Amarra for iTunes at RMAF...

There are also a number of budget pro audio devices you can use as Firewire to SPDIF converters, such as the Focusrite Saffire and the TC Electronic Konnekt 8, both of which can be had for around $300. The new Weiss converter, the INT202, is expected to cost >$1000, which still makes it a lot less than their Vesta, which is a product whose price makes no sense to me at all.

If you have a computer that can accommodate a PCI card, the Lynx is supposed to be a great way to go, as Chadeffect says. You go straight from computer to DAC via AES/EBU, without an intermediate device. I'm giving that some serious thought myself, even though it will require me to get a desktop Mac I really don't need want.

Oh, and Mark, you should be sure to visit the forums at Computer Audiophile, if you haven't already.

As a Windows software engineer for some 15 years now (independent consultant) I agree with Antipodes_audio. Windows has it's place, but OSX is a unix platform...read 40+ years of ongoing development. Unix in any flavor is inherently more stable and manages memory FAR FAR BETTER (and I would know) than Windows. I like Windows (heck, I make a living with it) but would I ever let it serve up my music ? AH! noway. It simply does not (fact not opinion) manage memory or the processor as well as OSX and every developer knows this. I write for both platforms .NET for Win and Objective C for iPhone apps/OSX. Bits are not just bits when you are dealing with irq's, threading stacks time-slices and the such. Again, I make a living with Windows dev, but I will tell you right now, if it came to a mission critical system...Ah Chuck I'll take the Unix based system for $200.00. I am always amazed when folks attempt to make Windows look as stable or handle memory or the processor (multi-cores) as well as OSX.

Not trying to start anything just saying that as an informed developer on how the internals of both work..., well I think you get it.

Opps, my comment was intended for the response dated 10/19/2009 of Antipodes_audio. i failed to take note that this thread was multiple pages. My bad.

Still very relevant though Audiofun. The interesting thing I found, apart from the Mac sounding better, was how they also sounded different. The best sound I could get out of a PC sounded a little hazy and soft, which I relate to the sound of a coaxial SPDIF cable. The sound of a Mac without Amarra sounded like you had swapped out the Coax cable and inserted an AT&T cable - cleaner, faster, better dynamics and PRAT, but with the downside of a touch of glare. Amarra more or less removes that glare, depending on how you get the bits out of the Mac.

Thanks Dan, I will keep an eye out for that new Weiss INT202. As you say, the Vesta is hard to justify. Paying similar money you can get Weiss to throw in a DAC, it would seem.

I tried a Lynx card briefly (it was only on loan) and slightly preferred the Empirical Off-ramp 3 with Superclock, so bought the Off-ramp. But I may have been hasty there so may buy myself a Lynx card and give it some more time. Particularly as I run 3 way active speakers and may want to do the crossovers in software and use six of those output channels on the AES16.