Digital Home Thoughts: TrustedReviews: A Lossless Ordinary?

"Music in the home is, slowly but surely, undergoing a transformation too. Media Center PCs and, more recently, wireless multi-room audio systems are beginning to creep into the mainstream, and people are replacing their old hi-fi systems with more modern, easier to use solutions. Traditionalists will pooh-pooh such setups as not serious, never-capable of rivaling proper hi-fi 'seperates' for sound quality or musicality. After all, when you spend a couple of grand on a dedicated CD player, it’s bound to sound better than a load of music files streamed off your PC, isn’t it? For years I’ve agreed with the audio snobs. I sneered at those listening to their music on PC-based audio systems. I thought that a do-it-all appliance such as a PC would never rival dedicated, carefully-designed and, most important, expensive hi-fi equipment. But a couple of reviews I’ve had the opportunity to write recently have got me thinking. The question I wanted answered was: is it possible to enjoy the best of both worlds, combining the convenience of music libraries with the high-end sound that audiophiles value so much? In theory, I thought, it was. So I set about finding out if it really was practical."



Let's face it: compression sucks. A compressed signal, whether it's a picture, music, or video, will never be as good as the original uncompressed source. Now, that being said, if you are willing to give up just a little bit of quality, you can gain a lot of flexibility in how you set up your home entertainment system. Music in every room, a central server for all your music files, custom playlists...things that a CD and CD player just can't duplicate. If you're an audiophile, a networked music system isn't for you. But if you're just an average consumer, or even a technophile who loves music, a networked home audio system is a great way to go.