Russ

Adhesive, or threaded? If threaded, do you know if it is 1/4-20?

and as someone who worked in consumer electronics, including high end audio (but no more,) I think that Musical Fidelity should be forgiven for not just selling just one to the retailer. The product is likely distributed in a pack quantity (a case) greater than one. Altering the distribution of such a product from a case to individual units raises costs substantially. As far as the new product, it appears to be a different animal. The V-Link 192, in addition to the higher sample rate capability, has eliminated the TosLink output in favor of an AES/EBU one. This leads me to believe that it is galvanically isolated, which would explain the large price difference. That price difference makes it likely that the two V-Links will coexist in Musical Fidelity's lineup. The real issue here, and it is very important, is that you seem to have buyer's remorse. Would you rather own the V-Link 192? If so, contact your dealer about a way to exchange what you have purchased when the new one is available. Even though the dealer's return period will likely have expired, they may allow you to apply full credit towards the purchase of a new one. It doesn't hurt to ask. The worst that can happen is that they will say "no."

I'm on the Mac side of things, so I really can't say if your current computer is sufficient. The computer's model#, amount of installed RAM, OS version, and installed HD type will help someone to give you an answer.

I'll play with that over the weekend. Russ...

Any idea if that introduces noise to the power line?

With a little help from Google, it looks like the DAC is $1K less than the CD player. Sell your existing DAC for more play money. With the money saved, you can get two (one for use and one for backup) external fanless 2.5" harddrives to store the music, an SSD for your computer, extra RAM, and a high quality USB cable. What type of computer do you have now?

Paul, like so many people these days, I work with spreadsheets all day long. I make extensive use of autofilters, including custom filters. It would be nice to only look at the info that I want to see. The column browser is helping with this, but it is limited in the options available, and it takes up screen space. What if I only want to look at music that was recorded in a sampling rate above 44.1 KHz that I haven't listened to yet? How about all songs with "New York" in the title without also having to look at albums that also contain that? Thanks, Russ...

But there is still too much info. I'll work with column browser set to "top" as this appears to be the best available solution. Thanks, Russ...

Although it's not exactly what I'm looking for, this will help. I'll live with the column browser set to "top" for a while and see how it goes. Thanks, Russ...

Does anyone know if either iTunes has an MS Excel-like autofilter, or if there is an add-on program for such a thing?

My guess is that the lower component is a Threshold FET-1. I don't know what the component sitting on top of it is. A tuner perhaps?

I wonder how many Nobel laureates rely on Macintoshes for their work? Surely that would shed some light on the significance of Steve Jobs' life.

I've owned nothing but Macs since, and used nothing but Windows machines at work. In a way, Steve Jobs has been part of most of my life, and the computers at work have always made me extremely grateful for what he did.

Is the plastic model noticeably quieter than the aluminum one from several feet away?

If you could post a few pictures, that would help. Alternatively, you can create an illustration with something like Google Sketchup and post it.