James,
Regarding the claim of the Olive, as you increase the sampling rate (from 44.1 to 96khz) and word length (16 to 24 bit) you greatly increase the amount of data being stored. This does not result in anywhere near a proportional increase in sound quality though.
The Olive is designed for someone to rip their cds to and I think it upsamples them. This will give you maybe a small improvement in sound quality, maybe not, but not nearly as much as a file that was recorded at a higher sampling rate and bit depth (96/24 for example) and delivered to you at that same resolution through SACD or high-res download. Some people think that even high-res files are not that much of an improvement over cds. The Absolute Sound has an article on that very subject in the July/August issue.
IMHO, computer audio has not developed to the point that most people should get rid of a cd player and go to computer audio exclusively. Audiofreak will vehemently disagree with me on this. I'm not anxious to rip all my cds to a server. I don't mind playing cds and I see computer audio more as a means to download and store high-res files when that market matures a little more.
Computer audio is still pretty glitchy if you are not comfortable with computers and electronic devices. I think that it will get more user friendly and cheaper in the next few years. That's why I recommended that you get a player with digital inputs at present. Do a lot of homework if you think you want to stop spinning cds and go to computer audio. I'm waiting but a lot of people have made the change and like it a lot.
Regarding the claim of the Olive, as you increase the sampling rate (from 44.1 to 96khz) and word length (16 to 24 bit) you greatly increase the amount of data being stored. This does not result in anywhere near a proportional increase in sound quality though.
The Olive is designed for someone to rip their cds to and I think it upsamples them. This will give you maybe a small improvement in sound quality, maybe not, but not nearly as much as a file that was recorded at a higher sampling rate and bit depth (96/24 for example) and delivered to you at that same resolution through SACD or high-res download. Some people think that even high-res files are not that much of an improvement over cds. The Absolute Sound has an article on that very subject in the July/August issue.
IMHO, computer audio has not developed to the point that most people should get rid of a cd player and go to computer audio exclusively. Audiofreak will vehemently disagree with me on this. I'm not anxious to rip all my cds to a server. I don't mind playing cds and I see computer audio more as a means to download and store high-res files when that market matures a little more.
Computer audio is still pretty glitchy if you are not comfortable with computers and electronic devices. I think that it will get more user friendly and cheaper in the next few years. That's why I recommended that you get a player with digital inputs at present. Do a lot of homework if you think you want to stop spinning cds and go to computer audio. I'm waiting but a lot of people have made the change and like it a lot.