Is computer audio a bust?

I'm more curious now and may start to dabble a bit in CA. Will read much and go VERY slow. Not going to spend anything until I feel comfortable I know just what I'm getting into. I think for my needs I shouldn't have to spend much. Going to get educated first.

"Not going to spend anything until I feel comfortable I know just what I'm getting into.

Always a good idea. :^)

Mapman,

I haven't tried anything but JRiver, but I did a lot of research before choosing it. The $49 price is a pittance, but it funds a lot of good development and support, and, as a software person, I am impressed by the JRiver product.

I had a few quirks ripping CD's with JRiver, such as a few albums listing tracks twice, and one CD spinning off a separate cover icon for each track. But nothing bad, and it could have been my refusal to read the instructions.

I also chose FLAC because it was lossless, and I couldn't find any advantages of other formats. I don't believe wav offers anything over FLAC. Haven't tried DSD, yet.

I decided to try CA when a CD transport started acting up, and it caught me by surprise when the system sound quality improved dramatically. There are some external variables--I'm using a very good Wireworld USB cable, and it may be that my DAC just does a better job on USB than coax.

Cheers

when they make a Hi Res copy of the original disc for downloading off the internet shouldnt they really be treating the disc first? Wouldn't they get a better copy and therefore folks would get better downloads? hmmm...one wonders

It does not matter how good a computer audio source can be or hope to be, If the terminations and cables used can never amount to mid-fi, It is impossible to achieve world class sound if it is not possible to have the cables to transfer such data!, This is a bust, limited to say the least.