CD player, audio out, discrete vs. op-amps..?

"I recently read an article about the Pono player and that Charles Hansen did the electronic design.

The audio circuitry is fully discrete, meaning there are no integrated circuit chips of the sort used in every other portable music player. It's a bona fide high-end component.

And, of course, it has no feedback (global I assume). But, what if after all of this his circuit can't pass a hi-rez music signal? That's the goal of the Pono player and yet, it was never mentioned."

"The PonoMusic Store uses FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) audio format as its standard, for compatibility, although the PonoPlayer can play most popular high-resolution music formats from other sources. PonoMusic has a quality spectrum, ranging from really good to really great, depending on the quality of the available master recordings:

• CD lossless quality recordings: 1411 kbps (44.1 kHz/16 bit) FLAC files
• High-resolution recordings: 2304 kbps (48 kHz/24 bit) FLAC files
• Higher-resolution recordings: 4608 kbps (96 kHz/24 bit) FLAC files
• Ultra-high resolution recordings: 9216 kbps (192 kHz/24 bit) FLAC files "

I got that off the Pono website. It looks like it will play high rez music.

Thanks to all for your input. My thoughts came to mind in remembering former CD players that I have owned that did not use op-amps and sounded better than op-amp based players.

This is like trying to judge how tasty a dish is based on if it uses domestic or Hungarian paprika in it.

Op amps can sound great. There is really nothing wrong with them. If you want good sounding and relative affordable audio gear. Then op-amps work great.

As example the RCM Sensor Prelude phono stage. According to a well respected audio design engineer I spoke whom shall remain anonymous it does not matter what you use. As long as the implementation is done correctly. This mean that not all option can be used anywhere but it also means that you can never say: Op-amps/tube/etc is always the bad option.