I am going AWAY from PCM transports. My recent experience with memory players and now a Bryston BCD-1 has me going to ripped source material, even though it will be an enormous amount of work to rip my CD library. And it is much more than convenience like remote vs no remote. Its a sound quality issue. I am hearing things in my standard CDs I have never heard before. Granted, I am not comparing to $15K transports but that is the point. Best sound for the buck.
People buying Transports again?
I have a friend who is looking to purchase some dCS equipment. He is set on getting the entire dCS stack. Not sure if it is the Vivaldi or Pagnini. Although he has converted his library to digital (Meridian Sooloos) he believes he gets the best sound via a Transport. Now I know this is very subjective on does it sound better and if so what is the price of it. Like him I have converted all of my music over to digital. I converted it mostly for convenience and access to my entire collection. I have downloaded some HiRez files but I have no desire to repurchase my music in HiRez format if it becomes available. To me converting from disc to digital files was like going from non-remote control preamps to preamps with remotes. I personally would not buy a non-remote controlled preamp but that is just me. Are people going back or staying with transports?