I suppose since a CD player relys on a digital format. The question will be more about how religious one is about the file type and it being identical regardless of where it is stored. Then as pointed out the analog output section becomes paramount. Thus if you purchase an expensive one do not pay a lot for the transport do it as a DAC with the ability to play a historical media type.
My only question is why are so many of us including myself slow to adopt the music server as a source?
Another point is that Turntables and LPs are a poor comparison as vinyl and it's playbackhave continued to evolve amongst the cognescenti. Mass market for vinyl and TTs may be virtually non existent, but Luxury turntables are the norm for people who play records.
Cassettes BTW are a different story. The CD killed the cassette but Lps survived as a highly desirable analog media and yet the cassette is still dead despite being another analog media- Why? I don't know, except for me, the lack of discrete track selection was more of an inconvenience than I could stand and despite the fairly high level of sophistication with better tapes and a very good deck they never sounded quite as good as my records or even dare I say my better CDPs.
My only question is why are so many of us including myself slow to adopt the music server as a source?
Another point is that Turntables and LPs are a poor comparison as vinyl and it's playbackhave continued to evolve amongst the cognescenti. Mass market for vinyl and TTs may be virtually non existent, but Luxury turntables are the norm for people who play records.
Cassettes BTW are a different story. The CD killed the cassette but Lps survived as a highly desirable analog media and yet the cassette is still dead despite being another analog media- Why? I don't know, except for me, the lack of discrete track selection was more of an inconvenience than I could stand and despite the fairly high level of sophistication with better tapes and a very good deck they never sounded quite as good as my records or even dare I say my better CDPs.