The 5101 is probably more than I'll spend, but I'm starting to look at full-featured DAC/CD/Streamer combos. As things are going, I think DACs (or streamers or whatever word you want to say first) will start to take the place of pre-amps in digital systems. I'll always keep my analog system, but I'm thinking about getting a more dedicated digital system to sit next to it. Which brings to some questions about the 5101:
Does anyone know if it has a hard drive on-board? I know you can connect one, but ideally, I'd want a TB or more on board. One main feature I want is proving to be difficult to find and that is for the device to be able to rip CDs/DVDs, etc. into FLAC or other lossless files to the hard drive, whether on-board or by hooking up my pc or external HD. Did anyone see if the 5101 can rip? I've seen a few that can do this and I want the ability to digitise all of my CDs. I went through my collection once around 2002 or so and ripped every CD I had with an old 8x cd-rom in a PC. Of course, back then hard drives weren't very big and there weren't a lot of file types to choose from, which means the project that consumed a few weekends 15 years ago is all on low bit rate mp3 files (aka worthless unlistenable junk) and I need to do it over again. Having rip capability in one of these ALL-in-ones is essential imho.