Is computer audio a bust?

Your kidding!, they will not EVER make a $15,950.00 usb cable!, really!, I have a $15,950.00 balnced cable! very incredible sounding to say the least!, state of the art!, computer audio will never reach that point of world class systems, case closed!

That is the best parody of an audiophile posting I've ever read. Outrageous hyperbolic nonsense with a hefty dose of sarcasm. The repeated use of exclamation points, priceless!!!

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Computer audio needs a visionary like Steve Jobs to look at the overall picture and commit building a killer product that will get rid of all of the guesswork in computer audio. Computer audio needs a plug & play device that simplifies everything....like a cd player. The field is too fragmented.
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I see many posts as to the ease of using computer audio. But nothing about how long it took to set up your music library and the cost and time involved. Anybody? Were you able to get that great sound you have right out of the gate, or did you have to keep changing things as the technology improved? Just curious...Cost of music ripped, time involved ripping, cost of the entire computer audio section?

If one has a CD player and is satisfied listening to whole CDs, then probably no reason to change.

Computer audio opens up entirely new listening scenarios though beyond listening to one CD at a time. I can queue music in my library up in any order I want and let it play on. OR I can quickly search and find what I want to hear without interruption. I find I have discovered a ton of new music I was not familiar with but learned to like this way compared to the old way of picking one CD or recording to listen to at a time. Very liberating and very conducive for exploring new music. Plus the album, track artist and related info is at your fingertips to explore further if desired.

Then there is the variety of music available via internet radio and music streaming services, many with very good sound quality these days as well.

These are features that add utility to the music listening experience for most. No need to change really unless one is interested in exploring the new possibilities with computer audio. Sound quality can be top notch either way with just a little care and attention.

"I see many posts as to the ease of using computer audio. But nothing about how long it took to set up your music library and the cost and time involved. Anybody? Were you able to get that great sound you have right out of the gate, or did you have to keep changing things as the technology improved? Just curious."

YEs, I got great sound right out of the gate several years ago using a Roku Squeezebox and DAC of choice. That continued as I moved to Squeezebox feeding same DAC and system, and now as well as I start to implement PLEX as an eventual Squeezebox replacement.

Cost is minimal compared to a lot of "high end" audio, especially if you already have a computer.
Creating and maintaining a library does involve some work to get tagging correct, but mostly for classical music. Setting up backups with software is not hard or costly. Seagate drives work great and come with backup software already installed for example.

Data volumes for lossless music libraries can get large. My .wav library of about 2000 CDs comes in at just under 1Tb and the converted FLAC version about half that.