iPod as a source 80 gig model, lossless

listenable, fine for background but not for critical listening.

FWIW, I purchased an Apple TV and it beat my Arcam CD92 senseless.

I was willing to trade-off sound quality for the convenience of Apple TV's GUI, but I was gladly surprised. So this may be an option for you.

The convenience of playlists can never be overstated. My system is a Blue Circle NSCS and Von Schweikert VR2s.

BCH, please describe in more detail. Are you saying that you drive sound from your computer (iTunes lossless?) to Apple TV wirelessly and then the Apple TV drives your high end rig? Is the DAC in the computer, Apple TV, or external?
Thanks,
Art

Hi Art,
The DAC is in the Apple TV (should be a Wolfson, like the ipod and newer Arcams). There are 2 choice: playback from the apple tv internal hard-drive or streaming. I use the Apple tv internal hard-drive, with my music ripped in apple lossless.

The apple TV does have a toslink (optical), but I don't have an external dac.

I can't hear any difference between streamed lossless and the playback from the hard-drive in the apple tv, but I know that the streaming can be tweaked to sound pretty good (some driver swapping, etc...)

Whatever doesn't fit in the Apple TV's HD, I stream from my computer. BTW, Apple Lossless is a very good format size-wise (about 300MB per CD, average).

Hope this helps.

I think the ipod is fantastic when you are not in your primary listening space. For this I am now using slim devices Transporter which is hard wired to my Apple G5 with CDs ripped in Apple lossless.