I listen to jazz, classic rock, vocals, classical and a bit of new age. I have strived for minimal coloration, not to favor any particular genre.
Almost all of my listening is via digital source - CD's and DVD-A's perfectly saved to a dedicated PC, then played back uncompressed through a very high-quality external DAC.
The performance of the PC system is intended to compare with the highest quality transports. Details are in the comments thread.
Three-way model, significant improvement over the 2.0. Reviews: OneTwoThree
Aspen AKSA Lifeforce 100 Monoblocks
100 wpc
JL Audio Fathom F112
The highly acclaimed 12 inch sealed subwoofer with 1500W internal amp
ModWright SWL 9.0SE Signature
Dan Wright's 5687 triode-based preamp with the optional tube rectified power supply. This unit also has a number of reference parts, including Black Gate caps, Sonicaps, tantalum resistors, DH Labs wiring and Bybees. review
Audiomeca Enkianthus.X
Reference DAC. Amazing lacquer-look finish, very hard to photograph. It uses the superlative Anagram Mk.2 ATF module. review
HTPC Audio/Jukebox
Built into a Coolermaster ATCS hifi style case, with a pleasant brushed aluminum anodized bezel. Zalman CPU fan and Seasonic Super Tornado power supply are dead silent. M-Audio 2496 provides ASIO (bit perfect) S/PDIF output routed directly to the DAC. Music manager is J River Media Center. case review
Viewsonic V150p Wireless Smart Display
The display accesses the HTPC wirelessly via the Remote Desktop (RDP) Protocol. Tapping the display with the stylus selects immediate playback by genre, artist or album. The wireless keyboard is only used for setup and library management, and is made by Gyration.
Shunyata Aries
unshielded, very transparent interconnect cable
Cardas/Belden 89207
Cardas RCAs with Belden 89207. Only .19pf/foot, very passive linestage friendly
Zu Cable Wax
Zu's entry cable that uses the b3 geometry.
Eighth Nerve Adapt Rectangles
Acoustic panels mounted to the wall seams
Balanced Power Technologies (BPT) 3.5 Signature
Balanced Power = no hum! Completely overdesigned and great build quality. review
Great info and thanks for the details! CDs will no doubt be around for a long while, but your PC/Jukebox project may be the next "thing" to hit the shelves. Glad to see that your happy with the results sonically, it gives me hope.