I Retired My CD Player After 20 Years - Here Is What Replaced It

Twenty Years of Spinning Discs

My Marantz CD6007 had been the center of my listening room since 2006. Every evening after work, I would pull a disc from the shelf, slide it into the tray, and press play. That ritual was sacred. But over the past two years, something changed — I stopped buying CDs. Not because I lost interest in music, but because the artists I follow release digitally first, and finding physical copies has become an exercise in frustration and shipping fees.

The CD player still worked perfectly. The problem was the format itself. My shelf held maybe 400 discs. The internet held everything else.

What I Needed From a Replacement

I spent three months researching before buying anything. My requirements were specific:

• Must output clean analog audio through RCA jacks — no Bluetooth compression, no 3.5mm consumer output
• Must work completely independently from my phone — I refuse to use an app as a remote control for my HiFi system
• Must have optical input so I can route my TV audio through the same component
• Must not require a monthly subscription — I already cancelled Spotify after realizing I only used it in the car
• Must look and feel like proper audio equipment, not a plastic gadget from a department store

Network streamers from Cambridge Audio and Bluesound checked most boxes but started at $700 and still required a phone app. I wanted something simpler.

The Component That Checked Every Box

The TUNERSYS WS161 arrived in a box half the size I expected. At 242 x 218 x 70mm and 2.5kg in brushed aluminum, it occupies less rack space than the CD player it replaced. The first thing I noticed was the front panel — 4mm thick aluminum alloy with a satisfying weight when I set it on the shelf.

Setup took four minutes. Power on, select my WiFi network, enter the password, done. The LCD showed station names scrolling past, and I was listening to BBC Radio 3 from London before I had finished putting the packaging away.

Living With 32,000 Stations

The initial novelty of browsing stations by country wore off after a week. What remained was something more useful: a curated list of 99 favorites that I built over that first week. Station 1 is a jazz channel from New York. Station 14 is a classical broadcast from Vienna. Station 37 is a blues station from Chicago that plays until 2 AM. I rotate the knob, press the preset number, and music fills the room.

The stations broadcast in AAC and MP3 at bitrates between 128 and 320 kbps. Is it lossless? No. Does it matter at 11 PM with a glass of wine and the lights dimmed? Not even slightly. The convenience of having every genre from every country outweighs the theoretical quality difference that my 50-year-old ears probably cannot detect anyway.

The Feature That Surprised Me Most

I bought the WS161 as an internet radio. I did not expect to use it as a DAC for my television. But the optical Toslink input on the back panel changed that. I ran a single optical cable from my Samsung TV to the WS161, switched to AUX mode, and suddenly every documentary, concert film, and movie soundtrack was playing through my HiFi speakers via a proper 24-bit/192kHz digital-to-analog converter.

The coaxial SPDIF input sits next to the optical, waiting for the day I decide to add a CD transport. For now, the optical connection to my TV gets used every evening.

Driving Speakers Directly

My main system uses a separate amplifier. But for the bedroom, I connected a pair of KEF Q150 bookshelf speakers directly to the WS161 speaker binding posts. The built-in TPA3611 Class D amplifier delivers 50W per channel into 4 ohms — more than enough for a 15-square-meter room. The sound is clean, detailed, and surprisingly controlled in the low end.

This means the WS161 can serve as a complete one-box system: source, DAC, and amplifier. Add speakers and you have a full HiFi setup for under $700 total.

Playing My Own Music Library

My NAS holds about 2TB of FLAC files ripped from those 400 CDs over the years. The WS161 finds the NAS automatically via UPnP/DLNA and plays everything — FLAC, WAV, MP3, AAC — up to 24-bit/96kHz with gapless playback. No app needed. I browse albums using the front panel knob and remote control.

This was the moment I knew the CD player was not coming back. Every disc I ever owned was now accessible from the same component that gives me 32,000 live stations.

What I Miss About the CD Player

Honestly? The ritual. The physical act of choosing a disc, reading the liner notes, placing it in the tray. The WS161 cannot replicate that tactile experience. But it replaced the functionality completely, added thousands of stations I never had access to, eliminated subscription fees, and freed up an entire shelf of storage space.

The CD6007 now sits in a closet. I keep telling myself I will sell it. I probably will not.

Six Months Later

The WS161 has been running daily for half a year. It auto-resumes the last station when powered on — I walk into the room, press the power button, and music starts within three seconds. The dual alarm clocks wake me to Vienna classical on weekdays and silence on weekends. The sleep timer turns off after 60 minutes of late-night listening.

The backlight dims to near-zero at night, showing just enough clock to read without lighting up the room. The remote control sits on the nightstand for volume adjustments without getting out of bed.

Total cost of music in the past six months: zero. No subscription. No disc purchases. Just 32,000+ free stations and my own library.

Specifications

• Type: Internet Radio Tuner with Built-in Amplifier
• Stations: 32,000+ Free HD Stereo via SkyTune
• Amplifier: TPA3611 Class D, 50W x 2 (4 ohm, THD 0.04%)
• DAC: 24-bit/192kHz — Optical Toslink + Coaxial SPDIF input
• Outputs: RCA Line Out + 3.5mm Headphone + Speaker Binding Posts (4-8 ohm)
• Inputs: Optical + Coaxial + 3.5mm AUX
• Streaming: Internet Radio + UPnP/DLNA + Bluetooth
• Display: 2.0 inch Green LCD, dimmable 0-100%
• Dimensions: 242 x 218 x 70mm, 2.5kg brushed aluminum
• Power: DC 24V/3.5A (AC 100-240V), linear PSU upgrade compatible

Frequently Asked Questions

For the price of a year Spotify subscription, you get a lifetime of free HD radio. The math is simple.