Music server quality.

Stock music servers are still in the low to mid-fi sound quality range IMO. Well modified music servers are approaching and surpassing many high end CD players in performance. Not quite better than the best. At least not yet.

I don't think that there is any difference so long as you couple the music server to a good DAC.

Thanks, Thewebgeek and Eharlson.

The reason I ask is that there is really no truly high end CD changer, although I think the Onkyo Integra DPC 8.5 six disc universal player that I have in my system is certainly decent. It benefits enormously from the Dodson DAC that I have, and I'm more than satisfied (ecstatic actually) with the current sound of my system. So it's probably stupid to be wondering about the player. Still, the Onkyo Integra strikes me as the weakest link in my system. For critical listening, it functions solely as a transport, with everything (except SACD and some music DVD's) routed through the Dodson. It's not clear to me just how critical the transport stage is to CD sound quality. I've heard different things, including:
1) the transport doesn't matter;
2) the transport doesn't matter very much;
3) the transport matters a lot.

It seems that if a music server were as good or better than the best CD players, then the answer would be a no-brainer, and the price would be about a log lower to boot. Also, not having to dig through CD's to change music selections is incredibly appealing. However, I'm enough of an audiophile curmudgeon to be unwilling to compromise one iota on sound quality. Hence the question posted above.

Yes - unless you are in the seriously megabux category with Aero, Wadia and the like.

To answer your last question first - the transport is the root of all evil in this equation. Simple fact is that getting rid of the problems associated with electro-optical -mechanical systems is a huge plus providing an instant gain to all who try it.

If you like your DAC, keep it and use it with a Squeezebox or something like an M-Transit or Waveterminal. Better yet get a USB DAC - like Scott Nixon's TubeDAC or if you really have golden ears and a purse to match, Gordon Rankin's Brick or Cosecant. Or have Wayne mod a Squeezebox for you along with one of his power supplies and use it as an analog source.

No matter which approach you take, you will get all the benefits of instant random access, a house free of CDs etc

Plenty of info here and on the Audio Asylum PC Forum

Ckorody:

Thanks for your excellent insights and info. I'm intrigued, to say the very least. The ultimate (obviously) thing would be a UNIVERSAL server that rivals or exceeds the highest quality of each and every information storage medium (i.e. stores and plays CD, DVD, possibly SACD, HDCD, blue ray, etc.). I'm guessing that such a system does not yet exist, but would love to be wrong about that.

Thanks to Ckorody,* Thewebgeek and Eharlson for all the information so far!

*Who's Wayne?