Better CDP or network player?

 Just for information purposes the aforementioned Cocktail Audio x40 or x45 is a one box solution. You can rip cd's or LP's to it's internal storage and play them back. You can stream audio over the internet. You can hook an external cd or phono player to it and play from those since it has digital and phono input to it's dac. You can hook it to an external large screen to view your library, it has an FM tuner for local station playback.  My familiarity with this is from my own resaerch in looking to move to storage and streaming. I am not recommending this unit I have no direct knowledge of it only using it as a reference there are other players that do the same things. Going the route of ripping with your computer and using network storage and a seperate player to attach to your dac is a good way and preferable by some especially if you have a good existing wired home network not sure how well wireless would handle hi res playback. The main reason I look more at the 1 box solutions is ease of use and I can't extend wired ethernet where my stereo resides. Whichever way you go try and read as much as possible about the different approaches and find one you would be comfortable with use, sound quality and economic wise. 

djones

Thanks, I will take a look at the CA x40-x45.................I'm sure that I COULD solve the puzzle of several devices interconnected and jump through the required hoops to make it work................but really, I'd just rather spend my time enjoying the music. LOL..............I have read that ripping red book to WAV actually makes them sound better.........not sure why that would be or SHOULD be, but I haven't done it, so I'll have to give them the benefit of the doubt,.......can we just spin a record and get on with life!!  LOL........thanks

The thing about going the storage route that appeals to me is being able to access the music by looking through my library on my tablet or tv screen instead of search through all my discs. You can create your own playlists of say favorite songs from one artist or have it play random like a radio station. Then again there is  something about handling the disc as listening to the whole ablum which is why I would like to keep my player

Thanks Mr Jones

Looking more like I'm going to go with a good DAC and feed it via PC and external drive for downloaded files.........can't be THAT much of a PITA. LOL I guess once it's up and running it should be fairly simple on a day to day.......I have a new Win 10 PC that's not really doing much. I can figure out how to make that a server or storage or whatever and feed an external DAC............Looking at the Schiit Yggdrasil.........seems to be something special, BUT it doesn't do DSD or hi-rez files, strictly SOTA redbook.........From what I've read so far, it's "different" in a good way and the equal of near anything else, regardless of price........A bit more $$$ than I had planned on, but at this point in life I probably won't be worried about buying another one down the road :)

Looks like a good plan. Win 10 has a built in dlna server not sure if it's used much anymore there is  probably better third party media server software.