Life is complicated, lets keep it simple.

I would reinforce the advice you got from Shadorne. A variation of the MacBook > iTunes > Airport Express > amplifier is what I use and it doesn't get much simpler.

As he said, the next step up in quality would be to insert an external digital to analog converter between the Express and your amp. Even an inexpensive DAC like the Lite Ah for @ $150 would be an improvement but the simpler setup will sound better than most people expect.

It's easy and relatively inexpensive to try it and see how it works for you. The Airport Express is $120 and works extremely well as a wireless access point for the Internet, even if you decide not to use it for music. A decent cable is about the only other thing you need to get started.

The MacBook Pro has a large enough hard drive to store quite a few CD's, even burned as Apple Lossless files. You'll have the original CD's as backup so you don't need to worry about an external drive until you've got enough music to begin to crowd your internal hard drive or you start downloading enough music that having a backup becomes important. By that time hard drive storage will be even cheaper.

There are some people here who will tell you they can hear a difference between Apple Lossless files and other formats, and I don't doubt they can, but for most people, with most systems, the difference isn't audible. Even if you're one of those people, the difference may be important to you for only a few recordings.

Once you get set up the convenience is addictive. I find myself listening to a much wider range of music because it's so much easier to avoid the habit of just reaching for the same CD's over and over. Playlists are a wonderful bonus, as well.

I second Sfar and Arni. The only problem I have found is disc storage space. I have a 500 gb external via firewire to a mac>express>Audio Research Dac>integrated and I haven't looked back. It's amazing how quickly it fills up in uncompressed formats. Again, the only problem I have found is when your library exceeds the space available on ONE hard drive. Adding an additional hardrive is simple enough, but getting itunes to use two different hard drives for a single library becomes tedious and bothersome, unless someone else has a any ideas????
I also have the Slim Designs Squeezebox, which gives the option for coaxial digital output to a dac, but I prefer the functionality of the express controlled by a computer. The remote is convenient, but sometimes the device locks up and doesn't stream from the host computer as well as I would like, causing the music to skip.

At risk of sounding like a broken record (pun intended), go the Apple route most are advising here. I'm not crazy about the wireless Apple Express solution though. I ended up liking the sound of a hard-wired (USB) direct connection, rather than wireless. Nevertheless, if you DO go wireless for convenience, definitely use a good DAC with the AE (conected via Toslink - you'll have to get a special cable for that as it's not a standard toslink on the AE side). Alternatively you can get a USB DAC that connects to your MacPro, or an interface that converts USB to S/PDIF and then go to a DAC. The Waveterminal U24 is such a device that I used and liked very much, but it is no longer available new.

Simple answers to simple questions:

1. Yes, store you music on a reliable external hard drive. In general, storage is very cheap relative to the audio world. You can get a 250 gig drive that'll hold quite a bit of music for just over $200 (or less if you get a cheap drive). An iPod is not a good alternative because it requires you use the less than desireable little DAC in the iPod, and or the opamp in there. Do not use the iPod to store your library, though it is a great mobile listening device if you're on the road. Also you cannot transfer or burn any tunes that have been stored on an iPod as far as I know. Keep the tunes on a hard drive. Back it up if possible as hard drives can and do eventually fail. No, this does not effect the quality of the sound if you've ripped the music the right way.

2. In iTunes choose either WAV or Apple Lossless. The former will render a file about twice the size of the lossless file so will take up more space. Apple Lossless is, by all reports, truly lossless. I have not been able to tell the difference in comparing the two. In lossless you could get about 400+ CD's on a 250gb drive. If you want to check with your own ears (and I'd advise this since you are looking for the Grail), rip the same CD or tune in both formats and play them back to back. I'd be curious if you, or anyone else can tell the difference.

Have fun.

Marco

From a PC-centric standpoint, allow me to offer my experience. I am running a wireless network in my home using a LinkSys Broadband router. The router is located in my basement along with 3 desktop PCs and a laptop PC. I have approx. 1 terabyte of available disc space - hi-speed (7200 rpm) external USB drives are getting crazy cheap nowadays.

Upstairs, I have a LinkSys Wireless MusicBridge connected to my hi-fi using its coax digital out into my HK Signature 2.0 pre-pro.

This setup allows me to stream any Windows Media Player compatible file (WMA, WAV, MP3) to my hi-fi. In order to be able to use even more file types, I have substituted WinAmp for the Windows Media Player. This allows me to also playback (natively) FLAC and APE files. I can also stream internet-based music broadcasts.

It sounds *quite* good and the convenience of having the laptop as my master control panel/remote control is unbeatable. I can sit in my favorite listening position and summon a vast library of music while never leaving the chair. I've requested my wife to bury me in this position [smirk]

The really cool part? The Wireless MusicBridge cost me all of $55 delivered to my door. Setup was problematical until I realized that I needed to do it using one of my desktop PCs with a hard-wired connection - the laptop with its wireless connection just wouldn't do it.

If anyone else would like to converse about this, feel free to contact me, I can get ya up and running in no time at very little cost...(rlwainwright@verizon.net)

-RW-

Rhbowker, on your comments about using multiple hard drives, one of the new features of the just-released iTunes 7 is the ability to manage music libraries across multiple hard discs. I haven't tried it and don't know how it works but it's worth looking into.

Marco, in the same release, iTunes 7, there is now a function for transferring your music from the iPod to another computer. Again, I haven't tried it and dont' know how well it works but it's obviously in response to the issue you raised.