Coping in an Age of Uncertainty

Not at all. I'm not saying it is the best sound there could ever be or anything like that. But in my most recent CDP history this set up bested my old Sony XA777ES and my old McItnosh MCD 205 changer. But the musicality is only part of the equation here. Because of how iTunes allows me virtually instantaneous access to my whole collection of music (plus), it has forced me to call many of my priorities into question. I do still value a high end presentation of the music I love, and I did audition some very good DAC's before I settled on the Prima MK II SE. But, the accessibility is really a revolution.

Thanks. I have heard exactly the same thing from many people, which is I why I plan to head in that direction myself.

My take on the harddrive use has been to buy a Squeezebox2. I you haven't ever looked at one before, take a gander at www.slimdevices.com. I haven't settled on whether or not the Burr-Brown DAC inside the Squeezebox is the DAC I will use in the long run. So far so good, but since the Squeezebox has an optical out, I can always pipe to another DAC later if I want.

The COOL factor with the Squeezebox has delighted me. I really like being able to navigate my CD library without having to go and reload a disk every time I want to hear a CD. And the Squeezebox will play lossless formats like WAV and FLAC, so I can listen to quality recordings. What I'm unsure of is whether or not I can rip DVD-A or SACD to pipe over the data lines to the Squeezebox.

The technology still seems a bit experimental, but I sense that this is the future: the music companies deliver all the bits and sampling that they can muster to me over my high-speed internet connection and then I pipe that to my Squeezebox over my LAN to the room(s) with my stereo equipment to play music over as good a 2-channel or surround system that I elect to set up.

For now, most the industry focus on music-over-internet is on 'lossy' formats. This does not bode well for audiophiles unless the industry gets the word that we're waiting in the wings for hi-fi formats on either a pay-per-play or ownership basis.

Anyone else out there using the SB2?

Just wondering - has there ever been an age of certainty?

Can someone please find some theme music for this thread, for the one with “greatest preamp...” and also "building turntable from Home Depot...”, please.

Susan Lucci has been begging me to get her on one of them.