amp33385:
I am interested in the Olive 4HD but was interested in the difference in sound quality compared to a similar priced CD player.
I like the idea of the flexibility but would like to understand the compromise
Interesting that the Olive is considered no better than an entry level CD player. I haven't heard the Olive, so can't comment on it's sonic abilities. In principle though, I would have thought ripping your CD's to a HDD, then streaming through a quality DAC to your speakers would give you a great result. I say this on the basis that even cheap CD transports put down bit-perfect rips to the HDD. Then the DAC is down to your taste and budget. And in that respect, the whole assembly mimics a CD player anyway. What you are avoiding though is a CD being read on the fly by a CD player which potentially compromises sonic quality. When a rip to HDD is done by your PC, it can have as many goes as necessary to create a perfect file, a luxury not available to your CD player. Then there's the convenience of having your whole library available on demand.
Given that you can hard wire your PC to your amp or active speakers, or even go wirelessly, there's no reason to clutter up your hi-fi with computers at all.
The one downside to my using a streaming arrangement is that if someone brings a CD to be played, we either have to listen on a little Curry's music centre, or download onto the PC first. The upsides though are so much better than using CD's.