Jump in now or wait?

I came very close to going for a PC-type source a few months ago, in part b/c I kept hearing that you could get better sound than out of a CD player. But the thought of having to learn a bunch of new technology, load up a bunch of my CDs, etc., etc., knowing all the while that (a) I don't enjoy technology for technology's sake, and (b) something super duper and newer would be no doubt be coming down the pike in a few years anyway, caused me to decide to go "backwards" and try a tube CD player with a good reputation--so I bought an EAR Acute CD player, and am quite liking it. And I'm really thrilled not to be worrying about all this new technology...yet!

Dokosan - no problem with USB. Even though it does not have error correction, if you stay shorter than the max USB cable length of 5 meters, you should be fine.

However, you should be aware that not all computers USB ports behave well with streaming audio. Only certain USB ports on a give computer or laptop will work well and some computers, such as inexpensive Dell laptops are terrible for streaming audio. You cannot get rid of the pops and clicks no matter what you try. I recommend Toshiba laptops.

I use the same USB firmware that the DAC-1 uses for my products and for most cases it works perfectly.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Herman - what you need to understand is that the transport protocol that is used for streaming audio over USB is different than that used for printers and disk drives over USB. There is no retry and no error correction for streaming audio. Because streaming audio is real-time and these other peripherals are not, it uses an entirely different protocol. In fact there are actually several different isochronous USB protocols that can be used for audio streaming, all without retry or error detection/correction.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

I went from CD to PC-based music a while ago. I used a chaintech 7.1 soundcard (optical output) to a beresford tc-7510 dac, for the whopping grand total of 200$ including shipping, and I will never go back.
After hearing the beresford up against the Benchmark USB DAC1, I am glad I didn't spend the extra 1000$, because it is an extremely close comparison soundwise, although the benchmark obviously wins out in flexibility.
IMO the Beresford DAC is one of the best kept secrets in digital, and suffers from his basic looking case, and not charging enough money for it.
Byron
p.s.- I use EAC to get to FLAC and playback is done with FooBar 2000...

Wait. Two issues need time. First, internet cost metering is nearing. So what was free, will cost. You know like the old telephone company/cell business models, flat fee will go away. Second, Blu-Ray should be the new high end audio only format. I've just listened to the Divertimenti Audio Blue ray and it's accompanying SACD and was blown away by the real improvement in sound of the Blu Ray vs the SACD. Since Sony has already mastered on SACD the classics from its library, e. g. Miles/Blue, you can expect a large reissue on Blu Ray. BTW, the Blu Ray deck I used was the PS3, and the sound could not be better. So, when will the first high end Blu Ray appear?