That's kind of a middle ground, wait and see strategy that gets you better performance today AND prepares you for the future. Then when servers get better (solid state memory, etc) I could use the DAC with it. If I were in the market for a digital source I would buy a great DAC and continue to use my current CD player as a transport. The cost of distribution for CD's just cuts into record company profitability too much to continue to be allowed to existent. They won't blink out of existence this year or the next but it will happen. However, the straight CD player's days are numbered as are those of the CD. Each individual has to weigh the various advantages and disadvantages and make the decision that is best for THEM. My point is that AT THIS POINT, neither is the hands down superior technology. The Transporter (and similar devices) of course being excepted because they don't have an on board hard drive.
#Apple cd drive sound quality plus#
Plus they create lots of vibrations and inject them into the equipment rack, which I believe can affect the performance of all of the other gear in addition to the electrical noise they MUST be radiating. In most cases the hard drives also create mechanical noise, which can raise the noise floor of the listening room. But they also have some disadvantage too which include an electrically noisy, computer-like environment which isn't very hospitable to analog information.
Servers have one theoretical sonic advantage over a standard CD player which is the reduction of jitter because of the way that they import the CD data and the manner in which it is read off of the drive when the time for playback comes. The Transporter has also been brought up and there has been lots of good ink spilled on that piece of gear. Naim also has a unit that might be promising. Someone already mentioned the Linn, which I haven't heard but would certainly check out. I had an MS-250 at home for about a week and I will say that the instant access to any digital music in your collection was addictive, even for me and I tend to listen to whole albums instead of song hopping. My office system has no flaws that I can hear.Īrcam makes a server that sounds close to, but not quite as good as an Ayre CX-7. Sound wise though, computer based systems have all the potential of physical players. I have a really nice computer based system at the office, but don't see myself ever using a computer as a primary means of playback. Staring at a computer screen just isnt as sexy or involving. I enjoy sitting down and mashing buttons, twiddling controls. I enjoy taking the media out and reading the liner notes. What I dont like is the whole "taking the human aspect out" side of things. Sound quality, at least on paper, has every bit of potential of cd players. It just depends on the sound card and the DAC, and of course which protocol you use to get the bits out of the computer. there are too many factors involved from system to system to make any blanket claims. I believe that you should take any comments like that with a grain of salt. As for someone saying "the hard drive system will sound better".
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