It is important to distinguish something here. Using a laptop as an interface and the hard-drive as the transport is different than putting a disc into the computer and listening to the computer playing the disc.
I agree that the computer playing the disc is not worthwhile at all. But the music file being played via hard-drive through a quality DAC, sounds as good, if not better, to me, than some pretty nice transports/CD Players. I have commented on this before and there are other threads on this here at Audiogon.
My hard-dive base system played only through a U24 Waveterminal (as the D/A) sounded as good on rebook as my McIntosh 205 changer and a Sony XA777ES.
I agree that the computer playing the disc is not worthwhile at all. But the music file being played via hard-drive through a quality DAC, sounds as good, if not better, to me, than some pretty nice transports/CD Players. I have commented on this before and there are other threads on this here at Audiogon.
My hard-dive base system played only through a U24 Waveterminal (as the D/A) sounded as good on rebook as my McIntosh 205 changer and a Sony XA777ES.