Soundlistening,
Interesting article but I think it overlooks a few things.
First is that the DAC has as much to do with how the computer sounds as it does in a CD player.
Second is that I would assert that a bit perfect digital stream is always preferable to one that is not, and that this is easier and more cost effective to obtain from disk storage (assuming the rip from optical to disk process is able to retrieve all or most bits in the source at least as well as occurs aboard a CD transport or player, which I think is a good assumption these days). Once you have all the bits in the data stream that should be there, then the end flavor of the sound will be determined by how those bits subsequently get converted to analog sound, which involves the things like a clock, DAC, jitter, and other factors in both cases.
The advantage of a good CD player will be that all these things that determine the end sound are integrated into a single box (or group of carefully matched boxes) by a knowledgeable vendor for you so you do not have to worry about mixing and matching the components well yourself. Good players will do all this very well but you will probably pay a premium in the end for an integrated end product. If you attempt to integrate the parts yourself, well this stuff is not simple and YMMAV.
I prefer using a networked music player (wired or wireless) with a network connection to the music server to connecting a computer directly. This approach helps keep the computer, which is an inherently noisy device in general nicely isolated from the audio system both physically and electronically.
Interesting article but I think it overlooks a few things.
First is that the DAC has as much to do with how the computer sounds as it does in a CD player.
Second is that I would assert that a bit perfect digital stream is always preferable to one that is not, and that this is easier and more cost effective to obtain from disk storage (assuming the rip from optical to disk process is able to retrieve all or most bits in the source at least as well as occurs aboard a CD transport or player, which I think is a good assumption these days). Once you have all the bits in the data stream that should be there, then the end flavor of the sound will be determined by how those bits subsequently get converted to analog sound, which involves the things like a clock, DAC, jitter, and other factors in both cases.
The advantage of a good CD player will be that all these things that determine the end sound are integrated into a single box (or group of carefully matched boxes) by a knowledgeable vendor for you so you do not have to worry about mixing and matching the components well yourself. Good players will do all this very well but you will probably pay a premium in the end for an integrated end product. If you attempt to integrate the parts yourself, well this stuff is not simple and YMMAV.
I prefer using a networked music player (wired or wireless) with a network connection to the music server to connecting a computer directly. This approach helps keep the computer, which is an inherently noisy device in general nicely isolated from the audio system both physically and electronically.