WWPascoe

I'd recommend Al DiMeola's "Elegant Gypsy," which contains a duet (!) with Paco De Lucia called "Mediterranean Sundance" that'll knock your socks off. Then get your hands on DiMeola, DeLucia, and John McLaughlin's "Passion, Grace and Fire" and "The Guitar Trio." I know you said solo acoustic, and these are duets and trios, but if you like fine acoustic -- especially classical Spanish flamenca -- you'll thank me.

Jon, Any updates on ETA for the DAC'iT? I've been quietly tapping my foot for quite some time now ... Thanks!

Thanks to all of you for your comments -- they're most helpful. I understand I've already got a pretty good DAC in the DHC 80.2 -- there are six 192K/32-bit Burr-Brown DACs inside, in fact. But the Peachtree DAC'iT will use the ESS Sabre32 (ES9022) DAC, which is a bit better, if reviews are to be believed. I'm not concerned with how to play the high-rez files I have; they run straight to the 80.2 via Ethernet, and I let the 80.2 DACs do the work there. I'm really mostly concerned with raising the SQ on the MP3 files, and a bit on the AIFF files. The good news is, Crutchfield has a 60-day money-back guarantee, and I've bought so much equipment from Bill Crutchfield over the last 30+ years that I'm sure if I decided the SQ was NOT an improvement, they'd happily take back the DAC'iT and let me upgrade something else in my system instead. So as soon as the DAC'iT is available for purchase, I'll add one to my system and let my ears be the judge. And I'll come back and let everyone know the results. Thanks!

At the time, I didn't know the difference in SQ between MP3 and lossless. My CD collection took up an entire wall in my living room, with two Billy Bags racks that were each six feet tall and a third that was three feet tall. I thought I could save the space. I also moved around a lot, due to my chosen profession. So there was a convenience factor involved, as well. Never should have turned down the scholarship offer to Stanford without at least visiting the campus first. Never should have married the woman I did. Never should have dumped the CDs, period. My three greatest regrets in life. C'est la vie. Bill

Computer audio noob here. Ripped 2,500 CDs to MP3 8 years ago (before I understood anything about SQ), then dumped the shiny discs to save the space. Recently decided to upgrade home A/V system. New speakers (Klipsch RF-7 II fronts), new sub (JL Audio Fathom f110), new amp (Outlaw 7700), new pre-pro (Integra DHC-80.2), new player (OPPO BDP-93). Added second-gen AppleTV. Began rebuilding CD collection with purchase of favorite 200 CDs. Ripped them to AIFF using iTunes on my MacBook Pro. Then found HDTRacks.com and purchased a dozen CDs in 24/96. They downloaded as FLAC and sit in a separate library; I also transcoded them to AIFF so I could play them in iTunes off the ATV. (I know the iTunes/ATV combo doesn't support 24/96 playback, which is why I keep the high-rez files in a separate library -- when I actually want to sit and listen, I access them using Twonky via either the OPPO network streaming function or the 80.2 streaming function.) So, there are three different libraries, all three of which sit on a 3TB WD external drive that's connected to the MacBook Pro via FireWire 800. Connections: The OPPO and ATV are connected via HDMI to the 80.2. The MacBook Pro (and, therefore, its attached WD 3 TB external drive) are connected via Ethernet to the network router, as are both the 80.2 and the OPPO. To play either the MP3 library or the AIFF library on the external hard drive, I use the ATV. The GUI is far better than Twonky's, and I also find gapless playback far easier to achieve (maybe there's a work-around for this I haven't figured out in Twonky?). And there's the question for the forum: If I were to add a DAC (say, the soon-to-hit-the-market Peachtree DAC'iT) to the signal path, so the signal went from the WD drive to the ATV via network, then from ATV to DAC via optical, then from the DAC to the 80.2 via analog, would I hear a noticeable difference in SQ when playing the old MP3 files?

I'm in the same boat as you, so I've subscribed to the thread to see what advice the community has to offer. May I ask why you chose Amarra, and which version you chose? Bill