I disagree with the poster that says a Benchmark will give me great performance.....
I've tried the Benchmark in its pre-USB form, and in its current USB form. I really wanted to like it, but I hated it both times hooked up in several different systems each time. If found the highs to be etched and grating. So I'm not surprised at all it doesn't compare to your X03.
I do believe you could get performance on par to what you are accustomed to expecting from that player via PC Audio and remain under the $7k retail tag of your player. Solutions like the Modwright Transporter, Empirical's offerings...as someone pointed out the heart of it is a damn good DAC, but I'd add that you need a reliable and accurate delivery system to that DAC. Unlike another poster I have not had much pleasure in listening through an Airport Express via the optical output (mini-toslink) to a DAC. I found that interface very poor sounding. If you like your Esoteric, APL HiFi uses an Esoteric player for the base of its NWO 2.5 and can give you an optional S/PDIF digital input so you can use the NWO DAC for output. See reviews and user comments on that modification by doing a search.
There's already plenty of good input as to the positive aspects of PC audio technology. I'd like to respond to some of your cons.
Hard drive cons:
-Just as expensive, if not more so than a dedicated CD player by the time you get the hard drive, back up storage, cables, monitor, DAC.
Um, you just bought a $7600 CD player. Hard drives are dirt cheap. Back up hard drives are dirt cheap. Digital cables to a DAC are not that expensive, even the more esoteric varieties should your tastes go there. I assume you already have a monitor if you are contributing to this forum, but I'm confident that you could get a laptop and a great DAC and everything you needed for damn fine PC playback for less than the price of your new Esoteric player. But, yes, if your expectations are on that level you will likely spend as much. You could go the NWO route and combine your player and DAC in one (as well as other players that offer digital input).
-Many units have hard drive noise that necessitates placing the unit away from the listening area.
My Mac iBook laptop is practically silent. MacMini's are also very quiet. Neither are terribly expensive. Granted, some hard drives are noisier than others. Choose a quiet one. Seems pretty simple to me.
-Need back up storage: This means you need to continually back up your collection for the day it crashes.
I said it before. Hard drives are dirt cheap. You can buy a very good, quiet, reliable 500gb drive for around $150-200 (I'd get the excellent G-Drive units), and a second or third cheap one for backups at under $100 each. With your Esoteric budget you could even get a decent RAID solution and drop in drives as you need them. Since you are computer savvy you could set it all up to backup automatically. The RAID solutions I'm aware of allow you to replace a failed drive and will automatically back up to the new drive upon inserting it into the RAID box. You can also use Mac's Time Machine to back up your library. It comes free with the Leopard OSX package. It works in the background if you keep the drives connected. No effort other than setting it up.
-Noone knows how long drives will last.
Which is one of the reasons you back-up. It really doesn't take that much effort if you have a system down.
-Need to spend the time to burn all your CDs
Yes, but once you've invested the time it is done. Adding music a CD at a time takes very little effort and time. As for the initial task; You can parcel out the time while you're doing something mindless, or hire a local teen to do it for you if you have more money than time. There are also services that will do it for you at a cost. It is a matter of putting a disc in the computer, waiting a few minutes, taking it out and putting in another. iTunes even has a setting that will automatically eject the disc once its done ripping it.
-If you use iTunes the quality of downloaded songs is not great, therefore this solution only really works if you burn CDs you have. I know there are some other higher res options, but they are not widely available yet.
Don't use iTunes downloads. If you like specific music, buy the CD and rip it yourself. This is not an argument against PC Audio - it is an argument against downloading low-rez music files.
-You need some type of monitor to view the collection adding the complexity and nuisance of mixing PCs and Audio
Afraid so. I'm not really sure how a monitor adds to the complexity and nuisance of it. I sure like having my entire library of music at my fingertips where I can actually flip through the images of the covers as if all 800+ CD's were there in my lap. I suppose it is just one more thing you have to deal with. Oh well, life just isn't fair.
-It is rapidly changing and noone knows what the outcome will be
Sounds like pretty much all technology, and life itself for that matter. Zeros and ones are zeros and ones. Resolution is going up, yes. I guess I see this is besides the point for me. The kick for me is having a convenient way to enjoy the music I love. Emphasis on enjoying the music. If the delivery method evolves I'll make a call when that happens. I'm not sure why the expectation that such things would stay the same for ever and ever. I don't think the ability to play CD's you rip now will likely be eliminated in the near future. Are you going to throw out your CD collection when the technology changes?
-If you download one song at a time you essentially throw out any experience the artist may have designed with listening to an entire album
Again, don't download. Buy the CD and rip it yourself. It takes about three minutes.