Wadia 381 vs. dcs Puccini vs. EmmLabs CDSA SE

I've never heard of an unhappy Puccini owner. I think I'll wait till the current digital processing is obsolete before making the next move though. I somehow think the next move will involve some kind of music server and DAC. I assume there will be some progress made during the next 3-5 years, espeically in the availability of hi-rez downloads.

I agree wholeheartedly. The next 5 years will bring about a sea change in the way music is played at home. High-end music servers that play music from solid state memory, a bit like the Memory Player from Nova Physics but even better. Music would be sold in memory cards like SD, not as physical spinning discs. No more transport problems or disadvantages of hard drives with their moving parts, error correction, reliability, noise and so on. Hmm...that would be just the time to retire the Puccini.

well, I bought mine Puccini in 2008 and added clock in 2009. In 2010 still there is no a subsequently better one in market. And it won't be......because time of ''cd'' is up. We are the users of last great cd players...

You might be right, unlike the wrong predictions of the death of vinyl, I don't think there will be a backweard look for reasons of nostalgia or sound quality for 16/44 once hi-rez digital is ubiquitous. It does seem that vinyl might just never die out for both reasons, nostalgia and very high resolution music source. Frankly, I think Redbook is sounding pretty darn good, but hi-rez can only be better - no?

Definitely better! High-rez music either downloaded from the net or sold as memory cards would seem to be the best way to enjoy music in the future. The vinyl guys may continue with their hobby not just for nostalgia or sound quality but as a hobby for hobby's sake - placing an LP on the table, tweaking with the VTA, static-gunning their collection, and so on and so forth....