Wow CDs everywhere...What to do?

Rge following IMHO....

The key to this is the Escient box - if you can find one at the right price its a fine thing. But do not mistake the quality of a Sony CD changer for a hard drive based system - the changers are an evolutionary dead end with no one else supporting the format, and the cost is greater too.

In fact it was researching these players and the very expensive Escient that led me down the path of hard drive based systems exactly 2 years ago. There has been tremendous evoluton on the one side - and none on the other.

Don't mean to rain on anyone's parade. I have no doubt that Bigbucks is a happy camper - clearly this approach is better then a wallful of CDs. Its just nowhere near the ultimate solution that is available to all of us right now.

I understand that this isn't the ultimate solution. It seems the 'right' architecture is some kind of networked collage of hard drives tied to a wireless network with the right peripherals to make the sound happen.

For know, I'm not ready to make that jump into a 'disc-less' environment. I like the physical CDs. But I'm sure that once I get comfortable with the system I have, I'll atart thinking along the lines of the completely discless system.

With the Fireball it is a simple matter of convenience and super easy access to your entire music library vs. pure audiophile sound quality. The sound from the Fireball is good though. When you really want to sit and listen critically you can always grab a CD and play it in your stand alone player.

Ckorody - Who would argue that the sound quality from an iPod is not sub par? Nobody cares because of the easy access to your music that it gives you. Escient is not trying to be the next Esoteric or Wadia. They have made a simple to use product that integrates into your sound system with ease and does actaully sound good too. I would say compared to a Sony CD changer most people would not be able to tell the difference. And you can run the digital out from the Fireball into your higher end DAC and really put the Sony Mega Changer to shame :-)

I have had my PC connected to my audio system and had a 300 CD changer but until I got a Fireball I had never listened to my music as much as I do now. I can't see not having one at this point.

I'll argue =) Apple Lossless coming out of the DAC with a very good cable surprises most people.

I got into all this in 2003/4 because the Sony changer was obviously a dead-end with very sketchy software support from third parties. And Escient while breakthrough for its time, was and is just too expensive.

But regardless of which technology works for you, or you happen to have for the moment, one thing emerges again and again - everybody is listening to a lot more music from all over their collections not just the pile on top.

And that's a good use of technology IMHO

Why wasn't I doing this before?!

Hey BigBucks...welcome to the club of people who play music rather than fiddle with jewel cases, sleeves or mess with "ripping"!

I have been doing this since 2001 using a product called Titletrack Jukebox, orignally available only for MAC and now available for both MAC and PC.

I can chain together up to 12 Sony mega CD changers but currently I am using only four and ths system has worked like a dream from day one. (uses Sony's A1 Slink to control things)

I can browse/find music through a computer interface with search functions and cover art, queue it up in a playlist and have the music play continuously (no interuptions as the next track on another CD changer is ready to go when one track finishes)

Obviously I like the convenience to be able to quickly find and listen to a lot of music - so this is not for everyone.

I will throw away my changers in five or ten years when everything will go to a RAID hard drive system (or equivalent) but in the meantime I don't waste my time ripping CD's or feeding the CD tray like an assembly line worker. When I get a new CD I simply pop it in any spare slot in any changer and it grabs the track list and cover art for me over the web.

See my virtual system for details...