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Are Disc Players Dead?

How important is a disc player anymore? I think that stand alone DAC's have far eclipsed the stand alone disc player in importance over the last 3 years with the rise of server based music.

Only an SACD really needs a disc player anymore. In what instance can you get better sound from a disc player than when you download the music, CD or HiRez, then play it back through a new stand alone DAC with the latest technology?

I really only use my very humble disc player to watch movies that I own now. I download most movies to rent through AppleTV, and if I buy a CD (rare) I download it to the server, where it takes up residence in iTunes for playback in AIFF format.

So, disc players on their deathbed, as DAC move to the top of the digital mountain?

I say yes.
macdadtexas

Showing 2 responses by bigamp

bigamp
219 posts
 
talk is there's movement now to offer DSD (sacd) downloads too. unless someone has a bunch of sacds, the argument for getting a new sacd transport seems to be getting weaker and weaker.

however, having said that, not all dacs and digital interfaces are created equal. for example, you're not going to get the same performance as a transport when you use a pc and a usb interface unless you have the right usb implementation that significantly reduces jitter. in my opinion, for usb, i would only go with a dac that has built in two-dimensional jitter reduction like the playback designs dac or, if the dac didn't have this, then a dac in combo with an empirical audio usb converter that reduces jitter.
bigamp
219 posts
 
the analog guys hold on to vinyl because they generally like the sound of lps compared to the digital version, and you lose some quality ripping vinyl to hard disk. but cds can be ripped to hard disk without any reduction in quality, so you lose nothing in your digital music collection going to pc playback.
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