The CD player is dead.......

If I had the hair to comb over I'd still keep my CDP until the cost of the Qsonix comes down. As good as computer audio is, there's another post somewhere about just how bad they can sound and how a Hackintosh is the only way to go.
And once you've heard the Hack, you'll never go back....

The Qsonix supposedly has all the benefits of computer audio and none of the drawbacks but that $7000-$10000 buy in cost is out the question for me.
Computer audio is still growing and in its infancy and much too costly for most of us to take the plunge. What you have right now will be antiquated and in need of updating both software and hardware wise before you know it, if you are still chasing the dragon, which we all are. There is no 'end game' with computer audio, its just another step.

Add my age and comfort level and total lack of knowledge for all things computer based and that's my take.

Mlsstl - You're right. Nothing is 100% safe. I also know that backup Hard Disks tend not to fail when they are not powered. I have two backups - total of 3 1TB drives. Each costs $99 and is dead silent (no fan, heavy metal case). Somebody mentioned 5 hard disk crashes in 4 years. I had 4 PCs in last 23 years at work with no failure.

Quality of computer drive doesn't matter (many CDPs have standard Phillips CDM12 computer drive anyway). CDP has to read data in real time and cannot fail when sector is not readable. Tiniest scratch along the disk longer than 0.1" (4000 bits) makes disk unreadable. Because of that CD uses instead of regular Reed Solomon error correction code Cross Interleaved Reed Solomon that INTERPOLATES incorrect data. My computer program MAX rips CDs as data going hundreds of times to the same sector, if necessary, to get proper checksum. Once I get this on the hard drive quality never changes while CD is getting more scratches and interpolation. Is it (interpolation) audible - not to me. Amount of improvement is most likely not very significant (if any) but it is not worse than CDP.

Tvad wrote: "Theft, house fires and windstorms all apply equally to downloaded files stored on equipment on one's home."

Yes, but I keep one of backups at work. It would be pretty difficult to make copies of 2000 CDs and keep them at different location.

My main objective was to find out why people prefer cd players over a computer/dac combo.

I'm surprised that as far as I can see no one has yet mentioned the jitter issues that can arise with interfaces between dacs and spdif or aes/ebu or usb outputs, but which do not arise with a competently designed one-box player.

Certainly those issues can be and frequently are overcome, but not without some combination of luck; trial and error; careful selection of components, jitter rejection technology, cables, connector types, and even cable length; and in many cases added expense as well.

Obviously there are many other factors which will result in a one-box approach not being the right solution for many people, but the jitter issue would certainly seem like something that should be a significant consideration in the tradeoffs.

Regards,
-- Al

What if the CD player is cryoed?