USB CD Transports

"Different" is not always a good thing.  I dumped all my CD players long ago.  There are issues:

All RIP software does not verify it was read correctly or check a CRC against a known database. 

All players do not behave correctly. Even ASIO or WASAPI/exclusive/asynchronous.  I know for sure as I had issues with MusicBee but not with JRiver.  I am assuming WAV or lossless format. 

Player software ( you don;t have in the transport) may do funny things with levels. Leveling without dropping 3 dB can cause issues in the DAC oversampeling. So PC based may not sound as good due to configuration. ( or gasp, what the Windows audio stack does to it) 

Some old or overworked PCs may not get the decompression right in a timely manner causing skips.  Probably only on an overworked too small PC being used for heavy gaming or if running a big SPICE simulation. 

If you let the PC or Apple clock your data, it may have issues.  Quality of the DAC and how it handles issues is important.  Even the buffer and if it is sufficient to pass the occasional protocol handshaking on USB. 

Some cables, like the free included ones, are so poorly shielded you do get errors and noise. I tested some. True.  A half decent cable, Belkin, Belden, Monoprice etc all work as perfectly as they can. 

Some PCs put a ton of garbage on the USB. Again, the quality of the DAC implementation matters. Playing from a CD transport may be cleaner if into a poor or old DAC.  A better DAC will be immune. 

A really good transport with a really good clock feeding a really good DAC ( internal would be my preference) avoids many of these issues. Personally, I find no fault or sonic difference between my bottom of the line touchscreen PC, FLAC on an SSD, into a decent DAC to be just the same as my old OPPO or Rotel transport.  There is no magic in transports after we developed buffers.  Back in '72 there was. 

You want USB. Why do you want to pack the PCM into the USB format just to unpack it on the other end?   I can see having a transport for convenience but not for quality. Audio transports are a lot snappier than the current BD players.  I had an old Rotel just for that.  Push open, it opened, not thought about it! ( Used fiber out) 

@mitchagain:

Sadly, the ET3 is going back to MusicTeck. The firmware consistently locks up, and though the CD is recognized and data is sent to the DAC, neither the remote nor the buttons on the unit will work, so playing the CD is impossible. The I2S did transmit data to the DAC, so at least that worked...

I posted a few of my thoughts on the Schiit Urd on another thread.  

IMHO, a key technology of the Urd that seems to be getting overlooked is the Unison USB interface.  Mike Moffat designed this interface to be superior to SPDIF.  The Urd uses the USB Word clock to synchronize the flow of data from transport to DAC.  A different, and much lower cost approach, than using a Master clock to reduce timing errors. 

The Urd USB interface sounds excellent.