CD player with HDMI output

Posted 15th Oct 2022

I would like to buy a cd player - preferably quite cheap which has a HDMI output so i can plug it into my soundbar. Any suggestions on products that could potentially fit the bill?

I have CDs and the only way to play them is using an xbox, plugged into my TV which my soundbar is linked to via HDMI. I dont want to bluetooth from spotify on my phone as so much quality is lost and i want to actually use my CDs.

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15th Oct
Seems like it would be easiest just to use a DVD player.
15th Oct
just rip them into lossless format and use whatever, save energy compared to running a dedicated player
15th Oct
Most CDs would have an optical out that you could hook up to a soundbar (No dedicated CD player would have a HDMI out - VideoCD predates the HDMI interface and would have composite out), but as Muig stated, it would be easier to use a DVD player for the HDMI connection.
15th Oct
Most likely the soundbar does not have optical input. But I would like to ask, can one tell the difference between lossy and lossless through a £99 soundbar? (edited)
15th Oct
I guess you could go extreme and use the Xbox headerless - expensive power wise, but no further investment needed. If you have a smart phone you can download the free app to control the media settings on the Xbox - all without turning on the TV...
It does seem a rather inconvenient way of listening to your CD collection though. <£30 will buy you a DVD player. Or for a similar amount you can buy the official Spotify interface - it's designed for the car, however it might serve your purpose. (carthing.spotify.com/ $29.99) You do need a Spotify Premium account though - however Microsoft Rewards are giving a 3 month free trial away atm... I would snap it up myslef if I didn;t already have a solution in place. (edited)
23 h, 50 m ago
I doubt you would be able to hear the quality difference on a cheap soundbar. Even on a high end soundbar, they can make Bluetooth audio sound pretty great, so a CD player won't make much difference over something like Spotify.
However, I would personally convert the CD to a lossless digital file and stream that to the soundbar/TV.

Also what is wrong with the xbox setup? That will give the same output as the hypothetical CD player with hdmi
22 h, 2 m ago

Most quality CD plays will have phono outputs

So get one of these cables for approx £7 on amazon

If your CD player does not have phono (unlikely because RCA phono is the industry standard connection), then perhaps this is what you need

- plug this cable into the headphone socket and then use the cable above to connect to hdmi.

or this

.richer sounds sell stand alone cd units at good prices

The cheapest one that they have is the tangent CD II which has two phono sockets at the back left

HOWEVER

Most DVD players will play CDs.

So perhaps get a DVD player with HDMI out. (As advised by MUIG1972 above)
- perhaps see if you can get one cheap on facebook marketplace / ebay (edited)
17 h, 18 m ago
Unfortunately that first cable would not work- it has no function to convert analogue to digital. The OP would need an additional device to perform that task.
15 h, 49 m ago
As muig1972 said in first comment, just buy a cheap dvd player from a supermarket.

The cd player in my old hi-fi stopped reading discs. I looked what cd players are available. The only ones you can get are expensive hifi separate units from places like richer sounds or similar. Your only cheap options are a dvd player, portable cd player or one of those mini hi-fi units with combined radio and cd player.
Author
2 h, 43 m ago
Thanks everyone!!! Really appreciate the suggestions. I am going to try and find a DVD/Blu Ray player that allows playing cds without needing a TV switched on. I will use the HDMI output to connect to a HDMI switch (Soundbar only has one input) and then HDMI switch to the sound bar. Spotify sounds ok over bluetooth but there is a definate punch to cds played through the xbox-tv-soundbar setup that i want to replicate without needing a TV switched on.
Appreciate i could rip in looseless but i want to hold the CDs in my had and flick through the insert every now and then. In a perfect world there would be a very low power small CD player designed purely to output in HDMI for setups where soundbars are in place but hey ho.
Anonymous User
2 h, 30 m ago
I can't think of a single DVD player that won't play CDs.

However, what model of soundbar do you have? I have two relatively inexpensive ones, and they have a mix of bluetooth, optical, rca, and 3.5mm inputs. In other words, does it have to be HDMI?