Coping in an Age of Uncertainty

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.

I haven't read this whole thread, but started using an Ayre universal player 2 weeks ago. I wanted a nice cd player and thought the SACD would just be a bonus. My impression is that some sacds and DVD-A are like high def is to broadcast TV. I said I wasn't going to replace redbook cds, but have done some of that too. I had no idea how good SACD is. Maybe the novelty wears off after a while, but I'll foolishly buy them for now. A recorded violin now sounds like a violin. Some of these 50 year old $11 'living stereo' recordings sound like they were produced last week. Fortunately for classical music at least there's some selection to chose from. For those that have made the choice to bail - plse send me your SACDS.

When played back through a well set up system, both SACD and CD sound better than any vinyl ever has. Only poor transfers or incompetently produced stuff sounds inferior. I remember the clicks and pops...the warps...groove distortion...hummm...etc...what a pain in the ...well you get the picture. Nostalgia aside, most good universal players will provide a great listening experience.