So, I bought a Mac Mini, a LaCie external drive and a Freeway USB/SPDIF interface. Nothing could be easier. The Mini immediately found the Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, the internal Airport Express recognized the wireless router without me having to do anything, and the Freeway was up and running as soon as I downloaded the drivers (took about 1 minute). The system is Mac Mini > Empirical Audio Freeway > Audio Alchemy DTIv2 anti-jitter device > Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista DAC > Herron VTSPA pre > McIntosh MC275 amp (circa 1964) > Merlin TSM speakers.
I have been using my son's Plextor drive to rip to iTunes using Apple Lossless. With error correction enabled, the ripping speed is usually between 20x and 30x (the internal Mac drive ripping speed is between 10x and 20x), so CDs get ripped in just a couple of minutes, each. Simple as that.
The big news is that you can have your cake and eat it, too. The sound is fantastic. Beats the pants off my old Cal Delta transport. I attribute most of the improvement to going to hard drive and the Freeway interface. The system now has MUCH better low frequency control and articulation, more refined upper frequencies, heightened resolution across the spectrum resulting in a sense of greater *clarity* and ambience. That said, the biggest benefit to me is the phenomenal flexibility I now have to manipulate my digitally stored music without sacrificing sound quality. The wife also appreciates the lack of CD jewel box clutter.
Now if I only had an extra lifetime in which to transfer my 3,000+ LPs to Apple Lossless....
