2. pc-audio
  3. 1137136595

Can a PC match the quality of the best CD players?

Okay, if an audiophile CD player can run you anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000, how do you build a PC that is in the same league? With the audiophile CD players you have to figure that every part of them is maximized to be the best that it can be: Transport, circuit designs, DACs, power supply, signal path, power cable...

How can a PC compete when you're stuck buying consumer grade CD burners, power supplies, motherboards etc.? Even if they are the most expensive that you can find. Is there a way to build a PC that rivals a $5,000 CD player? Of course you can add an audiophile power cable to your PC, but I have to believe that it's just throwing good money after bad when you consider the rest of the non-audiophile components used (and non-audiophile components are the only ones available as far as I know).

Does anyone know the answer to this? I know that the better CD players use great DAC's, but I am not so concerned with that as I use an RME sound card which is indeed a beautiful sounding converter. But I can't help wondering about the rest of the machine... What separates this $1000 computer from a $5000 CD player???
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Showing 1 response by kenn39

kenn39
75 posts
 
I think Edesilva explained many issues effectively. I just want to "amplify" that what PC replaces is just the transport. The big change is from reading a CD in real time to reading the hard drigve (much faster and error free) with plenty of time to spare; and hence, much better chance to obtain a low jitter, bit perfect digital stream.

The digital IC and the DAC in the final set-up are still subject to the same issues as a conventional transport and DAC set-up.

To evaluate a PC audio set-up is to evaluate whether it is a good tranpsort, but not whether it is a good CD players.
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