noob DAC question

If you have a choice allways buy a seperate amplifier,I donot care for dac included in amp for it is limited ,buy the best Dac you can afford.the dac is what will dictate in part tonal balance, detail,it is First before going to a preamplifier ,receiver you Cannot make up for detail later,once it is lost it is gone. That is why I try to buy the best dac I can afford if building a digital
Library ,buy a Big external drive 2 terabyte is so great value.seperate power supply is better - plug in less noise.
Wav files are best totally uncompressed,flac is second. My uncle is a recording engineer with over 30 years in the field. The new DSD downloads
Are tops, if you are buying a new dac you are better off waiting to buy a new dac with DSD capabilities for it is becoming more popular by the week.
And sacd is a DSD recording.Apple format can be converted to wav or flac files,the most accurate program around $40is DB Poweramp which accurately rips cds to digital files, and will convert any file format
Essential for any quality playback.

You are probably looking at CD players with digital inputs. In this case their
DAC is used to play audio files from a computer source.

Got it. Thanks for opening my eyes. Hadn't even really thought about the possibility of replicating CD's on my HD in a way other than ripping at a max of 192Kbps through Media Player. But of course you can. Hell, that's really the ticket - a 1000 CD changer equivalent at your fingertips.

thanks again - now i have lots to think about lol.

"that's really the ticket - a 1000 CD changer equivalent at your fingertips."

I agree!!! Takes some time to get CDs ripped at first, but worth it. I rip all CDs straight to music server in loss-less format to play them when I get new ones. I may be coming up on 2000 overall by now.

In addition to excellent sound quality possible, you typically also get a lot of flexibility and usability features, like remote wireless network control via laptops, tablets or smartphones (no more device specific remotes), display of album art and other music related information, and one of my personal favorite features, the ability to let the server play tracks randomly, essentially making your own personalized "radio station" that only plays your music but not in an order that is anticipated, which helps provide another unique way to discover the gems in your library.

Alright - and again, thanks to all who have taken the time to contribute - let's say I finally decide to join the century and create a digital database on my PC in a format where minimal or no bits are lost when ripping the CD.

I figure there are 2 primary options: upgrade the hell out of my soundcard or bypass it. Let's say I want to bypass it and instead purchase a CD player with co-ax digital inputs like the Azur 840c. (I've looked over quite a few CD players in my price range - $1000 or less used - and have yet to see a USB input).

How do I get the PC (or specifically the HD) to interface with the CD player in order to exploit the DAC?