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At work, an iPod. At home, a CD player. Haven't gotten around to getting an SACD/DVD player, but probably will have to this year before they all disappear . . . .
Reader Charlie S. wonders what you use for digital music these days? What is your <I>primary</I> digital front end?
Primary is almost too vague a term. By primary, do you mean the most listened to? Or does it mean the one you turn to for audiophile enjoment? Is it a quality question or a quantity question? For me, the question really is about circumstance. For ultimate digital listening (oxymoron?), I turn to my Sony 555 SACD player. However, for standard CDs, I have my CEC rig running through tubed X-cans to get a little closer to SACD quality. On the go or in the gym, I use my iPod over my discman (Sony D10 . . .sorry, Sam). And for discovering new music or sampling music I, have a computer-based server which runs iTunes, but mainly for Rhapsody ( hell of a site to discover any music for $13 a month!). So Primary? They all are primary. Each is indispensible in its own way. As a result I have purchased and enjoyed more music in 2008 than I ever have since the 1980s. In fact, it is almost music overload! After such a decades long dry spell is that possible?
I use a Sonos-based system plugged into a Benchmark DAC. Every one of my audiophile friends that I have auditioned it for have purchased a similar system within months. After all, isn't being a music lover all about being able listen to music, and what easier way to listen to your music? And my Sonos/Benchmark front-end sounds every bit as good as my previous high-end physical solution.
I use an Apple iPod Shuffle second generation. All song are converted from Apple Lossless or AAC the latter being purchases from the iTunes store. I wish the Shuffle would play Lossless as I cannot afford a larger capacity iPod.
An Onkyo DX-7555 CD player is my primary digital source. Actually, it's my primary source, period, although my Squeezebox (v.3) sees plenty of action, too. I've also got a universal DVD player in my HT rig, but it is not used for music very much, other than occasional sampling of my small SACD and DVD-A collection (which seems doomed to not getting any bigger). And my Technics turntable mainly functions as a dust collector.
I have been unable to audition a music server. Now I am using a Levinson 37 transport and 360 DAC. I also use a CAL Icon MkII into the 360. I have not really heard a player which exceeded it. Most of my listening is still My LP12 Ecos Arkiv B