CDP or DAC?

If you want to get close to analog I recommend an Audio Research CD9se. This is the best sounding CD player / DAC I have heard. The tubes allow for a wonderful midrange bloom and natural analog sound. I actually did a side by side comparison with a DAC costing $5K more and actually preferred the natural sound of the CD9se better.

ARC stopped manufacturing them recently because the company producing the transports stopped making them. But it should still be possible to find one, or used.

@ghdprentice You've pretty much hit on why its a crapshoot buying a CD player these days that transport goes and it's a boat anchor.

Jond, I would say that there are still reputable compaines (aldo perhaps with pricey products) that will offer excellent cd players and provide service for it for years to come.

Now, we are already speaking about 'death of pc audio' as streamers are new 'hit' on the market, but still with some imminent problems.

Imho, the 'pc audio' (in one way or another) has never become the 'buy it and forget about it ' package.
Too many variables, in software and in 'hardware' too.

That does not mean that it cant sound good (or great) but more often than not, it requires more time and effort (money too) than great vinyl rig, yet alone use of a cd player.

Arguments for it, acces to more music, ease and speed of use, etc, were never an issues for me at first place, but that is just my personal opinion

@jond:

"You've pretty much hit on why its a crapshoot buying a CD player these days that transport goes and it's a boat anchor."

Depends on whether a company has transports stashed away for future repairs or not.  

@jond …

I am sure Audio Research has a huge supply of transports for repair so their customers never become boat anchor owners… it is a reputable company. Also, I actually do not use the transport part, I use it as a DAC. I had a Berkeley Alpha 3 ($22K) in my system for comparison for a couple weeks. The difference in sound was absolutely minuscule in my system, but I preferred the ARC. I have compared CDs to streaming the same content, on my system and there is no difference. CDs as a media will go away and less and less companies will make them. So, buying the CD player for the sound of the DAC is really what you are doing unless it is a transport only. There is no fundamental difference in the media like there is in analog. The CD just has digital files on them. Unless you just like futzing with physical media there is no fundamental benefit.