Thanks, Murph. That does help me some. When I get to the point of excruciating demonstration of the depths of my ignorance, I may ask you more questions offline.
I've been pondering this and trying to define the problem a little more.
I often forget about the Apple TV (because I'm a default PC guy). And I don't really need the TV part. But it's only $99 all day every day.
But what drives this for me is the UI. I want to control the music from an iPad. That's sacrosanct. So, maybe using the Apple TV gives me a certain synchronicity that is helpful? Or maybe iPeng is so groovy that I don't need to worry about it?
Plus, I'm just really kind of a retard relative to networking. I know (and accomplish) JUST enough to get close enough or done. Maybe all I need is a Airport?
But I really want highest fidelity possible, so I either need to leverage my 200G worth of FLAC files or (ugh, oh gawd, no...) convert them to something else to appease The Apple.
Those files are currently stored on a computer somewhere else in the house. My existing file structure is like yours, more or less, as I've also made a duplicate MP3 copy of everything already out of deference to iTunes. But I purposely left those at 128-196 bitrate to best accommodate our collection of portable devices.
I will continue to need an analog connection since we have a frequently-used zone 2 (kitchen and patio); I can certainly continue to use BOTH a digital signal for the main zone (decode in the Onkyo) and an analog signal for zone 2 (decode in AppleTV or Squeezebox). But I have to have an external D/A conversion somewhere for the zone 2.
Does Sharon use her iPeng/iPad to control the music?
I'm going to need some help with "Squeezebox Library" management.
Thanks again, Andy. Really appreciate your patient guidance.
