new updates in transports or are they obsolete ?

Are there any portable music player out there that will output digital format via USB port? I know the current crops of iPod does not.

If I have to boot up my computer each time I want to play CD, not to mention the cost of a computer dedicated for playing music, I might stick to the old fashion one box CD player. But if there are portable player out there that can output digital format, I can be playing music even before my amp is on.

thanks for the input....

in really thinking about it...it would appear one could use both.

- high quality transport for data transfer ( there is a definite sonic signature for high quality transports)
- computer for transfer and playback.

the REAL questions are

- will hard drive playback capture the transports "delicate" sonic signature

- will play back on a pc be better coming coming off the hard drive after transferred since there is suppoose to less jitter ?

it would appear that a high quality transport with firewire, usb output (or a computer interface /hard drive) would be optimal..

Interesting comments by Mikesinger. I recently bought a small Yamaha hard drive type unit because I too would like to relieve some of the clutter caused by my CD collection. I'm about to start putting most of my choral CDs (many of which I listen to when learning a piece of music I'm singing and thus don't care too much about sonics) and a number of the ones I listen to less often into the hard drive so I can regain some space. I am not yet giving up my Forsell transport, though, because that is the one transport I've used with enough of a sonic signature that makes the music more engaging to me. I'm very curious, once I've stored a bunch of the CDs, to hear the differences between playback from the hard drive through my DAC vs. playback through the Forsell. The Forsell was designed to sound more like analog playback--it will be an interesting comparison. And Mikesinger is thinking as I am, I'm interested in hearing whether a CD stored in the hard drive via the Forsell transport vs. the unit's own transport mechanism sounds different, both from each other and from direct playing through the Forsell.

That will be interesting Rcprince, keep us informed.

Semi - I just leave my laptop on all the time. It has power saving modes for the CPU and screen. Just touch the touch pad and you are up and running playing songs. Much quicker than turning on a CD player and loading a CD, and I dont have to get up from the listening position.