jukebox w. DAC, can it be good?

I make copies of all my CDs that I want loaded into the changer. About 99% of the time that use the changer, I put it on random play and it's like having my own radio station. In other words, I don't worry about the interface because I'm not trying to locate anything in particular. By making copies, I can add CD Text to every CD which means that the title / track info shows up on the display, and if I move CDs around, I don't have to type anything into the crappy user interface. It also saves wear-and-tear on the originals, and leaves them available to be played on a dedicated player. So, if I want to listen to something in particular, I go get the original and play it on the "nice" CD player.

I bought the Slink-E and DJ stuff and have it all hooked up. It works, and the DJ software has a lot of REALLY cool concepts in it. There are several downsides, however - you do have to have a computer within range, you connect up through serial cables, it's kind of expensive to get fully setup, there are some bugs in the software. There's more if you're interested, but I don't want to belabor it - it does what is says it does within the limitations.

I think the real way to do this is to look at the Escient products. They have a couple new ones coming out. They're an audio component front-end to CD jukeboxes, the internet streaming audio, etc. They include digital swithchers so it doesn't matter what the source is, it will switch to the appropriate source. They have network support, so you can control them from a computer, but also a more robust user interface so that the computer is not mandatory during playback. Support for CDDB, etc. They have one for $1200 retail and one for $2000 retail. Hopefully this will be a new type of product and other manufacturers will put out models of similar nature.

None of this replaces the desire for having a really nice, dedicate CD player, but I think the sponaneity of your CD collection playing back randomly is a lot of fun. -Kirk