Should I keep my Mark Levinson No37 transport?

What's "wrong" with it, if anything?

If it's "new" within say the last, 10 or 15 years, apart from non-CD playback features (like SACD, DVD-A, Blu-ray, net-streaming, etc) you really won't get anything different by replacing it. So if it's got something the matter with it, or you just dislike it's control scheme, I'd say replace it; there's plenty of other options, but if it works, no reason to waste money.

That's roughly my take on SACD as well - I've looked at a few players over the years, but always end up spending a few minutes on Amazon looking for SACDs to purchase, and I either never find anything that I think I'd like to buy, or anything at all. Kind of defeats the purpose of the player, don't you think?

If it's been serviced and is in good working order, I'd probably just go with it; life's good, yes?


I ripped my CDs to my computer about a decade ago and never looked back. I picked up a little Sony device a few years ago that can wirelessly send audio from my computer to wherever the receiver unit is (which is brilliant, because it doesn't tie me to any specific type of receiver, integrated amplifier, or anything; as long as the Sony receiver can plug in), it beats a very long lead running across the floor (and over the river and through the woods). As I know they don't make them anymore.

Every now and then I'll pull out an actual disc, and it usually ends up in my Blu-ray player (for no other reason than it's readily available and has a remote). Alternately, the Laserdisc player or DVD player are equally suitable. This happens maybe a handful of times a year.

I also ripped all of my media and continue to do so. The media has metadata embedded in it that stores the cover art and the information about the media that would normally be contained in the album notes. This facilitates searching and navigation. All of my data is then backed up to external drives for storage in a safe deposit box then also backed up online for universal access. The shiny disc can be damaged, mis-filed or lost easier. You also have the inherent issues with mechanical playback that are not present in a streamed system.

I bought an Ayre C5xe 6 years ago because it seemed to be the best-sounding SACD/CD player on the market then (even though spending $6K was like pulling a tooth for me...lol). It is a wonderful-sounding unit. It now also has the MP factory upgrade.

The new OPPO BDP-95, which I recently bought for only $1000 blows it away. Its sound quality with CD and SACD is off the chart; absolutely unprecedented!

As far as I can tell, every player from $800 to $25,000 has now been made obsolete. IMO anyone who cares a fig about CD playback should own one of these.

Sounds like the opening lines of a book

I'm about the convenience factor. I rip all my stuff 1411Kbps WAV and then store the CD. If you like handling the physical media and there is nothing wrong with your current CDP then stay with it. If you ever change your mind and want a 10 foot tall interface, meta-tagging, play-lists, streaming etc... let us know.

I think you've nailed both sides of it down quite well. I think your current equipment is suitable for the non-computer side; you can always rip the albums and keep them for the Levinson to play with as well. Just to try it out.

Too funny!

What do you want out of the archival process? What do you think your computer or other playback/source device should behave like?

How many CD's are you looking at archiving?

You're over-thinking and worrying about minutiae which do not matter ("how to transfer from the disk to processor" - none of those interfaces serve that purpose).

Grab your CDs, a six-pack of your favorite beverage, put a movie on, and just start ripping them in the lossless codec of your choice (WMA, flac, ALAC, etc); if you don't have sufficient space, upgrade the computer's hard disk. Simple as pie, and nothing else you need to worry about (of course figure out what playback software you'd like, and if you need new output hardware, what it needs to accomplish).

++ That. This was my 1st thought.

List your current complete setup.

Do you have the optical input on your Classe available?

If it magically fixed itself it can magically unfix itself. Do you have a computer already or one in mind?

Do you want to be able to sit back a ways and on a large screen cue music up?

How much disk space does your computer have, and what version of Windows (I'm assuming it runs Windows)?

You could stand to add a larger hard drive (and an internal one is perfectly fine if the computer has the space; do not get sucked into audiophilacs suggesting overpriced external drives with "the right kind of chipset for fidelity" or any of that nonsense); you said 400-500 CDs if I'm not mistaken. If you were ripping them lossless, based on the most recent albums I ripped, figure around 300-500MB (.3GB-.5GB) per disc. So a new 500GB (or larger) drive should hold everything you've got; if you went with 320k mp3 (Which will sound just as good but take up less space) you could fit more in the same space. I would not suggest 128k mp3 or anything like that; some material can very well survive 192k or 256k or V0 lossy (which usually averages around 300-something), but it's hit and miss.

If you figure your collection will grow substantially, or you just like over-building (nothing wrong with that), grab a 1TB (1000GB) and be through with it.

I am torn between analog and digital in my 2 channel system. For digital playback I alternate between My MacBook Pro via optical and my Sony SCD-C555es 5 disc changer via coaxial, both fed into my Peachtree iDac. The iDac is one amazing piece of equipment, to my ears, it is a big upgrade to those sources via their own DACs.