I am not sure where you got this idea about Xonar being noisy. I have just completed an Audio PC with Xonar STX. Played it through a Arcam rDac, and believe me it beats nearly every CD player I have heard. This includes all NAD and Marantz players, Creek, and even the Primare. I am writing a detailed review, but suffice it to say that I have never heard the three dimensionality and clarity that I heard with the STX/rDac combination. The STX is completely shielded and is not affected by any of the electrical noise within the PC. Using ASIO and a simple kernel level player such as cPlay, the combination can give a run for it's money to any CD Player within, I would boldly say, around 75-100K. What really pleases me is that I will get the same sound irrespective of how many times I play the song.
As I mentioned sometime ago, the life of a CD Player is limited, and manufacturers would find it difficult to justify the investment needed for high quality and innovation. If you notice, there are only a few players left in the market who make serious CD players, and this number will dwindle. In the last 12 odd months, software companies have seen a 20% drop in the sale of CDs and they would start making alternate plans for the distribution of music. A PC provides a dual advantage of being completely digital, and also a CD player with an < 2000 optical drive. I will be buying CDs as long as they are available, but using only FLAC versions for my use.
I am sure many would read my words with a large amount of skepticism. For me, the choice was an expensive CD player or a adventurous attempt at using a sound card and DAC. One of the best music delivery I have ever heard in my life was at Audire and that was through a DAC with the Marantz CDP acting as a transport. I am quite happy that my adventure was successful.
Cheers.
hyeah:
