Thank you both Flecko and Music33.

In particular, thank you Music33 for the link. Very helpful.

As you say, I will get 100 different response from 100 different enthusiasts.  , which is what I was hoping for.

To put some more context into the discussion, and I hope many others feel they can chip in with their advice, I have at home in the UK, an Audio Research based system with their CD2 / DAC integrated player (getting on a bit now) at the front end, with a delightfully musical LS25 Vacuum Tube preamp into AR's VT100 amplifier connected through to a wonderful pair of Sonus Faber Guarneri speakers fed bi-wired; all connected throughout with Transparent Interconnects and Cables. In its day - fabulous.

Having rekindled my interest recently (and switched the ol' system on for the first time in a while), I discovered to my horror that the CD2 is giving up the ghost and I suspect it will not be repairable as parts would, by now, be unavailable. So, that made me wonder how best to front-end the existing system and before diving into an upgrade, I decided to look at what has changed in the meantime. Hence my arrival here on this forum. Of course I could just buy the latest and greatest from AR, but I wondered whether this would be an opportunity to review that system from scratch with maybe a computer based replay front end.

This conundrum is separate from building another, new, separate system at my place in the US, which is also a challenge (I bounce back and forth for work reasons) and may lead to a completely different approach altogether, hence my request for suggestions from all you far more experienced members here. So, bring on your recommendation, please!?

My grateful thanks for any and all advice received,

Mike

Well, In another thread, I've just been reminded of how we are all searching, each in our own way, for our very own SQ heaven, all over again.

As a relative Newbie to the current generation of recording / replay technologies, I have once again come to the Crossroads. Having read a fair number of the posts on this forum and on Computer Audiophile over the past week, I am impressed with what has been achieved over the past decade or more. The Rise of Convenience over sound quality brings with it inevitable compromises, but even so, there is still much to be gained from each generation - if you are prepared to work at it.

After we all achieved such relatively high quality replay with the likes of Linn Sondek, Naim, Krell, Audio Research etc. I remember the huge fuss over the onset of the digital alternative when most audiophiles of the day thought that all their investments in vinyl and analogue would fade into disuse and subsequent oblivion. Remember Cassettes!? If you recall, it took from 1982 when they were first commerically available to roughly 1995-1998 before you could really achieve compelling, musical, involving replay again, but this time, from CD.

And here we are again, split again, between the persuasive  possibilities that mobility and convenience offers versus the holy grail journey you all seem to be enthusiastically undertaking to achieve the very same goals, this time from computer based replay.

I'm always hopeful that the next generation of technology will somehow facilitate the best combination of all these potential benefits. No matter how the industry evolves with new technological possibilities, the average level of quality and convenience always rises for the majority. However, with each major shift in the fundamental platform (analogue to digital for example), audiophiles have to 'start again'; perhaps not from scratch, but certainly close to it.

So, I can see that the journey ahead of me will be a familiar one, taking a different route to the same destination and just in case it isn't obvious from my original question on the other thread, my ultimate goal is to achieve the finest reproduction of the original musical performance that man can devise; at reasonable cost, I might add.

And so to my question. Knowing what you know today, if you were about to start this journey all over again, which route would you take and why? Budget aside.

Hopefully, some of you will graciously be able to set me off on the right path.

Many thanks

Mike

Aha!. There you go. Well, thank you for such a helpful reply. Now I understand, and of course I entirely agree with the logic. Perhaps, at least, my question on your forum will help other Newbies understand.

I'll be back! 

Thanks again Peter and Russ.

Regards

Mike

Thank you, Russ, for the insight. I thought it might be something fundamental. Although I have a very high end CD based replay system at home, when I travel to the US, all I have in my place so far is the Zeppelin Air. Having been brought up on high quality replay, but needing to carry my music with me, the idea of everything digital makes a whole lot of sense. I was wondering whether digital replay had come of age over the ten years I've been out of this kind of obsessive stuff, and in my research stumbled on Computer Audiophile's site and learned of all the new possibilities.

So, before diving into the new generation of replay, I though I would start here. Those who know the Zeppelin Air would attest its somewhat surprisingly decent qualities, so it seemed an ideally basic starting point to understand all the newer technologies. First question was should I go down the Mac or the PC route? Having been a PC man for as long as there have been PCs, it seemed right to start there. I was surprised to find so few decent possibilities beyond the run of the mill / default players and so was delighted to stumble on XXHighEnd. Naturally I can see that a quality digital / analogue signal path through a decent system is going to reveal the full potential, but I suppose impatience got the better of me.

I was rather hoping it would work. I've read that Mac users have Amarra and Airfoil working together and that was going to be my recourse failing this combination working. I fancy that PC based replay is more 'musical' than the Mac route!?

Anyway, I guess if Peter says it can't be done, I'll try something else for the time being until Ive learned enough of this generation's possibilities to take the plunge and spend the hard earned stuff on the best I can afford!

My grateful thanks again,

Mike

 It will be obvious from my question just how new I am to this whole business. I've read all the introductory guides for the beginner and, hopefully, I followed eveything step by step, but ........

What I am trying to do is use XXHighEnd as a HiQ player, for its legendary SQ, but wirelessly send its output to another piece of software called Airfoil. This allows me to 'send' the data stream to my modest Zeppelin Air integrated system. This works perfectly with iTunes, with any browser streaming MOG music selections, with Foobar and with Media Player etc, so the method itself works wonderfully with these other applications. Now, I do not expect staggering quality from the Zeppelin Air, but it's my first foray into PC based replay, but so far it has worked extremely well for me, hence my interest in improving things by moving from standard players to XXHighEnd .......but, oh dear, it doesn't seem to work with your application so far. I therefore suspect that either my installation is not set correctly or it's not going to work with Airfoil anyway. After installing successfully and playing tracks using the standrad speaker output, I started Airfoil to see if their app could work.  Airfoil can 'see' the XXHighEnd application, but I can see from it's interface  that it's not receiving any output from XXHighEnd ..... result ...... my internal speakers work fine on my laptop but no sound comes out of the Zeppelin Air system when I attempt to get Airfoil to grab XXHighend's output. 

Attached is a screen shot from my system showing the XXHighEnd UI and the Airfoil interface while a track is playing - you can see there is no 'signal' at the bottom of the Airfoil app as there usually is and the sound is still coming out of my laptop speakers where it would by now be coming out of the Zeppelin Air system with other players!

Would you possibly have any suggestions? I am using the demo installation only to see if this whole thing works befreo buying a license.

Rather disaappointed, but hopeful, Mike