Music from hard drive better than CD?

I don't know if it will outperform all CD transport/DAC combos, but a hard disk computer system is capable of very high quality. The Apple G5 is an excellent starting platform. In combination with iTunes and an iPod (optional) you'll have unparalleled access to your music collection.

As an example, the other night I was listening to Lucinda Williams' "2 Cool To Be 4-Gotten" and the first verse is about Robert Johnson. I mention this to my girlfriend and she asks, "Do you have any Robert Johnson?" Two or three mouse clicks later we're listening to RJ singing "Stop Breakin' Down" which we then followed with the Rolling Stones version of the same. This led to a comparison of their versions of "Love In Vain", followed by the Clash doing "Train In Vain" and finally Dwight Yoakam's cover of the Clash tune. Instant access to your music collection will transform how you listen.

Rsbeck...Until I heard what people say on this site I just assumed that the data from reading the disc went into a buffer register, and was gated out one (16 bit) word at a time. Coming from my experience with military digital equipment it's obvious that this is how it should be done. This implementation would be a trivial cost. The hard disc transfer would accomplish the same jitter reduction (and some other features) but at significant cost.

Best thread yet! I am planning to build my own Hard drive system. Does any body have a suggestion on which HD brand, speed (7200 or 10,000 rpm), and what size disk space to buy. Would a relative small size hard disk be better that a large one (i.e. using two 80 gig drives, as opposed to a single 160 gb)?

On a side note, all my current music collection (500 CDs) fitts on a 110 GB hard drive as full wave files. Why? because I only record the best songs, and as we all know most CDs have no more than 4 good songs on them.

Thanks

I've been intrigued by Mr. Rankins Cosecant, since originally hearing about the concept, but can't seem to find reviews, or comments on how a PC Hardrive, CD Drive, to Cosecant sounds in comparison with high-end CDP's. At $3,500 + PC are we talking about a comparison to $3,500 CDP's or $5K+ rigs?

Very soon, I plan to replace my aging PII Dell with a new PC. However, like "Planckscale" most all my 500+ CD's (keeper tracks) have been ripped to a 120G H.D. (a 200G drive is used for back-ups). It would be a blast to use this soon to be obsolete PC as a "music machine", but wonder how the PC/Cosecant combo would compare to my Wadia 861...

I'm still trying to figure out what to do here--I'm about 70% through ripping the 1000+ CDs in the Rock/Blues genre... I seriously encourage folks to think about standalone storage, since ultimately you will want to access your music from other places in your house besides the one PC they are resident on. Right now, I'm running three audiotrons and one CD30, as well as a USB audio device off my PC.

My latest thinking is something like this for storage:

http://store.niveusmedia.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.10/it.A/id.455/.f

I was originally going to go with a bunch of LaCie external USB 2.0 drives and a Linksys $90 NAS box, but I discovered, much to my chagrin, that the NAS box they have requires you to format the disks in a proprietary format. Doesn't work for me. I'm ripping the CDs to the LaCie drives, but I worry about their long term viability--these puppies run hot. Just don't think they are really designed for 24/7 operation.

The selling points of the Niveus server seem to be quiet (no fans), component-like aesthetics, and $ (Dell quoted me about $14K for 1.5TB of RAID5 storage. Unlike everyone else, I'm ripping the whole CD--I don't wanna go back and do this again.

I'm also intrigued by the Niveus PCs like the Denali HDTV; I've been leery of putting a computer in my rig until seeing their fanless ultraquiet numbers... But then, I also found this:

http://www.logicsupply.com/product_info.php/cPath/29/products_id/51

Trying to decide now whether I want to embark on the fullblown HTPC/Windows Media Center Edition or something to just serve up WAV files...