Integrated Media/Music Servers

In an editorial this month, Alan Sircom of HiFi+ stated that CD "outperforms" computer-based audio in sound.
 
Does it really ? Based on numerous reviews (in recent years), it looks like the opposite - hard-disk and memory players are beating optical CD. There's less jitter-based artifacts for one. And without constant reading, direct-drive servers can focus more on transmission and less on error-correction.
 
I wonder what other listeners think.....

I'm thinking of getting the Berkeley Alpha DAC and a music server. I'm kind of tired of disc swapping. My intention is to have playback equal to the best CD player I've heard, the Spectral SDR4000S Pro. I'm considering 3 options;
1) Blue Smoke server. Any users on here who can tell me about it? Is it worth it's costs (7k)? What advantages does it have over other music servers?
2) Music Vault Diamond. Recieved some rave on here and is cheaper than Blue Smoke server, but more importantly is it as good?

 
<a href="http://www.videoproduction-seattle.com/video.php?cpath=Nicci_Nix_music_video.flv/">
Nicci Nix Video</a>
 

I am getting started on digitising my large selection of Jazz L.P.s. I am thrifty and do not want to spend a whole lot on a dedicated music server, splendid thoug they may be . It occured to me that perhaps a Tivo would store Hi Rez audio and play it through my stereo  via the Tivo,s optical audio output  to a DAC. In addition, I could download album info. from the internet to the Tivo through its USB connection and see it on my TV which plays audio through my stereo. Am I dreaming?.

Music servers seem to be gaining mainstream audiophile traction over physical media - even for high resolution files. I've started reading articles and posts on the subject and I'm becomming very interested in the concept though I have no desire to become an early adopter. I currently have about 150 RBCD's in my library that I would like to preserve, but I'm mainly interested in high resolution content. I've been enthusiastic about SACD and have about 200 in my library.

Looks like Olive made quite a splash with their Olive4HD and Thiel SCS4D active speakers at CES 2010. Are there any plans to evaluate the Olive 4HD both as a stand-alone music server with 24/192 Burr-Brown PCM1792A DAC and 2TB of hard drive space? Looks like an interesting offering and a compelling value when compared to offerings from Sooloos and Qsonix etc...Thx

 I've moved my iTunes music files on an external drive and finally got Squeezebox Server to see these files. However, I can only play the music from the Squeezebox server interface, and not from the iTunes one. This means that my playlists are not there or that I cannot iTunes sorting and shuffling capabilities.
Is there a way to use iTunes as the controlling software to feed through Squeezebox Server? 

 
My Logitech Squeezebox Duet server software (Version 7.4.1) doesn't appear to capture all of my songs.  Windows Media Player Version 11 reports that I have 5604 songs on 754 albums on my sole music folder while the Squeezebox server says there are 5491 on 649 albums).  Any explanations?  I'm using Windows XP.

 The Embla offers a silent playback system without any moving mechanical parts when playing from the built-in flash memory. The Embla is not a redesigned computer system; it is built from the ground up as a high performance audio playback system. Unlike other computer based playback products the Embla is based on our proprietary audio DSP design, allowing us to completely control the timing and reading of the discs. The Embla is designed as a true audiophile unit from the ground up and not a modified computer that can copy discs.

There's a new 'version' out, the 2.0, which changed the architecture and supports hi-rez files (24/96).
The Control 10 unit has an Ethernet port through which it connects to the Twinstore. Is the use of the Twinstore mandatory or can one use any NAS instead? I am under the impression that one can add NAS to the Twinstore, but it's not clear whether the COntrol 10 can tie up directly to a NAS.