Are you still playing CDs after, comp based syst?

Neal, I think you hit the nail on the head. My PC rig was basic, at best, but it still bested my CDP in terms of clarity, detail, ambience and extension at both ends. It wasn't until I tried some old Mapleshade ICs I had that now, the CDP bested my iMac in every way you could think of. That warmth you mentioned was the missing ingredient.

It could very well be some form of jitter, for all I know, but it's full bodied, rich, and tonally loaded along with all the positive attributes I get from my iMac. There is no loss of detail, ambience or clarity but just the opposite: a more fully depicted rendering.

I get it that folk get a certain amount of satisfaction from mastering PC audio. It's like repairing a car and enjoying the ride. There is a romantic aspect to it all, not to mention the convenience. But all the PC rigs I've heard at audio shows had that missing warmth you mentioned, to some degree. Exacting, they were. Almost, but not quite hyper, and a bit unnaturally in-your-face. Only the MSB set up had me on the opening notes, and it was a CDP set up I was listening to. Exorbitantly expensive but still a CDP.

All the best,
Nonoise

I use my CDP and will wait for the Computer based systems to mature. Would like to wait till we have "affordable" NAND/Flash based storage in the 2-4TB range.

Currently researching transports and DACs available. What I would like:
-To get a "transport" that can play ALL types of discs and formats. MSB has one that is priced at around $4K. Looks like that is a modded Oppo.
-To get an affordable DAC that can decode, along with regular stuff (PCM, FLAC, AAC, etc), DSD, DXD and HDCD. DCS and MSB has that, but I will have to donate some organs to be able to afford that.

So, looks like I am at least a couple of years away from the PC audio stuff. Hence I am pretty happy with my CDP. Also interested in the new Marantz SA-11S3 player that can play SACD.

If my listening sessions were short, I probably would have bought a very nice CDP. But I work from home sometimes, and that happens in my listening room, and it gets really old constantly getting up and swapping discs throughout the day.. Not to mention the stacks and stacks of plastic cases that I have to re-alphabetize. Even my night work sessions are at least 2 hours long; I'm not a single-disc guy...plus a PC rig can be incrementally updated, a nice CDP cannot.
When I compare the final price of my PC rig to the cost of a nice CDP, used or new, the convenience factor plays a huge role in that decision. I get great sound from my PC rig, but there are too many variables in the all the other systems I've heard to decide the CDP vs PC debate. I'd have to A/B my friend's MF NuVista vs my PC rig. Now that would be something.
Also, Empirical's Mac-based rigs at RMAF 2010 and 2011 were not cold-sounding. But they weren't anywhere near my budget either!

What your DAC or CDP can produce depends on the quality of your cdp and the DAC therein.

On the weekend we test-drove a $900 DAC, and also a $4000 DAC at the dealer steamed from a MAC computer in Apple Lossless format: neither matched the performance from the same tunes played as the redbook CDP (about $12K) w.r.t. sounstage width and depth, vocal presence and instrument clarity, digging out much more the subtle details in the recording, and mainly the PRaT and overall emotion.

In this audition, the digital music server playback was comparatively compressed with a perceived dip in the midrange and upper midrange upper midrange

The point: what are are you prepared to give and compromise between the different formats?

Akg - The compressed formats are not as good as .wav for sure, however AIFF comes pretty close to .wav on a Mac, and retains all of the tags and album art.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio