pugchuck

1. Counting Crows - August and Everything After 2. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here 3. Genesis - And Then There Were Three 4. Kenny Loggins - Leap of Faith 5. The Clash - London Calling 6. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication 7. Real Life - Heartland 8. Elton John - Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy 9. Rush - 2112 10. Dire Straits - Love Over Gold Many more . . .

I just got a basic Zino to use as a music server. I have it connected by USB to a Creative Sound Blaster X-fi HD external sound card, which acts as the DAC. It is connected by RCA cables to an incredible 1978 Sansui AU-517 amplifier. I have a 1.5 Tb external hard drive connected to the Zino, on which I have ripped all of my CDs in flac format. The sound is great. The Zino, sound card, and HDD cost less than $500 combined. I use WinAmp and Easy CD-DA Extractor to manage and rip my music (free and $32). Both work great. I expect that I will improve this system over time, but I'm not sure how it can be done without a significant diminution in returns for the additional money spent. I would welcome any suggestions. Thanks.