Will computer to DAC replace transports and cdp's?

And to Tvad's concern, you can organize playlisst via albums so that you can play the entire CD as originally recorded.

I have tried this, albeit only with the iTunes system. I am not concerned with the order of the songs. I know this is easy to do. What I am concerned with is the gaps, or "cut-offs" between the tracks, which destory the seamless segues between tracks. For example, it's my understanding that if one were to download "Dark Side of the Moon", when one played it back, the songs would not flow from one to the next without a brief hiccup between tracks. Now, I could be mistaken, but this was my initial experience. Also, it takes some extra setting to do this. One must select "Join Tracks" or something like that from the iTunes menu. It's easier to put a silver disc in a CD player and press play.

For me, HD based music system's do not have the ease of use of CD players. That's my gripe about most things associated with computers. Too fussy. I want my computer to operate like my telephone. Pick up the handset, dial, and talk. I don't have to know how the phone works...it just does. No software upgrading. No de-fragging of hard drives. No worries of compatibility, etc...

I'm open to HD based music servers, though. They just need to operate as easily as a CD player, play the music as the artist intended (without hiccups and truncation), and not play the music from a compressed or inferior format to what's available on a disc.

I've been on a Mac platform since '97. The only problems I've ever had were in various versions of the largely extinct OS9. OSX has run flawlessly and effortlessly an rarely requires any serious attention. On the other hand, I do have friends whose experience in upgrading various versions of OSX have been rather frustrating, like Onhwy61. I protect my music library in several ways. First, and most important for me is to store me entire music library on a dedicated, external hard drive. None of my music library is on my main computer. I have a copy on a second hard drive...or rather on a friend's second hard drive, and I've also strated to back up the entire library to DVD's in case of a double failure. I've just recently sold off a group of CD's that I listened to less often, or had duplicates of. For some reason I have a hard time selling off the ones I like most. I think it 's the pack rat in me though. Regarding organizing play lists like albums - I think Grant's concern was around the trend of downloading music a few songs at a time via the Internet. When you buy an 'album' on the Internet (via iTunes for instance), you have the option of purchasing the entire album, or as many songs as you like, or even just one single song. If you look at Apple's current home page there is a counter running currently with the number of song's sold that is increasing as almost as fast as our National debt it seems. For the moment (perhaps not for very much longer), you can see their countdown to the billionth song sold here. Sadly, all this music being purchased is compressed.

Marco

Marco, you're description of storing your music on a separate HD, and then yet another copy on another HD is exactly what keeps me away. That's too much damn work for someone who simply wants to listen to music. I do appreciate what you're doing, however, and I also realize you use MACs in your daily business.

Regarding organizing play lists like albums - I think Grant's concern was around the trend of downloading music a few songs at a time via the Internet. When you buy an 'album' on the Internet (via iTunes for instance), you have the option of purchasing the entire album, or as many songs as you like, or even just one single song.

Absolutely true. Two concerns: individual song downlods that destroy the integrity of the album as a whole (think Green Day's "American Idiot"), and the gaps encountered between songs even when an entire album is purchased and downloaded. After all, even if you purchase and download an album, the songs are downloaded one at a time, yes? Please correct me if I'm wrong here, as this is an important barrier to my interest in downloading albums.

I've setup my dad with an Escient music server (only has a 120 gig hard drive) but the access to the music is incredible. I'm listening to music i haven't heard in years because it's easier than searching through my nearly 1000 cdsl. I don't have cds all over the place anymore, either. I keep all the cds after i burn them but in boxes stored away for an emergency that no doubt will someday come.

Does anyone know about the faster Glyph drives used for music mastering? They're much more expensive than a typical commercial computer-user hard drive but they are more quiet, more reliable and have other advantages.

What external dacs are you guys using? Do any have a volume pot?

Two things (well. maybe three) are stalling my move to HD:

First, I will miss having easy access to the composer and musician information that's on the CD liner.

Second, I think to make it really work, I'd need a computer display at my listening seat, which is in the living room. That would be decor-unfriendly. Also, I'd need to run a USB cable across the room. Dennis, you mentioned controlling the whole thing with a Palm. How would that work? (I have a Squeezebox, but it's not an ideal browsing interface.)

The third thing is having to go back to separates, or find a CDP I like with digital in. I'd be very reluctant not to have regular CD playback capability, so would still need a transport of some kind.