why still buy a cd player?


I'm relatively new to the audiophile world, and I'm trying to understand why anone who has a sonos system (or alike) and has stored his files on a server in a lossless format would still want to buy a CD player for best audiophile music quality.

here's my thinking:

if a lossless rip format is used, the data stored after ripping on a digital hard-disk is as good as cd quality - by definition-,...

with sonos i can get that data anywhere in the house without errors

so the only thing that matters is the conversion from digital to analog and the follow-up amplification.

Now,

i can go from sonos to a pre-amp using a digital port, then the pre-amp determines the DAC quality.

or I go from sonos to an amp after using the DAC in the sonos (and use the analog connection to the amp)

If I were to have a CDP connected digitally to a pre-amp, the pre-amp DAC would determine the quality of the sound. In that case I might as well skip the CDP and fall back on my sonos and connect it digitally to my pre-amp.

So the only benefit from a CDP player would come from using the DAC and thus the analog out of the CDP. Is my logic correct?

If this is correct, than I would only have better sound quality with a CDP if the DAC of the CD player exceeds the quality of the DAC of my sonos and of my pre-amp. Is my logic correct?

If it is, and since I can imagine that most $500k CD would have better DAC than a sonos, the real comparison is to figure out of the DAC of my pre-amp is better than the DAC of my CDP. If it does, than no need for a cdp, just use sonos. If it doesn't then a cdp would still provide better quality. Is that correct?

So, the decision to by a
I can imagine that a good cdp would exceed the
mizuno
In that case, this leads me to the next question, i.e., how to best compare DACs?

Firstly features - do you need remote volume control - do you need USB input - do you want XLR - do you want a high quality finish and faceplate?

Since there are many good ones - I'd recommend to audition a few. You can start by reading reviews and see which DAC's have the most persuasive specs, preferrably with excellent jitter rejection/immunity and a highish number of positive reviews from respected reviewers. Narrow it down to a few (all will be good) and begin listening (several offer return policies) Frankly, I don't think you will find night and day differences - so your personal tastes will be the deciding factor.

Jitter immunity is probably the single most important technical factor in a DAC (given that othe rspecs will generally be excellent) ...it is well known that all audio interfaces carry at least some jitter....how much of this is audible is debatable.
Mizuno - you are getting some excellent advice.

I want to make sure that you are clear that using a hard drive as a transport instead of a CDP is somewhat of a game changer in terms of what it requires of a DAC.

Eliminating the problems associated with a 35-40 year old electro-optical-mechanical spec is not a trivial thing. When you are ripping to disc the drive is simply reading bits - something computers do everyday, all day long generally correctly.

When you are playing back from a hard drive once again all you are reading is bits. So many of the artifacts that are associated with real time playback - especially jitter - largely disappear.

While I am not an engineer, I am convinced that most of the money in top of the line CDPs and DACs has historically gone to dealing with problems associated with real time and also with SPDIF implementation.

While it is not perfect, this is a giant step forward.
I'll be buying many of new APO SACD's next year (blue note and impulse series) as well as new 24/96 FLAC's ... so I'm definitely not interested in going back to low resolution compact disc players
Mapman,

right now I'm buying SACD's but next year I'll definitely add some 24/96 FLAC's to my collection...I hope that there will be more titles available in 2009, at least 6000 as it is in SACD catalogue

when it comes to 24/96 downloads you can check for example www.hdtracks.com , linn records, naim records which just recently announced its first hi rez recordings in stereophile
http://www.stereophile.com/news/121208naim_high-resolution/