I went with a Squeezebox3 and Benchmark DAC, and do enjoy it but it doesn't come close to either redbook or SACD on my Esoteric. (I even bought a Lacie Firewire CD burner for my PC to get the best possible rips). I am eying a higher end dac (Esoteric or the Berkley) for the squeezebox but won't get rid of my esoteric. The SB3 is a convenience thing - the esoteric is a "I want to really listen and have my mind blown thing" - kind of like playing vinyl.
CDP's being dumped for hard drive driven units?
I may be mistaken but the past few weeks (months?) it seems some darn nice cdp's have appeared in the classifieds, at prices that are more and more attractive. Is it a sign of the economy, or are more 'philes moving to a hard drive music server? I don't know the answer, probably no one does but is this a trend noticed by others?