!?

I thought I was talking to a technophobe!

I bought a Mac Mini especially to play music. Being able to pull any track from my collection in seconds from the comfort of my sofa, revolutionised the way I listen to music.

Contrary to what you might think, it doesn't take that long to rip them on either - a few minutes each, if that. I did my 400 CDs and that took a matter of days. And now they are ripped I never have to do it again.

All you do is set up iTunes and there are options to automatically rip the CD when one is inserted and then eject it when it is finished. I just spent a few evenings with a stack of CDs swapping them over every couple of minutes until they were done. It was so simple, I didn't even have the monitor on as I just didn't need it. If the computer is on the net it will even program in the artist, album track names and album artwork with each CD.

[Ultra Violent]

Totally agree. Streaming music has totally changed the way I listen stuff now. There are companies that will rip your CDs for you if you have a lot. But like Justin says, its APOP.

[Maxf]

JustinP1 said:

All you do is set up iTunes and there are options to automatically rip the CD when one is inserted and then eject it when it is finished. I just spent a few evenings with a stack of CDs swapping them over every couple of minutes until they were done. It was so simple, I didn't even have the monitor on as I just didn't need it. If the computer is on the net it will even program in the artist, album track names and album artwork with each CD.

You might pull some hair out in a sec...

I've already done that - I'm set up with itunes/ipods and all that lark. But I ripped my CDs over a period of a couple of years and all into bloody MP3, as I didnt know any better.

Not sure about using frontrow though - I certainly dont want to need the TV on to play music - indeed I might end up with my system in a TV-less room if I get my way.