new updates in transports or are they obsolete ?

Rcprince wrote:
"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."

Huh? Maybe you do not understand how the computer works. When the data is stored on the hard-drive, it is only the data, no timing information. As long as there is an error-free data read of the CD, it does not matter what CD reader that you use or how fast it is read. It's only data. The timing information is added back at playback from the hard-disk/memory of the computer by either the add-in card or the external converter.

Audioengr: I really am computer illiterate, so I only have a basic idea how this works. You had said in an earlier post that the hard drive would capture the transport's delicate "signature", I had assumed that meant that if I used the Forsell as the transport to transfer the digital data to the Yamaha, it might have a different signature than if I use the Yamaha's own built-in transport to transfer the data from the disc. If not, that's fine with me, one less variable to check in my comparison. Did I misread your previous post?

Audioengr,

Can you suggest some hardwares & softwares to setup a computer base audio system?

Do I need USB2 or will USB1 be sufficient? Will the USB input DAC available today my best bet or should I use conventional DAC and add the interface hardware to convert USB to coax? Given that it's pure digital and audio freq is not very high, I assume adding a USB-coax converter like Waveterminal will not introduce errors.

Also, do I need to disable my sound card to direct audio bit stream to USB?

Thanks in advance.

RCprince - I dont think it was me that said anything about "delicate" anything. The CDROM or DVDROM drive reads the data into the computer to be stored on the Yamaha hard disk. That's all. You should not be trying to use your CD player to read data to the hard drive.

Semi wrote:
"Can you suggest some hardwares & softwares to setup a computer base audio system?"

You will need a laptop or a quiet tower with USB2.0, at least 2.0GHz Pentium. I would recommend the Off-Ramp Turbo USB to S/PDIF coax converter to a conventional DAC such as the excellent Benchmark DAC-1 (get a new one) or a modified Perpetual P-3A. The P-3A has the advantage of I2S input. I will be offering a USB to I2S converter at the new year. This is the native interface for the DAC chips, so it eliminates the S/PDIF interface, which is even better. If you want balanced outputs, the Benchmark is the best choice.

The sound card may compete with the USB interface, so you may need to defeat this. I talk about many of these things in my article on Computer Audio for positive-feedback.com. Look for this to be published soon.