I've been using a hard-drive based system for over a year now. Rarely spin actual CD's anymore and sold a big chunk of my collection that was taking up space. In contrast to Kenny's experience, in my comparison(s) of CD transport and hard-drive based system I could not tell the difference. Both are going through the same DAC though with no digital processing/equalization. I use a Waveterminal U24 and a Mac Laptop with files ripped to external drives in WAV or Apple Lossless.
Marco
Marco