Hi-Fi

[Yung Led Zeppelin]

I've been using Sharepod for YEARS to transfer things to/from my (at this stage, ancient) iPod, with no hassle. 3rd party, minimal nonsense software.

[Carnage]

I'm still using iTunes for mine, I haven't let it update for years as apparently some of the functionality was disappearing. The capacity is the iPod's selling point, really.

[ochoill]

Small upgrade to the set up this morning, bought a new cartridge for the record player.  Got the Ortofon 2M as an upgrade from the OM10 that was on it.  Still want to pick up a decent CD and Tape deck to sit under the record player, as it is I'm set up grand for records and digital (the Edifiers have bluetooth built in so grand for Bandcamp streaming) but lacking any way of playing the other half of my physical media.

[Emphyrio]

Looking at picking up a CD player with Aux In and decent speakers. I suppose Bluetooth would be handy too.  After a bit of research it seems speakers should account for 50% of the budget. Would that be about right? Is there much of a difference between a standard CD player and an expensive one?

Any recommendations welcome other than the couple that were mentioned earlier in the thread.

[Kurt Cocaine]

What's your budget?

[Emphyrio]

In or around €400 maybe.

[Kurt Cocaine]

You'll get a good set of Edifier speakers for well under €200. Great punch off them for the money.
Go for active ones should you ever decide to run a turntable through them.
I'm sure someone else here will point you in the right direction for a CD player. Mine's (Sony) nearly 20 years old now so I'm outta touch on the modern players.

[Emphyrio]

Aye, I saw Edifiers mentioned already so was thinking them. Ideally I won't have to spend too big on the CD player. I'm not an audiophile by any means so just looking for something that justifies a nice set of speakers.

[Pagan Waltar]

Around 7 years ago I upgraded all my hifi / home cinema setup. It was an odyssey to say the least but the Hifihut were extremely helpful in the whole buying process. They never persuaded me one way or another, just giving their best advice within my given budget.
The best advice was that any system regardless of budget is only as good as its weakest component. This means for instance speaker cable choice is just as important as the amp or CD player.
What I'm getting at is you don't have to spend an absolute fortune to get a good listening experience.

[pete]

Aye, I saw Edifiers mentioned already so was thinking them. Ideally I won't have to spend too big on the CD player. I'm not an audiophile by any means so just looking for something that justifies a nice set of speakers.

Have you a cd player in mind? How would you plan to connect to the speakers?

I have the edifier r1280db and mine has Bluetooth, rca, coax, and optical input.

No expert but I think if you end up buying a cd player and connecting over optical/coax (digital) then the source won't make much difference as the DAC in the edifiers will be used. I mainly use them as Bluetooth speakers but have the Playstation connected via optical. If you had a BluRay player knocking around with optical out it would probably sound grand.

[Emphyrio]

Aye, I saw Edifiers mentioned already so was thinking them. Ideally I won't have to spend too big on the CD player. I'm not an audiophile by any means so just looking for something that justifies a nice set of speakers.

Have you a cd player in mind? How would you plan to connect to the speakers?

I have the edifier r1280db and mine has Bluetooth, rca, coax, and optical input.

No expert but I think if you end up buying a cd player and connecting over optical/coax (digital) then the source won't make much difference as the DAC in the edifiers will be used. I mainly use them as Bluetooth speakers but have the Playstation connected via optical. If you had a BluRay player knocking around with optical out it would probably sound grand.

No CD player in mind but probably connecting using RCA cables.

When stuff like DAC is mentioned, that's when things go above my paygrade. I'd be looking at something foolproof. Unfortunately I don't have a DVD/Bluray player which would probably be fine for my purposes. Mind you, I don't think they have Aux Ins??

Around 7 years ago I upgraded all my hifi / home cinema setup. It was an odyssey to say the least but the Hifihut were extremely helpful in the whole buying process. They never persuaded me one way or another, just giving their best advice within my given budget.
The best advice was that any system regardless of budget is only as good as its weakest component. This means for instance speaker cable choice is just as important as the amp or CD player.
What I'm getting at is you don't have to spend an absolute fortune to get a good listening experience.

From my research there's diminishing returns when you start to go beyond a certain level price-wise when it comes to the source. I've been used to mini/micro systems so I'm no expert as I generally choose convenience/cost rather than go the whole hog for a proper setup.

I do most of my listening in the car these days which is another factor why I don't wanna spend too much. Just looking at finding a good balance of convenience/cost/quality.

[ochoill]

Those edifiers have an aux in / RCA in so you could effectively rig anything with the equivalent out up to it.  To be fair, if you wanted to absolutely cheap out on it, you could probably rig up a dvd player to them and it will do the trick.  Had my eye out for a CD & Tape deck combo to sit under the record player for a while but haven't hit anything in my budget yet.

So long as your speakers are decent, that's half the battle.

[pete]

Aye, I saw Edifiers mentioned already so was thinking them. Ideally I won't have to spend too big on the CD player. I'm not an audiophile by any means so just looking for something that justifies a nice set of speakers.

Have you a cd player in mind? How would you plan to connect to the speakers?

I have the edifier r1280db and mine has Bluetooth, rca, coax, and optical input.

No expert but I think if you end up buying a cd player and connecting over optical/coax (digital) then the source won't make much difference as the DAC in the edifiers will be used. I mainly use them as Bluetooth speakers but have the Playstation connected via optical. If you had a BluRay player knocking around with optical out it would probably sound grand.

Unfortunately I don't have a DVD/Bluray player which would probably be fine for my purposes. Mind you, I don't think they have Aux Ins??

.

The edifiers I have come with two line ins via rca. So you could have a phone connected to rca via rca to 3.5mm at same time as an rca'd cd player.

But sorry yeah I've no real advice on a cd player was just thinking the cheap route of grabbing some kind of disc player someone isnt using and digitally connect it and see if you like it.

[Kurt Cocaine]

I think McLove bought a CD player of some sort in the last year or two.

[Emphyrio]

Am I right or wrong in thinking that a good source and excellent speakers will yield better results than an excellent source and good speakers?