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Apple with DACgreat combo. Long live the user-friendly jukebox!
Reader Charlie S. wonders what you use for digital music these days? What is your <I>primary</I> digital front end?
Call me a Luddite, but I can't handle the iPod music quality, and don't have use for a full server at homeso I run my transport through a Benchmark Audio DAC-1 PRE, through Sennheiser 650s or through the speakers if I need to feel the bass or fill the house with sound!
I use a Windowz PC with an Audigy Platinum soundcard fed into a Theta Pro Prime DAC and then into a vintage Sansui 9090db receiver. I play MP3s made from my own collection of CDs with MusicMatch and sometimes Media Monkey, both do a good job playing the tens of thousands of songs I have on my hard drive!
I use a Denon 3910 as the transport with a Musical Fidelity X-DACv8 modified by Rick Walker at Walker Electronic Solutions. The Denon is not only a quality transport, it is a great DVD player and coupled with the Musical Fidelity DAC produces wonderful sound and video from concert DVDs as well as great sound from Red Book CDs.
CD players (regardless of price point) just can't compete with the quality of digital output available from a well-pieced-together computer. The right soundcard matched to the right software front-end with CPU intensive upsampling that just can't be matched by a store-bought box can't be beaten in terms of quality.