escapes wrote: 
No need for apologies.  Live and learn. 

Interesting.  Never heard of EAC before.  I've been using cdparanoia as my ripping engine for years.  I've tried various front ends with added features like automatic file naming etc.  Right now I'm using abcde, which is a simple text utility that uses cdparanoia and CDDB, and several encoding libraries to produce WAV, FLAC, Ogg, MP3 and other output files.


Not dumbfounding to me.  Back when the CES visited Chicago, I used to spend plenty of time at the high end exhibits.  I quickly learned that many people are willing to part with huge sums of money for frivolous purposes like snob appeal.  No doubt a few more of the Seven Deadly Sins come into play here.  It's human nature.  Wretched human nature, to be sure.  But human nevertheless.

Sorry for my novice post of the url.

There are some great posts on this site related to EAC, Exact Audio Copy and playback via Apple gear using the iTouch as the remote. Zero fan noise.

Found it very useful and dumbfounding the amount of money people spend on gear,

Cheers 

It's always polite to make a link to the site:  http://www.computeraudiophile.com/

It looks like an interesting site, thanks!  I've been using a standard PC / $30 sound card with Toslink (I prefer optical to eliminate ground loops) as my home music player for several years now.  This feeds a modestly-priced Lucid DA9624 DAC and Presonus Central Station, which then feeds my standard power amp and loudspeakers, using proper balanced and shielded line level analog audio cables.

My next planned upgrade is to add a TCXO for even better time base.  I've found a couple of kits on the Internet, so why not? 

My ultimate goal is to develop a PC-based home version of the very expensive (and needlessly complicated for home use) loudspeaker control systems.  The advantage here is that the crossover is in the digital domain, and can employ FIR filters which are impossible in the analog domain.  This also introduces the possibility of having equalization that doesn't have the same adverse effects on overall sound, as analog equalizer circuits do.

I'm a little disappointed, but not surprised that the Computer Audiophile site is a tad heavy on the woo-woo, obscenely expensive "high end" vendors.  But at least it's a step in the right direction.

Great site, lots to learn. Amazing how much folks will pay for things but the Devilsound DAC with the AudioEngine A5's are amazing

Check it out

Cheers from a freezing Atlanta