Since everyone was helpful for my first question, I'll ask another. I know some people spend a lot of money on CD players. I was hoping to use my computer as the source. I guess what I don't understand is what do good CD players do differently than crappy ones? How does a computer stack up? What about sound cards with creative labs new X chip; it is supposed to make a big difference.
If you compare a (to talk extremes) $2000 CD player to a computer, at what stage do different things happen? If it is in how you process the bits, then can you buy programs that will play the song better? Or is it during the digital to analog conversion that sound quality suffers? If that is the case can one buy a separate DAC, output the music from the computer to the (good) DAC, which then goes to the amp? Will this then give you quality comparable to the top end CD player?
Also (sorry, many questions posing as one post) how is MP3 quality? If I use lossless encoding (LAME) is it really lossless? Will it sound as good as the original WAV file? I really want to store all of my music on my computer just because it is convenient. If I were to spend a lot of money on a really good stereo (which I won't right now) is it a waste to then use a computer as the source?
I know this is a weighty question I'm asking, so if you have a link I'll be happy to go and do some background reading. I did try to find this on the web, a comparison of computers to CD players and stuff, but I came up with nothing.
Thanks
Cisco
