Among other things, I was uncomfortable with the quasi-scientific points scale they used to quantify the differences they heard - it seemed arbitrary and capricious. Is Renoir's Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette 15 points better than Modigliani's Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz? How does one meaningfully quantify subjective experiences, particularly in a way that is actually useful to anyone aside from the reviewer? The only way I could see an exercise like this having any value is if a pool of listeners were independently exposed to the same stimulus, then had their anonymously submitted point values impartially averaged by a third party. In that case we'd see rougher values, not differences being neatly five, ten, or twenty points better or worse than something else. Basically, I thought the experimental methodology was flawed in a number of significant ways. It's an interesting jumping off point for discussion, but I was dismayed to see the emphasis fall on sonic differences between various software and formats, rather than exploring the underlying mechanisms of *why* there are differences. I think they should have either taken a stricter scientific approach or else gone the route of a traditional subjective review, but instead they conflated the two. I think that's very dangerous and unprofessional territory because it tends to breed misconceptions and misunderstandings. Frankly I'm surprised and a bit disappointed that TAS published this series.

Just downloaded dBpoweramp. I guess after the 21 day trial period it loses some features, but will still work for what I need. Thanks everyone!

just a follow up here. Continuing to use Team Viewer. Works great and gives me full control of the server PC. And, as I mentioned, I usually have my notebook with me if I'm listening anyway, so it's pretty convenient. Found a free Android App "Remote for iTunes Pro - FREE" by the Jared Company. Fairly minimal approach, but works well enough.

Brooks Cantrell posted the following as a message to me and I'll share it here: To help you out here with the CD's to DAC issue & limited space. I have been both a Mac & PC owner for a little over 10yrs. The best solution would be to purchase a 3tb hard drive & start with one & add as needed. On the Mac stores web site they do sale wireless remotes that work with both their laptops & desktop computers. This way they could opperate it while being in a different room. Also I purchase a lot of my products now online at Newegg.com & monoprice.com for all my audio & video needs. Both places have those hard to find devices that your looking for & the plus side is it doesn't cost you that much at all since they've really great prices on everything! Also on monoprice they have devices that work by connecting Cat5, 5e or 6 cables to them & they let you opperate things like your laptop to your DAC's, TV's etc. check newegg.com for deals on 3tb hard drives. They have great deals & are really cheap compaired to others. Thanks Brooks

Russ I wrote an article last year about how I organize my computer music files "Tweaking the Info Tab of computer music files." http://audioiconoclast.blogspot.com/2010/06/tweaking-info-tab-of-my-music-files.html In the "Album" tab I put the name of the album, if it is the work of a single composer I put the composer's name first. In the "Name tab": I put the title of the work unless there are multiple composers on the album in which case it is Composer then title. In the "Artist tab" I put the soloists, conductor and the orchestra, in the "Album Artist tab" I put the name of the orchestra. In the "Composer's tab" I put last name followed by first name (for example "Arnold, Malcom"). This is the place where music files are all over the place. Some put the composer's name first, last, some last, first, and some list no composer name at all! I use the iTunes album artwork (when available) if the resolution is good, otherwise I use an Google Image search and look for the best looking cover with the highest resolution, at least 300 x 300, then I edit the picture in iPhoto to insure it looks the best. Examples of my finished music files and searches are contained in the article http://audioiconoclast.blogspot.com/2010/06/tweaking-info-tab-of-my-music-files.html

@Russ: I currently have my main rig connected to PC rig with a digital coaxial input and an analog output (for digitizing vinyl and tape). I have considered a squeezebox, but I have been holding off waiting for the streaming technologies to settle. It is just a cost thing at this point. Besides with the UPnP component running, I can use another PC (laptop), iPhone or Android with the PlugPlayer app to control Foobar directly and get the same results. Another cool thing about the UPnP is the ability to connect and stream to another PC running Foobar with UPnP. My 16-year-old and I streamed from my rig to his netbook at a McDonald’s, it was very slick. As far as the DVD-A decoder (foo_input_dvda), that’s in a bit of gray area. I first heard about it in a PC sound card review that Stereophile’s JA wrote, mmm, maybe 2-3 years ago. The actual name of the plugin is DVD-Audio Decoder and Watermark Detector. Goggle is your friend here and if you search for ‘foobar2000 dvd-audio plugin’ you should find it. If you have problems getting it, shoot me a PM. There is a bit of a learning curve to use it, but it does work. I personally, do not use it for playing the discs anymore, I just play the 24/96 FLAC files.

I’ve spent a few weeks now with miniDSP, playing around with crossover and eq configurations, but mostly just listening to music. At this point I can say that my system sounds better with miniDSP than with my previous jumble of crossover and eq boxes. I felt my previous active configurtion was a big step up in transparency and dynamics over the purely passive TRT’d RM30s. With miniDSP, the RM30s are getting even better! The miniDSP is only being used for the woofer section of the RM30s and separate subwoofers. The midpanels and tweeters use only 1st and 2nd order passive analog filters to preserve their pristine tone and transparency. The small latency delay inherent in the miniDSP does not seem to be an issue as I’m hearing a more coherent transition from RM30 woofers to midpanels than I had before. The one issue that I need to work through is that the mids/tweeters are more efficient than the woofers so either the mid-high drivers need to be turned down with power-sucking L-pads or gain needs to be added to the woofer & sub signal path. MiniDSP is a unity gain device so I am going to add a simple op amp buffer/gain stage to the four channel output of the miniDSP using a pair of AD826 op amps. I’m setting the op amp gain to about 5 which should give me more than enough gain into the woofer & sub power amps to keep up with the mid-high drivers. I can then fine-tune the balance by adjusting the woofer/sub gain in the miniDSP software. Once I get this going I’ll report back. Russ

the funny thing is, legally (and how these deals are structured) most of us have been violating the RIAA regulations for YRS - so like I said, unofficially, just keep doing what you're doing - just don't open a warehouse and up your income!! LOL That's the red flag. Unless, like Dave pointed out, you are an actual accredited re-seller (they have re-sellers licenses Dave, which is why they can do these things legally). Bottom Line - none of us do enough of this to warrant attention from the majors... Hey, I know MANY music reviewers that sell their promos, I NEVER have, NEVER will (having both worked for a composer/producer, and having released my own music, which has been copied and re-distributed) I find it distasteful, but it happens ALL THE TIME. Crooks

Just tried out itrax.com and picked up Rachmanoff plays Rachmanoff. Pretty good download speeds.