CD format war and resultant music players

The young technology is about hooking up your computer to a DAC at the audiophile level. If you don't know what to do with usb DAC because there is only a handful of products and comments out there, then there are plenty of standard DACs. But to hook up a standard DAC, you would either have to use the soundcard S/PDIF output or a limited choice of connecting boxes one of which is the Squeezebox. So far I have not heard anything conclusive reports from reliable sources that the whole setup is leap and bound above all CDP available out there.

As to quiet PC, I have been using various components recommended by silenpcreview.com on my main computer. They are quiet relative to the standard stuff. However, the whole box is not as quiet as a good CDP.

SV:

Perhaps one reason that you are not reading conclusive reports from reliable sorces is that many of the printed media reviewers are older and started out in this hobby 20 or more years ago and so the idea of using a PC with hifi equipment is not intuitive or desireable. I am 49 years old, have been around hifi gear literally all my life (my dad was an electronics repair technician), and would not think of having the PC hooked up to my stereos. I just enjoy buying CD's and playing them in the CD player. Downloading doesn't replace the going to Tower or Virgin or J&R and looking through the stacks.

Regards, Rich

heard anything conclusive reports from reliable sources that the whole setup is leap and bound above all CDP available out there.

Nor will you. It is not "leaps and bounds above." How could it be? A lot of people have been working very hard for a long time to optimize CD playback. The likelihood of a leap forward at this point is very remote.

As for reliable sources, I've have been looking into this for some time now including implementing a system of my own, studying numerous web sites, and talking to a network of friends who use this approach. If you do the same you will find that a large number of people agree that this is a viable alternative and quite likely a superior one.

Everyone has their own comfort level, but if you have to wait for the blessing of Stereophile or The Absolute Sound before you try something then you are missing out on a whole world of wonderful possibilities to expand your audiophile horizons.

As for quiet, both my Mac Mini and Macbook are dead quiet more than an inch or two away.

I also agree about the joy of the hunt while searching through record stores, but I haven’t quit buying music. I just have a more convenient way to store and play it back as well as one that is sonically just as good if not better than the old way.

Per Txp1, "The next "audiophile" media will be vinyl. Oops, its already happening. Vinyl and vinyl playback systems are booming . . ."

Well, that sure sounds nice but let's take a look at the facts (took about 30 seconds to find, by the way). Per the RIAA, vinyl LP sales dropped 25% in 2005 from 2004; vinyl singles (which dominate vinyl in unit shipments) fell by 35.4%. These followed 2004's declines of 11.9% and 7.3% respectively, which followed 2003's drops of 11.5% and 14%, which came after 2002's falls of 23.7% and 20.8% . . .

That said, LPs have kept up their solid 0.7% market share (if you don't include downloads, that is - if you do, vinyl's share is much, much lower).

Is this what you call a "booming" market? Maybe if the boom comes from a collapse into vacuum, perhaps . . .

A lot of people have been working very hard for a long time to optimize CD playback. The likelihood of a leap forward at this point is very remote.

I think the issue here is not so much sound quality, but convenience. When you have thousands of CD's then it gets really hard to locate one specific track on one specific CD. PC based systems make a huge difference here. The sound quality can be the same if done with care.

I believe we are on a threshold of an explosion of this type of system. Two years ago it took twelve 120Gb drives to assemble 1Tb of raid storage. Now the same can be done with four drives at a third of the price. These are actual figures - I just added my second Tb of storage.

The only thing still missing is a good ADC solution for home use. Not everyone has access to professional equipment and the average sound card falls down seriously in this area. This won't bother CD only people though.

I have just been able to aquire an MFSL Ultradisk version of REM Murmur. The improvement in sound quality over the standard version is far greater than anything I could get by upgrading my equipment. I believe that in many cases we have reached the limit of what the record labels are prepared to market.

It isn't my style, but I have wondered what would happen if two keen music collectors, each with a few Tb of music met up and did the obvious thing with a network cable. Short of a re-enactment of prohibition, there is no stopping this.