new updates in transports or are they obsolete ?

Are there any portable music player out there that will output digital format via USB port? I know the current crops of iPod does not.

If I have to boot up my computer each time I want to play CD, not to mention the cost of a computer dedicated for playing music, I might stick to the old fashion one box CD player. But if there are portable player out there that can output digital format, I can be playing music even before my amp is on.

Audioengr,

Can you suggest some hardwares & softwares to setup a computer base audio system?

Do I need USB2 or will USB1 be sufficient? Will the USB input DAC available today my best bet or should I use conventional DAC and add the interface hardware to convert USB to coax? Given that it's pure digital and audio freq is not very high, I assume adding a USB-coax converter like Waveterminal will not introduce errors.

Also, do I need to disable my sound card to direct audio bit stream to USB?

Thanks in advance.

This thread really got me thinking.

Apple has a hardware called Airport Express which has optical out from what I read. Even though Positive Feedback's article advised against optical output due to jitter, but I assumed jitter will not apply to this case when data are read from HD and broadcast over WiFi.

Is that the theoretical best setup for sound vs. USB-S/PDIF converter using wire? I still prefer to use a dedicate player like iPod that has digital out feeding DAC directly, but newer iPod does not have digital out.

Another question is iTune read CD multiple times until all data are retrieved, similar to EAC? EAC runs slow, I will rather use iTune if it does the job equally well.