I ripped everything to FLAC and then used flac2mp3 to create lower bitrate MP3's in addition to the lossless files. I don't need 320kbs for portables or the car. So, for the price of some processing time and another small, cheap disk drive, I have the universal, portable versions and the hi-fi versions.

MediaMonkey seems to be a pretty great application, too. I believe if you purchase the modestly-priced pay version, it will convert from FLAC to MP3 on-the-fly when you sync to a portable device.

My Squeezebox from Slimdevices is my second favorite electronics purchase ever. Axioms, being first of course.

All CDs have been ripped to FLAC to be streamed lossless to the Squeezebox and I also made 256KBs MP3s at the time for my portable player. Used EAC for ripping with a script that does the MP3s as soon as the FLACs are done.

When not listening to my flac collection, I also use the Squeezebox to tune into my local radio station (via internet) to get weather and news in the morning and enjoy having access to hundreds of other Internet Music stations. I explore a lot of interesting genres this way where I might not have been brave enough to go buy a bunch of say 'world music' CDS unheard.

Oh, and while I'm not sure you can rip DVD-A or SACD, as mentioned, I have converted a lot of my concert DVDs to wav format to flac in order to listen to the live tracks via my Squeezebox as well. Some quality seems to be lost as it converts the 5.1 to stereo files but it's still very acceptable and I can listen to some great concerts on the main floor where we have no TV to watch the actual DVD.

I would love to have the details on that. Speak slowly. I only impersonate a real geek.

I've been planning to do that as well. What software do you use?

I think the SqueezeBox Duet can pass DTS direct (and maybe also DD) so there is a possibility of not loosing the surround. For DVD, I personnaly use "DVD Audio Extractor".

News to me Eric? I have the Duet. I'll check out he Extractor. Thanks.

Check in the "Audio Formats" for this link:

http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_duet.html

There is a "Digital passthrough to S/PDIF for DTS". Might be something that was copied from their "Transporter" page and no-one noticed the error.

What do y'all think about the Transporter? Waste of money or something worth considering? I'm also considering a PS Audio DAC.

Transporter: $1999
Airport Express: $99

Seems like a no-brainer to me. Does the Transporter come with three of these or something? Heck, Microcult types can apparently even pull music straight into some AVR's without an external widget at all.

When I auditioned the Transporter last January I thought it had great fidelity and resolution. It was clear they designed it with top of the line materials and with particular attention to jitter which makes for that grainy, edgy sound. But at $2,000 it is pricey and I think the Duet remote/receiver for $400 is a better deal though its sound quality isn't on par with the Transporter.

We also compared the Transporter to a Mac notebook into a Benchmark USB DAC. The three of us favoured the Benchmark over the Transporter. The Benchmark supposedly has the lowest jitter of any current DAC. Based on that session I went with a Slim Duet/Benchmark DAC combo which was cheaper than the Transporter and gave me that terrific remote and the flexibility to add more receivers throughout my home. The Duet receiver connects to the Benchmark DAC through the optical port though I'm told the best sound comes via the USB port.

Since then I've added another Duet squeezebox receiver for $150 so I can stream tunes into my patio speakers and control them with the remote. For outdoor listening I just plugged the Duet into my old Sansui 9090db receiver. The Wolfson Dac in the Duet is pretty good just not up to the Transporter or Benchmark quality.