new updates in transports or are they obsolete ?

Look for a White-Paper that I wrote on positive-feedback.com that explains why computer driven audio done well will always beat a conventional transport. Why waste good money on a transport?

Mikesinger - every show that I exhibit at (CES and RMAF) has my demo of computer audio versus Transport (modded, including Superclock3) and everyone that listens to this A/B hear the improvement with computer driven audio.

Pros and cons:

Pros:
1) no CDs to scratch
2) no getting up from chair to search through piles of CDs to find the desired one
3) Long playlists of favorite tracks
4) better organization of music in the database - genre, artist, title etc..
5) easier portability to other locations, such as on vacation
6) cheaper to do download of one track versus buying a 12 track CD with 2 good tracks
7) more control of the music selection from listening position

Cons:
1) Time that it takes to load all of the CD tracks
2) Time that it takes to setup playlists
3) Some can have trouble setting up the upsampling and players etc..
4) wire across the floor to the listening position for USB type converters

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
Manufacturer/modder

Semi - I just leave my laptop on all the time. It has power saving modes for the CPU and screen. Just touch the touch pad and you are up and running playing songs. Much quicker than turning on a CD player and loading a CD, and I dont have to get up from the listening position.

"will hard drive playback capture the transports "delicate" sonic signature"

Absolutely, but with even more clarity.

- will play back on a pc be better coming coming off the hard drive after transferred since there is suppoose to less jitter ?

Playback from the "hard-drive" is actually always from a cache in memory. The data stream from the USB only needs to average the streaming rate. The precise clock is added at the converter. It's in the converter where the low-jitter timing happens. This is where the magic is.

it would appear that a high quality transport with firewire, usb output (or a computer interface /hard drive) would be optimal..

USB or firewire to S/PDIF is a great start. USB or firewire to I2S is even better. Look for my white paper in positive-feedback.com on Computer Audio for more info.

Kana - I have been using a heavily modded Sony DVP-S7700 with the same DAC. It performs better than anything stock, including CEC, which I also mod.

Rcprince wrote:
"I'm interested in hearing whether a CD stored in the hard drive via the Forsell transport vs. the unit's own transport mechanism sounds different, both from each other and from direct playing through the Forsell."

Huh? Maybe you do not understand how the computer works. When the data is stored on the hard-drive, it is only the data, no timing information. As long as there is an error-free data read of the CD, it does not matter what CD reader that you use or how fast it is read. It's only data. The timing information is added back at playback from the hard-disk/memory of the computer by either the add-in card or the external converter.

RCprince - I dont think it was me that said anything about "delicate" anything. The CDROM or DVDROM drive reads the data into the computer to be stored on the Yamaha hard disk. That's all. You should not be trying to use your CD player to read data to the hard drive.

Semi wrote:
"Can you suggest some hardwares & softwares to setup a computer base audio system?"

You will need a laptop or a quiet tower with USB2.0, at least 2.0GHz Pentium. I would recommend the Off-Ramp Turbo USB to S/PDIF coax converter to a conventional DAC such as the excellent Benchmark DAC-1 (get a new one) or a modified Perpetual P-3A. The P-3A has the advantage of I2S input. I will be offering a USB to I2S converter at the new year. This is the native interface for the DAC chips, so it eliminates the S/PDIF interface, which is even better. If you want balanced outputs, the Benchmark is the best choice.

The sound card may compete with the USB interface, so you may need to defeat this. I talk about many of these things in my article on Computer Audio for positive-feedback.com. Look for this to be published soon.

Here is the article in Positive-feedback.com:
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue22/nugent.htm

Averages 30MBytes, but some tracks may be 50 MBytes. It talks about this in my paper.

"I assumed jitter will not apply to this case when data are read from HD and broadcast over WiFi."

Yes, the jitter is bad from the AE optical output. It can be modded to add coax out. This is much better.

"Is that the theoretical best setup for sound vs. USB-S/PDIF converter using wire?"

Both the AE and the Squeezebox will give similar results, but they will only pass 16/44.1. They will not do upsampled data. The both need mods to compete with the Off-Ramp.

"is iTune read CD multiple times until all data are retrieved, similar to EAC?"

I believe so. They are both good rippers. I use EAC and I've never had a correction or an error.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
Manufacturer/modder

Baddabob - The CEC transport will not even come close. I've modded them. If I were to fully mod-out the CEC transport and then rewrite all of your CD collection on black CD's using my modded battery powered CD-burner, only then would it come close. The computer would still be better though. There's a big difference here. For the same performance, Computer Audio is always cheaper.

Also, you will likely not rip every track on every disk. I imagine that half of them will not get ripped.

A good hard-drive system can run the range from <$2K to over $4K. For under $2K you can have an Off-Ramp Turbo with a stock new Benchmark DAC-1. You will not believe how great this sounds. If you have to have the very best (the additional improvements get smaller and smaller as you spend more, but this is where the magic is), then $4K is more like it. Battery power for the Off-Ramp, mods etc...