Woohoo!

Big congrats there, Dave. Hopefully Reza is having success as well.

Though this may appear to be merely an incremental mark in the evolution of console players, I would instead consider that it is in fact a MAJOR step forward in the evolution of home audio equipment.

Consider that since the first console player was released (was it Kerbango?) we've always made compromises on audio quality. Not big compromises, but nevertheless ones that cause us to retreat to the CD player for optimal sound.

This is why the audiophiles have always considered console players to be mere toys and not worthy of their attention.

Well, no more folks. If the DAC on the Rio is made of good stuff -- and I have good reason to believe that it is -- then we've arrived.

A few more pieces have to fall in place -- some work I have to do to parse the flac metadata for jrec -- but soon we can start spreading the word of how we turned a focus-group-inspired mp3 player into sophisticated high-fidelity audio equipment.

And no small thanks go to the guys who designed the Rio hardware to be much more than it could be.

--Reed