I'm no expert in these realms, but I do play one on TV. I believe the operative principal here is that you are going from what comparatively may be an unstable spinning plastic disc in a transport, the moving laser read mechanism, and the circuits that pull the information from that media, over to a (more stable) hard drive and large(r) RAM buffer that delivers the zeros and ones in a more 'stable' delivery system. Assuming you are using the same clocking devices and interface (cable) that would be the only difference I could see. I think there is also some argument to specific interfaces being more impervious to jitter, but I don't know that those are necessarily exclusive to PC audio (with the exception of USB). Whether it makes a significant difference is really up to your ears, not mine or anyone else's. If you want more info on this subject you should look into the folks who are proponents like Steve Nugent at Empirical Audio, or Gordon Rankin of Wavelength. I believe both sites give some further explanation of the principals involved. USB would be the only interface being used that is exclusive to PC audio (vs a CD transport) and Rankin claims to take advantage of the bi-directional nature of that interface. I guess there is some use of Firewire as well. I think Empirical uses a different approach preferring the I2S interface which is common to some CD transports. Check their sites for the differing viewpoints, as well as the PC Asylum. Steve Nugent contributes to these forums, and Gordon Rankin over at Audio Asylum.
