What to do with my CD Player

[emollusc]

Originally Posted by Shane

Once you’ve got the CD player sorted out, I’d look at improving your streamer. You may well find that the Naim becomes redundant.
My old Arcam Alpha CD may not be up to the standard of the Naim but it sounds pretty good, being a brilliant implementation of the old TDA1541. However, having now delved into the murky world of the Raspberry Pi, the CD has spent the last couple of years gathering dust under the bed and really should go on eBay.
The implementation I ended up with was a Pi3 with Hifiberry digital output hat into a Beresford DAC, for a total outlay of about £200. There are much better hats and DACs available, but even that modest setup bests the Arcam on SQ.
Setup was quite straightforward. Loading up the Pi with Volumio took about an hour of computer-numpty head scratching, and it’s worked pretty flawlessly ever since. It would be nice to replace Volumio with Roon but my very limited budget won’t stretch that far.

Yes, I want to upgrade the streaming option, however the gap between that and the Naim is very large at the moment. However, I've tried the Pi route and have a problem with have to do everything with a phone / tablet. I like the fact that the Squeezebox has a display that tells you what's playing and a remote I can grab to pause it if the phone rings. I also have several apps that make browsing for music or comedy episode easier. So, my plan is to look at upgrading the power and or DAC then possibly replacing with something better if the upgrades fail. I see this as a medium to long term project and hence the desire to repair my CD.