CDP's being dumped for hard drive driven units?

It seems to me that the niche would be a good SACD player with a "digital in" that could properly handle a usb signal from a computer.

I don't know the specs of every SACD player w a dig in but I don't think there's one out there properly converting a usb signal. Right now, one would have to utilize a converter (ie.: Hagerman HagUSB USB to SPDIF Converter, a Empiracle USB Off-Ramp Turbo 2 USB to S/PDIF converter, or a Trends USB converter).

It would be nice to have a one box solution for Redbook, SACD and computer.

i sold my 47 labs transport in favor of a squeezebox 3. i still use my 47 labs dac though. now i'm eyeballing the transporter.

I'm a superb "getter outer" and a terrible "putter backer".... and considering some of my challenges, that is a mess waiting to happen.

Add to that I'm also a perfectionist with a poor track record, and there's yet another obstacle.

having ALL my music at my fingertips is a really attractive prospect for me, especially if I don't have to keep onto the orgainization of them all.

The sound quality however was the issue for me. I'm also not opposed to investigating something new or different in audio performance. I found over this past year and most recently via the addition of a decent DAC that music files can and do correlate to great sounding events.

I vasilated over whether or not to go all in and sell my Sony xa777 for a good while too. Ultimately I AB'd lots of CDs & files in various formats, with various media players, and with the CD players I had on hand and kept coming up with only marginal diffs overall. Albeit the DAC being the bottleneck or main influence throughout.

consequently, given organizational appeal, readiness, varieity, all being on the upside, I'm going all in now on the magnetic arena. The sole downside I've found thus far is this: "Depth of the sound stage" isn't as deep as it is with disc players in general.

Apart from that lone aspect, the resolution and details are improved upon by and large, tonality is as keen, and imagaing is great. Ambient venue retreval is improved upon more often too.

.... and it sure beats finding and then putting the little silver goobers back up, or even burning compilations time and time again.

So does that mean I'll sell all my discs once ripped and backed up?.. or that I'm 100% done with CDPs?

No. Probably not... not until there is some major breakthrough in Disc player tech.

I went with a Squeezebox3 and Benchmark DAC, and do enjoy it but it doesn't come close to either redbook or SACD on my Esoteric. (I even bought a Lacie Firewire CD burner for my PC to get the best possible rips). I am eying a higher end dac (Esoteric or the Berkley) for the squeezebox but won't get rid of my esoteric. The SB3 is a convenience thing - the esoteric is a "I want to really listen and have my mind blown thing" - kind of like playing vinyl.

not in my lifetime