CD HDD player ??

[Stevebez]

Guys I am looking for a HDD CD player where I can dump my entire CD collection.

Thing is who makes a decent unit at a similar quality level to Rotel ???

Regards Steve

[JDH]

I own a Yamaha CDR-HD1300 with a 120GB Hard Drive, good quality sound, holds approx. 200 CD, maybe a larger Hard Drive can be fitted if needed. Not many other manufactures other than Sony I think.

[autio]

never heard this unit so I cant say as much as to its sound but from their web site----McIntosh MS300 is all about music accessibility. With 300 GB of hard drive storage, it can hold well over 800 CD's at full sound quality, through lossless compression.

[EAmin]

never heard this unit so I cant say as much as to its sound but from their web site----McIntosh MS300 is all about music accessibility. With 300 GB of hard drive storage, it can hold well over 800 CD's at full sound quality, through lossless compression.

Make sure to look at the Escient Fireball http://www.escient.com/fireballe2300.html too. The Mac product and the Escient come from the same company from what I understand. And I believe the Escient is cheaper.

[Kevin D]

True, I've got the escient piece and it makes it easy. If you get the E300, it's large enough to store enough all lossless. With the E120 or E40 models you will need to have a mixture of lossless and lossy to get enough storage compacity.

The mac piece is pretty much the same thing with a new front and different OSD..

All of them can control up to three Sony changers, so all my good stuff I want full CD quality I just leave in the changer.

Kevin D.

[Stevebez]

Thanks guys for this ...

The Fireball looks like a pretty nice piece of kit - although it must be fairly pricey... cannot find a price for it here in the UK.??

Would you guys recommend a multi changer like a Sony CDP or a HDD drive unit like the Fireball / Yamaha ??

The Sony multichanger is really pretty reasonably priced and the HDD unit a little less so, but is also a bit smaller. Both will free alot of space.

Also how does the sound compare ...? I imagine its all pretty much the same deal as the digital signal is sent as is to the processor which then does the D/A conversion ... so there should theoretically be no sound difference at all unless I use the analogue outputs ( :E ops: ) where the internal D/A convertors are used. Is this analysis correct?

Trying to decide between them but not sure ... any further suggestions appreciated.

Ah - by the way my CD cllection is perhaps 160-200

Rgds Steve.

PS . Sorry to hi-jack the ROTEL forum for this ... but I want something that will be comparable in quality.

[JDH]

Sounds like the Yamaha HD 1300 will do the job, others may do it better but not at its price, ie. uncompressed CD quality, I also notice that CD's i've copied onto the hard disc that have HDCD encoding are properly detected as HDCD on my Rotel RSP-1066 when using either the coax or optical out, I use the Rotel RSP-1066 to do the D/A processing. I also use the HD 1300 for recording of radio programs from my Rotel RT-1080.

Below is a link to a review, the model is getting a bit old but still does what I purchased it for, as you can see from the article, the back of the unit can easily be openned to upgrade the HDD capacity to a larger size if needed.

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/article.asp?section_id=3&article_id=300&page_number=1&preview=

[Stevebez]

Thx guys HDD is the way to go ...

There is a CDRHD1500 out in may and think that is my ticket.

250GB drive that can be upgraded if required.

Thx for the help.

Rgds Steve

[ColoKurt]

Did you get the CDRHD1500?

Have you considered an Apple Mac Mini running Airport Express? I think that's the way I'm going to go. I'll use my TV as the monitor and back-up to DVD. I figure it will cost me $1200USD all together (including Bluetooth mouse and keyboard). Since it only comes with an 80GB drive, I'll need to add an external drive at some point. Of course you need a good DAC with this approach.

[booktrunk]

Cambridge Audio are making one...

Not out yet but will be in a couple of months or so.

Steff

[Stevebez]

Got the HD1500. Fabulous kit in terms of the sonics and the data downloading.

But they have missed such a massive opportunity on the software side. Disk data has to be manually input (typed in) either via PC keyboard - (using old serial cable) or by toggling through the remote !!!!

Hopeless , also the there is no location for the artist name or the ability to sort the disks stored alphabetically.

And lastly given the serial / PC interface you would have thought the functionality to source disk data (title , artist, song titles) over the web and download would be childs play - but no this is not available either.

Blimey I thought these guys were good - but they need to go back to school in terms of software.

I don't suppose anyone can assist me with this. The HD1500 is not even listed on the japanese site and only the HD1300 software is available.

I am sure some programmer can probably hack something together in an afternoon that would be beter than what they have on board.

Rgds Steve.

[mjb]

Did you get the CDRHD1500?

Have you considered an Apple Mac Mini running Airport Express? I think that's the way I'm going to go. I'll use my TV as the monitor and back-up to DVD. I figure it will cost me $1200USD all together (including Bluetooth mouse and keyboard). Since it only comes with an 80GB drive, I'll need to add an external drive at some point. Of course you need a good DAC with this approach.

This is a great idea, and even a cheap solution compared to the other options here!
At the risk of being reamed by the audio purists out there, I use a G5 (which has a built-in optical output) and iTunes. Ripping to a loss-less format, the digital stream is (theoretically) bit for bit the same as any other, and it sounds fantastic! Plus, the iTunes interface makes it very easy to find stuff. (Airport Express includes optical out too).

[Stevebez]

Yep I thought about the apple route as a colleague of mine has gone "all apple". I really like their kit but I remain a pc guy.... :W

HD1500 comes in 3 diff sized drives 250 & 300 & 400. 250 is enuf for me for the mom gives me around 300 cd's capacity at full bit for bit storage.

I need to see if there is no aftermarket software that can be hacked together for this kit ... after all its just a hardrive with music files on it, a cd reader/burner , motherboard , power supply and chassis.

It really bugs me that this kit can just be so much better and they did not go the extra mile on the software.

Ill stop ranting now ...

Cheers Steve.

[JDH]

Yep I thought about the apple route as a colleague of mine has gone "all apple". I really like their kit but I remain a pc guy.... :W

HD1500 comes in 3 diff sized drives 250 & 300 & 400. 250 is enuf for me for the mom gives me around 300 cd's capacity at full bit for bit storage.

I need to see if there is no aftermarket software that can be hacked together for this kit ... after all its just a hardrive with music files on it, a cd reader/burner , motherboard , power supply and chassis.

It really bugs me that this kit can just be so much better and they did not go the extra mile on the software.

Ill stop ranting now ...

Cheers Steve.

Steve,

I've owned the HD1300 for about a year and couldn't be happier accept for the software side of things as you have already mentioned. I guess its prime function is as a high quality stand alone CD recorder rather than a CD jukebox, I guess the model up from the HD1500, the Yamaha music cast music server is really the solution however it costs a lot more than the HD1300 or HD1500. I use the coax connections from my HD1300 to my Rotel RSP-1066 and I am quite happy with the results. I would like to see if an upsampling DAC like the Musical Fidelity X-DAC v3 or similar offers any worth while sound perfomance gain.

Regards,

John.

[ausmatt]

i can't say enough about both the 1300 (1500 not available in aus yet) except as many of you pointed out the lack of text input features.
If you have a look at the yamaha musiccast server that can be connected to the net and will automatically search for album details when you load them into the hard drive. thats what they needed to do with the 1300. its just a pity that it cost an extra $2000AUS for it though.

[ajpoe]

Couldn't you build a simple machine that would cost less and be better than these? I noticed the yamaha is $799 and think you could get the following for less off www.pricewatch.com or something.

1. Case + PSU combo kit
2. Mobo (with video and optical out) + Fan + CPU + Memory combo kit
3. Operating system & Music software
4. Hard drive (whatever size you need and ability to backup to an external or 2nd drive)

Some of the new HTPC cases are very sweet looking and low profile!

[JDH]

Couldn't you build a simple machine that would cost less and be better than these? I noticed the yamaha is $799 and think you could get the following for less off www.pricewatch.com or something.

1. Case + PSU combo kit
2. Mobo (with video and optical out) + Fan + CPU + Memory combo kit
3. Operating system & Music software
4. Hard drive (whatever size you need and ability to backup to an external or 2nd drive)

Some of the new HTPC cases are very sweet looking and low profile!

I can already do all this from my original PC via a digital STB that streams wav and MP3 files, video etc, however from experience this solution is not in the same class as the dedicated Yamaha unit and therfore well worth the cost to me. It also has a far higher Wife Acceptance Factor too.

[Stevebez]

Yup - I guess a stand alone PC would fit the requirements better - although I really like the fact that a hifi piece loks like a hifi piece and not a computer ... I must be getting too old!!!

I have not even got the titleing software to work with the HD1500 yet ... but will keep trying.

Rgds Steve.

[Andrew Pratt]

Arcam makes a hard drived based unit as well that sounds VERY slick. They're not cheap but the quality is very good and its loaded with useful real world features from what I understand. I'm pretty sure Jim at Nexl Level carries them if you want to investigate them in more detail.

As for CD jukebox units Sony's a solid choice. They're reliable and the ES units sound good when using their onboard DAC's which is important if you want to daisy chain more then one. If you're just using one and have good DAC's the digital out on the non ES units works well and is cheaper. I've got both a CD and DVD Sony jukebox in my system and really enjoy the units...but I'd love to go to a digital hard drive unit someday.

[Aido]

Guys....

Being the proud owners of the HD1300/1500's I wonder if I could ask you a couple of questions?

I have owned a 1300 for sometime now and am very very happy with the machine.

I have been hunting around trying to find if anyone has had any success in installing a larger HD in a 1300, as I understand that the firmware prevents any drives larger than 135Gig being installed. That is to say a 200Gig drive will still only be recognised as a 135.

As I understand it there IS some firmware available, but Yamaha do not give this out to the general public.

Now I see that a HD1500 has been released, so I'm wondering if an HD drive that has been formatted by the 1500 (say 250Gig) would work to full capacity in a 1300, and not be limited to 135Gig???

Or indeed, where to get the firmware?

Your thoughts??

Regards

A

[Harold A.]

I am interested in a HD server for my home audio and have been using a computer and iPod, but now seems like there are far better solutions on the market. anyone know how the Olive Musica (http://www.olive.us) stacks up?
I demo-ed the escient but navigating was difficult and was hoping for better sonic quality. Any suggestions are appreciated