Will computer to DAC replace transports and cdp's?

As I have stated many time elsewhere, I changed over to a hard-drive based system last Spring and too have never looked back (I have iterated the reasons before and they have been stated in this thread already, so I am not going to repeat the now obvious reasons why the change makes sense). As to the question of whether to keep the CD's or not, here is what I have decided. I will keep all remastered and audiophile grade CD's and will sell everything else.

At first I thought I would not sell them because, what if my hard-drive crashed? Well, I solved that issue by always having my music backed up on a second drive. I have become so convinced that server-based music systems are the future, I want to be able to get something for my CD's before they become virtually worthless (which I think will happen within about 5 years for older issue and non-remastered discs).

I agree that digital inputs on new CD players should be standard (if not USB inputs).

I compared my hard drive based system as transport with my CEC TL-51X as transport. I was using a Dodson 218 DAC and the Waveterminal U24. I found it difficult to relibaly tell them apart.

Dweller: When you rip a disc to iTunes it accesses the Gracenote database and assigns album and song titles to all the music you rip--for free. Also, the Waveterminal U24 can be used as a D/A converter or just a USB to S/PDIF converter.

Matrix: It only take about 2-3 minutes to rip a CD to hard drive. To me, that time does not necessitate needing a separate transport -- though there may be other good reasons people want a seperate player/transport anyway(SACD/DVD-A).

I agree that CD's and CD players are not going to hold their value like they used to. In fact, I think spending big money on any digital source these days is a risky propsition.

Let me try again. Playing a song (Bill Evans Live at the Village Vanguard - Track 1, let's say) from an external LaCie hard-drive, using my Apple laptop running iTunes as the interface -- with the U24 taking the USB signal out from the computer and converting it into S/PDIF, and then running a coxial digital cable from the U24 into my Dodson DAC, which was connected to a Modwright Preamp, a Pass Labs 250.5 amp and VR4JR speakers....sounded AS GOOD as playing the CD I ripped the music from via a CEC TL51X transport with the same coaxial cable out to the Dodson DAC and through the same system.

One thing I forgot to add to my above post is that all my tunes were ripped in Apple Lossless format.

There is no fan noise on my Apple Laptop -- I have the unit on a stand that keeps one end propped up and it is virtually silent.

FM Radio: Many radio stations offer a webcast of their boradcasts and the sound quality is good. Not all stations do this though. That said, I subscribe to Live365 which is an internet radio clearing house that has thousands of stations of both FM and CD quality, commercial free, in every genre imaginable. I spend almost as much time listening to this as I do my CD collection on hardrive. It is not that expensive given what you gain access too.

I have heard that it is easy to add a digital input on some CD players and extremely difficult with others.

There are other people who participate on this site who are far more qualified than I to answer the questions about why the hard-drive transport can sound as good as a dedicated CD transport. In fact, they have done so on other threads on this very same topic at this site.

I use a Waveterminal U24 to take the USB signal from my computer and convert it to S/PDIF -- and then run coaxial out to my DAC. The U24 does not require its own power as it pull that from the USB cable: I am assuming this is a good thing?

Thanks, Audioengr. The U24 has no other power supply options.

It would seem to me that the future lies in USB DAC's, so that extra step of conversion can be skipped altogether. What do yo think?