Is this possible....???? I have always wanted to do it.

[Silent Wolf]

Ok so I have always wondered if it is possible to actually turn one of these, and turn it into a cd player for computers. I mean how awesome would that be to have all your cd for computers in one unit, and just go to it, and never have to worry about cases, or scratching the cd.

 

[nbrikha]

They have another alternative to that. CD ripping onto hard drives.

 

[foothead]

They have another alternative to that. CD ripping onto hard drives.

You will lose a slight amount of audio quality doing that.

Of course you already lost a hell of a lot more by buying CDs, but ehhh whatever.

 

[nbrikha]

FLAC or lossless is the way to go.
You really aren't losing that much sound quality. And ya to be fair, CD quality isn't perfect...but unless you're an audiophile that has high end earplugs or sound system (like myself)...then it really doesn't matter. The difference in putting them in a 500 CD machine and putting them on a hard drive is not waiting everytime you want a new disk in and you can mix playlists. Just saying there's a lot more versatility

 

[foothead]

i can tell the difference between LPs, CDs, my computer, and iPods all on my pos 5.1 system consisting of cheap eBay speakers and a JVC receiver that's 10 years old.

iPod sounds so bad I can't even listen to it except with headphones. Even then, it bothers me.

 

[nbrikha]

I personally love listening to LPs. It's nostalgic. Outside of that, if I'm listening to music just to listen to it, I'm on my Shure earphones and listening to Lossless audio.

 

[samainfirenight]

Anything's possible where electronics are concerned; you just have to have a problem, and the willingness to solve it...If I am correct in what you are thinking: you want to put ALL of your computer CD's in one unit (i.e. games, audio, dvd, programs, etc.). I think it would be possible, you would need to find a unit where the reader is capable of being manipulated into working with the IDE (or SATA) cable to output the data that it reads to the computer. I would think that the inner components to a disc changer would be similar to a computer, because it's a computer in itself, it just has a single function instead of multi. HMM...think I might take mine apart to see.......

 

[winslow33]

Difficult? yes
Impossible? no

You can modify a computer CD-ROM drive to play audio CD's without needing it to be hooked to a computer. Heck, I did it myself once to make a ghetto CD player for my car. So, you'd be able to do this in reverse if you were up for some work..

Wouldnt it be a lot simpler just to plug a cable from the speaker jacks on the CD player to the audio-in on your sound card? lol

 

[foothead]

Wouldnt it be a lot simpler just to plug a cable from the speaker jacks on the CD player to the audio-in on your sound card? lol

Audio in on a sound card sounds awful.

 

[Kage]

FLAC or lossless is the way to go.
You really aren't losing that much sound quality. And ya to be fair, CD quality isn't perfect...but unless you're an audiophile that has high end earplugs or sound system (like myself)...then it really doesn't matter. The difference in putting them in a 500 CD machine and putting them on a hard drive is not waiting everytime you want a new disk in and you can mix playlists. Just saying there's a lot more versatility

You aren't losing any sound quality using FLAC or any other form of lossless media, since its lossless.

I rip all my music in FLAC format. Its a compression for audio that works flawlessly, yet doesn't lose any data, unlike with an MP3.

I'm one of those people that can tell the difference in bit rates, if MP3/OGG files are used instead of real CD's.

Ripping CD's one after an other can be a awfully slow process though. One of those CD changers in a PC unit would be amazing if they could talk to the PC, through winamp or something, so you could select all the CD's in folders, and it'd play from the changer, haha.

Or a way of using it to one after the other, rip onto the hard drive in a lossless form.

Foothead, I agree with you completely.

That device does have a Optical Audio Output, so if you had any speakers that supported that, you wouldn't lose any quality.