Will computer to DAC replace transports and cdp's?

Matrix: It only take about 2-3 minutes to rip a CD to hard drive. To me, that time does not necessitate needing a separate transport -- though there may be other good reasons people want a seperate player/transport anyway(SACD/DVD-A).

I agree that CD's and CD players are not going to hold their value like they used to. In fact, I think spending big money on any digital source these days is a risky propsition.

i agree with you guys: I was on the verge of splurging for a wadia or the emm labs unit but there's no chance, no how, no way i'm going that direction now...

Even if i DID have the money! (which i don't, damnit)

still, there is something much more sexy about a wadia than a computer...call me a traditionalist.

Kublakhan, if you're still considering ugrading to a SOTA CD/SACD player, the APL Denon 3910 offers an optional coaxial digital input, so one can use the APL's custom DAC for hard drive based digital audio in addition to the shiny silver discs.

Just a thought.

Pardales, I agree, however it is still nice to be able to grab a disc and play straight out with decent transport and the point is that you can still hook up one rather cheap, with SACD or whatever and still have a dac with computer hooked all in one as long as you have the multiple inputs on the DAC, but yeah costly machines are going to get hurt very soon, not that they have not already, but 15000.00 Reimyo''s and Meitners owners are going to take a bath at some point.

Sound Quality Question :

Example, $950.00 and I get an Off-Ramp Turbo, get everything set up correctly to my Dac, will it sound "as good or better" than my belt-drive CEC ?