will itunes do a good job

Yes it will, however you could find yourself tied, in.

From that perspective I would recommend something else which can rip to FLAC, in this way you keep your options open when you eventually get a bit pissed off with itunes. Which everyone seems to eventually.

Vote for iTunes here.

Superb interface, splendid Ripping Engine, and grand resulting replay.

I am sure that if you want to get more sophisticated and involve yourself with setting up less plug and play type operation, then it may be possible to get a possibly marginally better arrangement.

If you want to squeeze the last milligram of performance from PC or Mac based replay, then take Gary's advice and look elsewhere, but if you try out iTunes [using ALAC as a fine loss less file storage system], then nothing, in my experience, is going to leap up and surprise you in a negative way over time, and it will give much more than simply adequate replay - more like superb in my experience.

It is free for an experiment on your PC, so you can download it [free], and experiment with it for yourself. It either will please you or not, but it need cost you nothing more than your own efforts to find out.

ATB from George

The upcoming Unitiserve will stream FLAC. It will also stream ALAC & AIFF so you can have iTunes and lossless for the best of both worlds if you decide to go down that road.

Another vote for i-tunes.

i-tunes can sound very good indeed with the right tweaks. However it may take you a while to achieve a result approaching your old CDX2.

BUT rip your CD's bit for bit. Storage is cheap. And in a high resolution hi-fi, you will hear the difference between bit for bit and compressed.

However in my experience, i-tunes does work best on a Mac. Mac Book Pro's are very good value for money these days....

If you rip using lossless compression (flac, apple lossless), you don't lose anything - when you play them back, the bits presented to the DAC are the same as if you were playing the original CD or WAV file. Don't confuse this with lossy compression.

Thanks DarrellK for clarifying what ALAC is/does. I wasn't too sure...

I did another AIFF and ALAC A/B comparison tonight. There is maybe a "2%" difference between the two. So for all intents and purposes, they can be considered like for like...
Difference is just that little bit better spacial separation with AIFF.

quote:

Originally posted by nap-ster:
The upcoming Unitiserve will stream FLAC. It will also stream ALAC & AIFF so you can have iTunes and lossless for the best of both worlds if you decide to go down that road.

Note that all Naim servers / hard disk players from s/w v1.5a can play and stream these as well.

However, they rip to uncompressed, untagged WAV, which is platform- and application-independent.

If you're ripping on a PC, EAC (exactaudiocopy) is the only way to go IMHO. Also take a look at the REACT script for it which makes ripping (and tagging etc..) real easy (although fiddly to setup in the first instance).

For PC playback, foobar seems easiest to make sure you're getting bit perfect out the back. xbmc has a number of very pretty UI features and can be controlled easily via a remote control. Personally, I think itunes sucks - YMMV...

Personally, I'd rip to wav, but I'm using the HDX which tags and preserves all of the metadata. Storage should not be an issue at this point. Prices continue to drop and I see no reason to worry about amount of storage required and cost.

From what you've purchased I'd get a Sonos player and use this with your NDAC until you decide on a different front end. According to Paul the Unitiserve are going into production at this time. I'd probably add a Napster or Rhapsody monthly account to your sonos after the 30 day trial ends before ripping anything. Most of your music will be available through the on-line services at a small monthly cost ($12-15), until you decide when you can get a final source. This way if you front end with the Unitiserve, for example, you can then use this to rip your CDs to the NAS and have all of the metadata with the Naim software.

This keeps everything simple, no settings to fuss with, PNP solution with great results.

(From what you've purchased I'd get a Sonos player and use this with your NDAC until you decide on a different front end. According to Paul the Unitiserve are going into production at this time. I'd probably add a Napster or Rhapsody monthly account to your sonos after the 30 day trial ends before ripping anything. Most of your music will be available through the on-line services at a small monthly cost ($12-15), until you decide when you can get a final source. This way if you front end with the Unitiserve, for example, you can then use this to rip your CDs to the NAS and have all of the metadata with the Naim software.

This keeps everything simple, no settings to fuss with, PNP solution with great results.)

Some of the most to the point and logical advice I have yet seen concerning the digital
(ie computer) minefield we are currently navigating. I could not agree more wholeheartedly with one small exception and that would be adding the Squeezebox option into the mix. Both it and the Sonos are inexpensive
and highly capable streamers that can get you off and running with a minumum of fuss. Then adding the Unitiserve wehn it comes out and voila...an extremly simple and (I'm assuming)
superb sounding front end for the new digital generation.

realhifi, have we met?

Uh oh....am I in trouble for posting the wrong
answer? It's me Dave....David Elmgren
from Michigan. Yes, I am keeping myself current and up to date on what you folks are up to and it all looks good. That new Unitiserve? Nice. I'll give you a call this week and chat if you have a min or two.

Absolutely!