I am assuming that you are connecting the Onkyo CDP to the same DAC as the computer. The files that you play from the computer have been ripped to a HD. Hard drives tend to sound better than the same disc played on a CDP. This has been noted since the first CD burners were used, when people noticed that the burned copies sounded better than the originals. Presumably there is a jitter reduction.
CD Player - Dgital Out on Onkyo C-7030
Does anyone know if the spdif output on this CD player by-pass the internal dack on the player? I rarely use it, as the sound is poor compared to CD to Flac files downloaded on my hard drive. I am wondering if the purchase of a CD transport would improve the sound quality of playing CD's. Sometimes I just want to play a CD.