[Nick B]

I currently have a Pioneer DV C 503 CD player. It was modded by Andy Bartha a few years ago. I've been happy with the sonics, but would like to upgrade. A while ago, someone mentioned Alex Peychev and I've been visiting his forum regularly. His regulars really like his products, but there are sometimes issues regarding significant delays for new products or repairs. He has a new Marantz 5400 available for $1,100 and he calls it a re-engineered unit rather than a modded unit where some caps and other parts were swapped like with my Pioneer. Can anyone suggest some other guys who perform extensive mods like Alex? I really can't afford more than $1,100 or so for the CDP as I want to get a CIA, DIY or Nuforce amp also. Will only consider a CDP, no DAC's anymore....too many boxes and cables.

[JLM]

How about a Red Wine Audio fully modded Squeeze Box 3 (currently about $778 for the wireless version with A/C bypass option) with a 400 GB internal hard drive to hold 1000 CD's in FLAC (lossless format) for about $300.
 
Super sound, complete armchair convenience, and internet radio to boot.

[DeanSheen]

Or a stock EastSound E5 for $755 shipped.

Go over to head-fi.org and check out the bazillion page thread on it.

(it's a CDP>>>>>>>>>>>)

 

[BobM]

Hell, you may be able to find a used Lector on Audiogon real soon :->

Bob

[avta]

I vote for the Squeezebox3/computer playback system. I'm using a standard SB2..wireless. I use Exact Audio Copy software with FLAC compression to store the music files on my hard drive. Total cost was only the cost of the SB since all the software is free. Excellent sound..better than my low priced cd player and probably the equal of some high end cd players I've heard. My system consists of Magnepan 1.6's and a CODA Unison integrated amp. Good luck.

Guy

[Nick B]

I'm checking out the Lector and the EastSound. Have heard of the Lector, but that's about it. As for the Squeezebox, your posts made me look it up. Sounds like an interesting idea, but can that quality compare at all to the APL Marantz 5400 that I'm considering? Eventually, I do like the idea of storing all my CD's (about 300+) on a hard drive, but it's the compression that I'm concerned about. I don't know anything about the various formats. Have never compressed anything and assumed it seriously degraded audiophile quality playback. I have a Linksys Wireless G router that my wife's Mac gets the cable signal from. Can the Linksys also handle my audio via this software? I've got about 60G left on my harddrive, so would have to add to store all my CD's. That's about all I understand so far about this technology. More comments would be appreciated.

[avta]

I know the feeling Nick but if you spend some time learning you will be pleasently surprised with the end result. There are some excellent tutorials and forums  and lots of people to help. Look at the site www.exactaudiocopy.org especially the Forum. I use an older Netgear wireless router and have had few problems. When I do then it's a learning experience. Lots of fun and great bang for the buck! I use FLAC compression so disk space is used more efficiently. I can post more info about sites for tutorials if there is more interest.

Guy

[Nick B]

Hi avta   Yes, I can use more tutorials to get a better understanding of all this. Still trying to get a handle of how good the fidelity on this can be.

[avta]

This is the best one I've found.  http://users.pandora.be/satcp/eac-qs-en.htm  I use a notebook computer to control what I do. I recently bought a 120 Gig external drive which I plan on using to store my music files. The software that is used with the Squeezebox is very ingenious. You can see quite a bit if you go to their site..  www.slimdevices.com. You can download the Slimserver software and see what it looks like. Good luck.

Guy

[suits_me]

A simple starting point is that audiophiles do not use lossy compression for their music files, Mark Levinson's mp3 widget notwithstanding.

The compression, if any, is lossless.