CD Player for Raspberry with Volumio or CD Player for hifi amplifier

Plugins
#1

Hi all!
Just a question. (and sorry for my english)

Premise:
I’m at my very first hifi, so I don’t have a lot of money to spend. :grin:

A necessary premise to make you understand the meaning of my question.

I currently have a Cambridge Audio AXA35, connected to the Heco Victa Prima 302 loudspeakers (the latter I must say really surprised me for the excellent performance given for this price range)

As DAC I have a poor Topping D10s and as streamer a Raspberry with Volumio (I only listen to liquid music, including Spotify premium)

I am having a lot of fun training my ear on the various music tracks, but now I would like to equip everything with a (very) basic CD player, spending around € 200 / € 250.

Request:
if I bought an external CD player for PC to connect to the Raspberry with Volumio, could I match the performance of the Cambridge Audio AXC25 super basic player?
Or does a player like the AXC25 still have its say?
:thinking:

I’ll think about serious hifi system in a few years!

1 Like
#2

I am absolutely sure the suggested Cambridge matches perfectly with your amp! And from the view of sound quality it will outburst an external CD for a PC.
Go if possible for the Cambridge, its sound quality is amazing in relation to its price.
Regards from Germany and take care,
Achim

#3

Hi Achim!

So I can assume that even if the PC CD player is connected to Volumio, a super basic CD player like the AXC25 is better.

Ok, I’ll try to search in the second hand market a better player and if i’ll don’t find nothing I’ll buy the AXC25

Thanks!!

1 Like
#4

Note that the CD player on Volumio requires a Premium subscription. I have tried it with mixed results.

You would be using a computer USB CD/DVD disc drive, which is designed primarily as a data device and operates very differently from a dedicated audio CD drive. My main complaint is mechanical noise from the external USB drive. While playing a CD, the drive occasionally spins up to preload more audio data, and spins back down once the next buffer is filled. This may be accompanied by clicks if it needs to re-seek to the correct location on the disc. It will go through this cycle constantly while playing an audio CD.

I like that Volumio tries to identify the CD and download metadata from the internet. Usually (not always) it will find the information and display the album cover and track titles.

Screenshot_20220210-221136_Volumio
Screenshot_20220210-221136_Volumio1080×2220 102 KB

However, if I have a CD in hand, I just want to put it on the tray and hit Play, instead of needing to open the Volumio app and go through a couple of screens to get to the CD player.

I also have an audio CD transport (connected by digital coax to my DAC). I prefer using it over the Volumio CD player and I think it has better sound (maybe because it is a quiet mechanism compared to the USB CD drive).

1 Like
#5

Hi Diego,

There is another option here: using the cheapest possible USB CD player. Connect it to your Windows PC and rip the music to .FLAC files using EAC (Exact Audio Copy) software. Store all FLAC files on a USB Hardrive, connected to Volumio (Use WinSCP as FTP client). No extra subscriptions needed. EAC also provides correct filenames and attributes (Artist, Genre, Songtitles) and CD Cover files.

Good luck!
Edwin

#6

Hi Edwin!

Thanks for your suggestion!

I’ll download EAC this evening and I’ll try to ripp my CDs :+1:t2: