Is computer audio a bust?

I'm with ghost house - sound is excellent once you get the kinks worked
out - which is no different from any other source.
- It took me much longer to get my turntable to a point I was happy.

iMac - dh labs USB - schiit Bifrost DAC - Essence gZero6 IC - Naim amp

I use iTunes for library control with Audirvana to bypass crappy apple
software and Retune to control iTunes from my Droid tablet

Plays every sample rate up to and including 24/192

I've found that the superior sound engineering on many high sample rate
tracks provides for a much better quality recording without the premium
price that some "quality" CD's cost $$$- you gotta like that :-)

Go back to a CD player ? - Not for this puppy :-)

Regards

Nice thread Agear. For several years, teased by both the convenience and promise of high resolution, I planned to put together a computer based system. I didn't ever get around to it because of the rather high rate of bail out, apparently due to people not realizing the expected level of performance. For me, the Sony HAPZ1 came along at the right time. While there is still a learning curve associated with the HAPZ1, it is not all that daunting, and one is assured of a pretty good sounding piece of gear from the word go.

For me, the superiority of this piece both sonically and also from the standpoint of handling my extensive music collection has almost rendered my CD player irrelevant.

With a ModWright modification of the HAPZ1, one has about 4.5K invested. It may well be possible to achieve a similar level of performance for less with a traditional computer based system, but it would seem that for the average person, there is going to be some time invested in the trial and error associated with getting the most out of such a system.

I suspect that for most people, an approach like the HAPZ1 may be a better approach.

DSD and DXD alone make Comp Audio worthwhile. Disk are nice when you want the flexibility of just playing a specific album, but hirez/DSD audio files rule.

DSD128 well mastered, played back natively, is unbeatable for me.

I got rid of fans completely so my music serving computer is just as quiet as CD-player.

The only down side with computer audio is the large data volumes with lossless audio files and the time that can be involved maintaining a library with good tagging, etc.

Be sure to have automated backup of files in place and to get tags as best possible when ripping CDs initially. Classical music files in particular can be a challenge to auto tag easily.

There is trial and error involved with learning how to tag properly using any particular software for that so be prepared to start over again with fresh copies of files when needed until you get the hang.

Getting excellent sound quality from computer audio is the relatively easy part, which should be good news for audiophiles.

COmputer literacy is needed for this as with many things these days. WIthout that there are a lot of dead ends possible.

Recently, I have added PLEX music server to enable high quality streaming of my files via internet for remote listening. THat alone opens up many possibilities for audiophile music lovers on the go in particular.